Skipping forward two years to the present day I find myself in a similar position ranting about Re-Logic's Terraria. Terraria is a 2D action adventure game that was released on May 16, 2011. My original opinion of Terraria was that it appeared to be a 2D "clone" of Minecraft, reminiscent more of Mario than Infiniminer. Like my ill-fated assumptions of Minecraft, Terraria too has surprised me in the most engaging of ways. All of my doubts about its ability to add to the niche genre of sandbox-mining were quelled within the first few hours of mining and exploring its retro style environments. Re-emerging from the darkness of my room I branded Terraria as a "Diabloesque, 2D action Mario game, with all the crafting and mining of Minecraft." Naturally, reactions from my friends were split between, "sounds like a waste of time" and "I want this game yesterday."
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| It's-a me Terraria! |
Terraria starts you off in an unfamiliar world with naught but the most basic of survival tools. Luckily you have a companion called "The Guide." Tanner, as he was named in my world, was a helpful fellow who told me important things like, "axes can chop down trees, iron anvils can be made out of iron, and we require more minerals." I quickly divulged from the obvious that I needed to make a home before night and began to construct myself a worthy place of rest. Before long I was attacked by one of Terraria's daylight enemies, slimes. These helpful fellows like to fall on the tip of your sword and give you delicious gel for use in torches and healing potions. After a hard days work my house was finished and I focused my attention on a respectable mine into the depths below. Almost as soon as I dug myself too deep to get out, a star crashed into the ground right outside my home. I eagerly climbed out of my hole and ran outside into the night to grab my treasure. As soon as my manflesh scent filled the air jumping zombies and flying eyeballs rushed to take a few points off of my life total. A tactical retreat to my home was in order and I made it back in one piece.
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| I don't remember ordering pizza... |
Much of Terraria's gameplay consists of your exploration and exploitation of the randomly generated world around you. Different minerals like copper, iron and meteorite provide tiers of equipment to craft and collect. The crafting system is robust, including potions, armor, weapons, and furniture. While you mine and explore you will find chests filled with all kinds of helpful items. These items can range from increasing your health to providing you with much needed mobility. Other NPCs will join you after you have met certain criteria and provide you with valuable services. Mana can be unlocked by collecting enough stars at night and spells can be found as loot in certain locations of the world. Combat in Terraria is a mixed bag. There are only a few different types of melee weapons but each one is very unique. Ranged weapons are much more varied and include everything from blowpipes to miniguns. Actual combat consists of maneuvering your character with the keyboard and aiming with your mouse. Enemies are varied but fighting the same ones becomes boring after awhile. The game has a "hardmode" after the first half of the game. Hardmode ramps up the difficulty, spawns new enemies, and introduces new ores to be mined. Which brings me to the best point about Terraria. There are always new minerals to mine, new biomes to explore, and new enemies to conquer. Even though it lacks any sort of plot, you find yourself being driven to collect the next best armor, fight the next crazy boss, and show off your loot to your friends.
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| I was created to stop the evil desires of boredom. |
I've put more than 50 hours into Terraria both alone and with friends and I can hardly complain about the time spent playing it. Some $60 games don't even give you 25 hours of material. For $10 Terraria is a steal and I most certainly will remember it well into the future. It's not a clone of Minecraft or a reproduction of a good action RPG, but Terraria has a mix of both genres that will scratch an itch no other game can get to.
