10 Amazing Video Games With TERRIBLE Graphics

2. Dwarf Fortress

In 2006, the construction and management simulation and roguelike Dwarf Fortress was released as Freeware.

Dwarf Fortress is basically RimWorld before RimWorld was RimWorld. The game uses text-based graphics much like NetHack but given this one came out twenty years later, it was more of a choice than an inevitability. Despite its next to nothing, uninspiring graphics, the game was praised for its deep simulation mechanics and the extraordinary attention to detail spanning every potential playstyle.

The impressively complex game is rich in features in the best possible way, and the dev attention that is taken away from the look of the game is fed back into every other facet, bettering the final product far beyond what a mere treat for the eyes would ever be. Dwarf Fortress set out to try and find out what kind of game could be created if graphics didn’t matter at all and the result is not only super interesting, it’s a great experience.

The game received a pretty substantial graphical update since its release but it still doesn't look amazing, so it can stay on the list.