This game has charm, solid mechanics, and challenge, which are usually what win me over with any game that isn't story-based.

The charm is in the art style, and the dwarves you play as having a real personality. With several voice lines and the funny memorable moments you can have "FOR KARL!" and "ROCK AND STONE!" I often find myself saying these lines in the real world with my friends who also play.

Solid mechanics, go into the deep with your other dwarf buddies to do a task for your mining corporation, seamlessly optimized and easy enough to run the game for even some old-ass PC's. Each mission has a similarity to others with variety in level generation, mission type, or unique modifiers. The mechanics of the game make that never go stale.

And the challenge, it comes in the deep dives. You just have to get far enough into the game to understand what I mean.
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Re-Review: 3 years and almost 1000 of game hours later I can certainly say this is the best videogame I've played. The community is the least toxic I've ever experienced, the consistent free content updates, the variety of things that you can see in this game, and the emphasis in the core game loop and mechanics to promote fun above all else is why I still boot up this game every week. I feel like i can easily sink another 1000 hrs into it and not be burned on it.

For newcomers, get through the first 10-mission assignment, and promote a class once, and you'll have access to the fun stuff like overclocks, deep dives, etc. Also, press V whenever anything cool happens. When you become high level and drop into a newbie's game, mine the gold for them, they need it.