I just heard about it the other day. Haven't had the time to sink into it yet, but so far it looks kind of like DF, but simpler and with a spiffier UI. But I don't know enough about it to really talk about it.
I was hoping for something like DF but without "losing is fun" component. You know DF-esque settlers, when you can play indefinitely tending for your gnomes and fixing things that breaks. But it looks like I won't be playing this as I did not play DF because getting progressively difficult and no win conditions is really putting me off. It's like tetris but it's worse because it's less abstract.
The game isnt nearly as difficult as it looks.
The problem is figuring out HOW TO PLAY. It's got the single nastiest learning curve I've ever seen in any game EVER. I heard about the game some time ago, but it was another 3 years, I think it was, before I learned properly how to play it, and even then, I had to watch through CaptainDuck's long series of tutorial vids at least twice.
That being said..... it was worth it. So completely worth it. I've never encountered a game with so much depth to it as this one. There's SO much you can do.
And win conditions? It doesnt need them. This is one game where you set your own goals, similar to Minecraft, as opposed to the game just outright telling you "you have to do this thing here."
There have been other games that have been kinda similar, but not even one of them has ever come remotely close to being as damn good as DF is.
Indeed though, it's not for everyone. The Learning Curve from Hell, and the high difficulty level..... yeah, gonna turn some players off. For me though, it's freaking perfect.
And the "Losing is Fun" bit..... in all honesty, it really is. Normally, I'm very easily frustrated. I have no patience, and a rather short fuse. DF though.... cannot anger me. And this fact is VERY RARE. I can think of MAYBE a whole ONE other game I can say that about, and that's it. Whenever I have a fort finally go down, it's almost always hilarious to watch. So it's like, ok, I know I'm losing here..... but let's see just how EPIC the end of this fort's story is, and just how much hilarious crap is going to happen in the process. And starting a new fort is always just as fun.