I'm a 40ish year old dude and I prefer 2d over 3d usually and wanted to recommend a couple of games;
Brigador (Syndicate with mechs, moddable)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/274500/Brigador_UpArmored_Edition/
Starsector (2d Elite with 4X properties, lots of mods available, overhauls etc)
Bonus game; Distant Worlds Universe, a great 4X game (good mod set)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/261470/Distant_Worlds_Universe/
Additional: Wayward Terran Frontier
https://store.steampowered.com/app/392080/Wayward_Terran_Frontier_Zero_Falls/
Greetings comrades. I'm currently on the road with my face mask searching for a bread line with wifi that isn't actively burning to the ground or experiencing rolling blackouts. I found a nice place that allowed me to stay for a while even though my presence increases their risk of death from the common cold by as much as 0.004% and I thought, why not lets talk some more about development progress and hopefully I don't get cancelled before I can finish this patch.
Rimworld.
Countless hours of fun trying to survive from temper tantrums due to not having a dining table, man hunting packs of Yorkshire terriers and a pyromaniac mentally breaking and setting your wooden house on fire.
Rimworld may be prettier (and have better controls...), but never forget that Dwarf Fortress is free.
Still too expensive. They went all in on BLM and donated to various riot bailout orgs.
The writing was on the wall when sexual orientations were added and were so far skewed that it essentially completely broke animal breeding: https://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=7651.
It's too bad... I spent good long hours on DF2012.
I mean, a new variable breaking a bunch of stuff is par the course for DF development.
They turned all the livestock gay, so they stopped breeding and all died out?