Ugh. I would love to get into dwarf fortress but it's just so difficult to jump into, are there any games like df but are easy to jump into?
no DF is unique, i never saw a more complex game than DF, and believe me, i*m looking the whole time for something similiar (so i found also Rimworld) 
more complex are some mods for DF, like masterwork mod or deons mods
actually masterwork makes it less complex.
Since you can turn alot of.
You should watch some youtube tutorials and you can easily get into df im not the brightest light on the earth and even i managed to flood my fortress a dozen times
i mean, if you want it more complex you shouldnt turn anything off

with alot of youtube tutorial and the
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/ , you can learn very fast the gameplay.
but be careful, once you get in, you*ll never be able to play/enjoy other games like before, coz you will allways miss the complexibility of DF