looking at: Terraria

2D Cubes

Digging downward is the constant goal for most of the game.

Is Terreria just Minecraft on a 2d plain? Perhaps, at one point. That's certainly how it started, and how it was for the first patch or so. But then some magical things happened to it, and Terraria became more then a 2d Minecraft. It became it's own game, and in doing so became a better game that that which inspired it.

Terreria is, in essence, just Minecraft 2d. You manipulate the world around you, digging and mining for resources while building whatever you want in a completely destructible world. That much is the same. It's where Terreria differs from Minecraft that sets it apart and sets it above the blocky billionaire.

Dig It

The lowest regions of the map are covered in lava, and will test you'r jumping ability.

As stated, you do a lot of mining and digging in Terraria. There's a massive catalog of things to craft, and in order to do so you'll need resources. This starts out innocent enough, as you chop trees for wood, attack the weak slimes for flammable gel, and mine surface veins of copper and various metal types. You'll need to construct a home base to survive the night, lest you succumb to the hordes of undead and various demonic beasts, and here-in lies the first of Terraria's many gimmicks.

See, you don't need a home for just yourself, although that's important too. You'll also need to expand and create rooms to house the game's various NPC's most of whom offer useful services. The guide, who spawns next to you, can tell you how to craft any item. There's also various vendors for things like guns, general equipment, magic, and explosives, and a variety of other unlockable services to discover. Creating a base big enough to facilitate all of these NPCs is key to moving forward, and a great way to track progress, something Minecraft sorely lacks.

That's the key in Terraria, tangible progress. Not just digging further and further underground, since the end-game content isn't even found there, but actually moving towards goals. It's ok that a game lets you pick your own goals, in fact some of my favorite games like Mount and Blade or Euro Truck Sim 2 exist solely to let you create your own narrative. The important thing is that there is a created goal to work towards. In M&B it's becoming the ruler of the entire map, in Euro Truck it's becoming a shipping magnate, and in Terraria it's gearing up and fighting the next boss.

That's no easy feat either, since Terraria's enemies and especially bosses, are incredibly challenging. Most of the foes you'll face air just on the right side of annoying, and they each have quirks you'll need to figure out. There are some issues with combat, like how you can become locked in a tight space with an enemy on top of you and never able to hit them, but for the most part it works. Bosses are their own experience, and will often require actual preparation to face, be it crafting new and better gear or clearing an arena to fight in. The rewards are worth it, in the form of better gear or crafting materials, and with enough practice and skill you can begin to farm bosses like normal enemies.

By Sword or Shovel

Boss fights require proper preperation, and reward you with rare loot and materials.

In terms of actual gameplay, I guess Terraria is a platformer, since most of the game is spent jumping around while exploring underground. The control scheme is simple enough, and the character handles fine on the two dimensional plane. I've only played a demo for the console version of Terraria, so I can't speak too much about it, but in my opinion this is a game best played on PC. There are hot-keys for things like dropping torches and using grappling hooks, and the menus are huge and annoying to maneuver without a mouse.

Mouse control is especially important for the other half of gameplay, that is, crafting and creating. Rushing through menus is a breeze, and that's important because there's hundreds of items to craft. Outside of a few necessary pieces of furniture for crafting, all home decor is completely optional, but it's nice to create a space you can call your own and customize each NPC's room the way you want.

Crafting isn't just for home decorating, obviously, and there's hundreds of weapons, armor, and accessories to create as well. Weapons in Terraria can be imbued with special effects, so crafting an item multiple times might lead to a new and better version of it. How about a pickaxe that deals fire damage, or a sword that steals life? Add a healthy stream of rare loot from treasure chests and it quickly becomes an addicting cycle of looting, crafting, and exploring.


Old is New

The opressive darkness of the underground creates a palpable tension, and torches are a must.

Minecraft often gets discussed for it's graphics, or sort of lack thereof. Where that blocky billionaire chose to be Lego-esque, Terraria is instead more reminiscent of SNES titles like Super Metroid or Castlevania. In fact, it's sort of tempting to call Terraria a MetroidVania in it's own right since it features a similar feel when it comes to upgrades and progress. If it weren't for the myriad of systems running in tandem, you could probably pass Terraria off as one of the best unknown SNES titles and people would believe you.

The graphics work very well to create the proper mood for the gameplay. It hearkens back in the best way to older adventure titles that were light on story and heavy on gameplay. Terraria is a game that's more interested in letting you explore the world it generates, and the story is non-existent. The pixel work is excellent, and the world bleeds together naturally, rather then jarring separations between areas.

It's worth noting that the version I replayed for this review was the recent 1.3 patch, which has a bevy of visual enhancements over the original game, all of them for the better. Each biome has it's own hand drawn background setting the mood for the zone perfectly. Lighting is great, requiring you to have proper illumination to move foreward into the unknown.

On the audio side, Terraria is serviceable. I didn't care much for the music and found myself supplementing my own instead. It's not bad, mostly generic pixel chiptune music that fits with the SNES feel of the game, but it quickly became boring. Similarly the sound effects can become annoying after the thousandth time, and it's a good thing there are different sounds for digging each type of ground because that's most of what you'll be hearing. There's no voiced dialogue and character noises are just generic grunts. Monsters do have unique voice clips and these are perfectly creepy, if not a little generic.

Impulse Buy

The venerable grappling hook is likely the most useful item, underground or otherwise.

Terraria is a game that punches way above it's weight class and delivers perfectly. It's a tiny game, but it's so jam packed with content it's easy to forget that. It feels like everything just works in Terraria, be it the exploration or combat, or just sitting in your fortress, surrounded by treasure you earned.

In the end, Terraria is a game I picked up for a few bucks the day it came out because I was curious. That same day this $10 indie title beat out the recently released Skyrim as Steam's best seller, and since that day I've logged over a hundred hours, be it exploring on my own or with friends. That's 100 I've loved, and thanks to yet another massive free overhaul patch, there's likely another 100 hours left to experience.