Terraria

I'll admit I had no idea what kind of game I was getting when I picked up Terraria. Even from the trailers on the steam store page I wasn't sure what to make of it - apparently some kind of 2D shooter? In fact, the only thing I had even really heard about the game was from an article that showed there were more people playing it than modern warfare 3, and generally "better than mw" isn't a particularly high standard, unless you're reporting sales figures.

Maybe it sells because of the guns?

The first thing I realized when I started playing was that I had no idea what I was supposed to do. You spawn into the center of a randomly generated world, and it is completely up to you to figure out what you would like to accomplish. After sitting there for a while taking stock of my situation, examining the ui and talking to the guide for some pointers, I pulled out my axe so I could see what would happen if I tried to chop down a tree. A few swings later it broke up in many little blocks which I picked up and used to start building walls. Then it hit me, I was playing Minecraft.

Now, I've also never played Minecraft aside from a few jaunts into the free browser version, but from everything I've seen and read on the game, comparing Terraria to it seemed so natural. As I advanced through the game however, I came to realize how wrong my first impressions were. Yes, there are many similarities between the two, most notably in the "turn natural materials into blocks and then build things" aspect, but while it is easy to lump the two in the same genre, Terraria is certainly not a Minecraft clone.

The zombie attacks at night are just a coincidence.

Officially, Terraria is classified as an, ahem, "Action, Adventure, RPG, Indie, Platformer," and I guess that's right? Actually, this is a deceptively huge game, and I've struggled with giving it it's due of a review, because there is just so much to it, I've felt that some of my previous attempts (my virtual recycle bin is full of 'em) failed to cover all of what Terraria has to offer, though I'm not sure if that is a goal that will ever be within my reach - there is just that much you can do.

                                                                                              

One aspect of Terraira, the biggest actually, is what gives it it's Action, Adventure, and Platformer designations, and that is the theme of exploration. Once a world is generated, and you can determine which of three sizes it will be, it is entirely up to you to decide what you would like to do in it. Unless you're making a level into an art project, or even if you've just made a level to farm a dungeon, you're going to end up doing some exploration. Each world is divided up two ways: into horizontal strata, and again into vertical environments. As you progress left and right through the world, you'll encounter different environments, beginning with the forest, where you seem to always spawn, and proceeding through a mix of jungle, desert, corruption, until you eventually end up at the ocean that forms the ends of the world. You may encounter other, more localized zones as well, such as meteor craters or the dungeon, one of which exists in each world. As you pass through different environments, everything changes, from the music, to the enemies, to the items you'll find littering the ground. This will be important later on, when I get to the part about crafting, because pretty much everything you can find in this game is a reagent for something, so if you want, say, the Jungle set of armor and corresponding weapons, plan on spending some time exploring the jungle.

The Ivy Whip, a three armed grappling hook that saved my life sooooo many times, is created from items found in the jungle.

In addition to the different zones are those strata I was talking about. Nearly all of your game will involve tunneling underground, hunting down ores, gems, chests stuffed with gear, crystallized hearts to boost your health, and so forth. As you progress deeper and deeper, things start to change. Everything gets better, but likewise, everything gets more difficult, from the enemies you'll encounter, to the rewards you'll stumble across, to the environmental dangers you'll have to avoid, until even the basic materials you're digging through are different. To head deeper, you'll need better and better gear, from armor to absorb damage and weapons to actually be able to kill things, to utility items like a pick to dig through harder materials faster or a grappling hook so you won't fall to your death when you suddenly break through the ceiling of a cavern and find out that there is nothing underneath you but a pool of very hot lava, to just increasing your health pool from the basic 100 up to the max 400 so you can actually survive some of the damage you'll be taking once you dig all the way to hell, where the environment is tough, the enemies are tougher, and you'll face the final boss before unlocking hardmode.

In and of itself, I found the exploring portion of the game quite fun. It was always interesting to see what I would encounter as I randomly tunneled about, largely because I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing, but also because I'd usually spot something shiny off to the edges that would immediately distract be from whatever I was focused on before. It was difficult to remain alive in the earlier stages of the game, especially as I journeyed into the jungle environment and suddenly was facing giant wasps, annoying bats, and these vine like creatures that could project their bodies through walls, limiting the amount of time you can damage them while also making them particularly dangerous, since enemies will spawn just off screen, even in areas you've already cleared, meaning that pretty much no where is ever safe.

Eventually I progressed, largely through the game's RPG aspect of crafted gear (which I'll get to in just a moment), and did much better, except for the first time the Eye of Cthulhu spawned, which can happen randomly until he(?) is first killed, because I assumed I was totally safe deep underground since there would be no way he could phase through walls (in case you're wondering, yes, yes he can). The addition of taking time to hunt down more health, gear up, and acquire useful utility items like one that grants the ability to double jump or rocket boots, or another that acts as three grappling hooks in one, so that you can position yourself in mid air with anchor points at there different spots, a la spiderman swinging from building to building, made a world of difference in how easy it was to progress.

Where's Been Stein with Clear Eyes when you need him?

Now, most of the items I got, with the exception of accessories, were crafted, and there is a lot of that in this game. I mentioned earlier how pretty much everything you find in game is a reagent in something. Even something as benign as sand can be crafted, under the right conditions, into glass. The crafting system is incredibly deep, and there is no way I can come close to covering it in detail, so I'll just cover generalities about how the system works. See, you generally need two different things to craft something: the reagents, and the tools. The reagents come from all over; looted from dead enemies, gathered from mining or chopping down trees, or found growing wild above ground or in deep caverns. Tools you'll have to make, though you do start with a basic array of items when you create a new character, what you have are all gathering items, and that just won't cut it when it comes to serious crafting. Rather, you'll make crafting stations, like the furnace to smelt ore into bars, or the sawmill for advanced wood working. All these things build off of one another to ultimately create an intricate crafting system.

Take the bed, which is an item that lets you change your default spawn point, which is used in case you die or any time you use a teleporting device to get out of trouble, as an example of just how complex this system is. To make a bed, all you need is wood and silk for reagents, and then you must be near a sawmill. Sounds simple, at least until you consider where you get all of those. Wood you can gather from the get go, just find a tree and take an axe to it. Silk is different, because first you need to gather cobwebs, and then you need to be near a loom. Well, wait, where do we get a loom? Oh, a loom is made from wood, and requires a sawmill, which we need anyways. Perfect. So, a sawmill is made by combining more wood, iron bars, and an iron chain, together at a workbench. Great, now it's time to make more things, because aside from having to gather iron ore, and then smelt it at a furnace, which in itself requires stone blocks, wood, and a torch, which comes from combining gel from enemy slimes and more wood, all combined at a workbench, we also need to make a chain which comes from iron and an anvil, and the anvil comes from iron and a workbench, and the workbench comes from wood. And I haven't even covered the quantities of the reagents you'll need just to make one freaking bed from scratch, but I will say this - get wood, and get a lot of it.

And that is why I made a crafting dungeon, so I can stand within ranges of all those stupid stations at the same time.

Ultimately the system progresses, and these things build off themselves to get to the top tiers of crafting. You'll find the same is true in other aspects of the game as well, such as needing a better pick to mine higher level ores, which in turn lets you make better gear to progress deeper, at which point you'll need to gather the next tier of resources, and so forth. It is for this reason that I mention the Terraria wiki, conveniently found here. You should also check that out to get an idea of just how much gear is in the game, as it will also give you an idea of the scope of Terraria.

Now, normally I'm not one for self direction, and I could show you several poor grades from courses which required that high degree of motivation to succeed, such as art, but I set out on playing this game up to the point where I had unlocked hardmode, at which point I considered it beat, though there really is infinite replayability, such as grinding out better gear or building beautiful structures (seriously, you should see some of the things people have come up with). Still, I know I've only scratched the surface of what is possible in Terraria, both in my own game, and especially here in this review.

My sad attempt at making a castle proves to be about as solid as my average review :-(

A hard mode that unlocks a ton of new stuff, from weapons and gear to bosses. Levels of difficulty that range from permanent character deletion on death, to all your items dropping where you died, to just giving up your gold. All manner of weapons, from swords to bows, and then later to guns and magic weapons. The discovery of NPCs that you'll unlock along the way, so long as you make sure and build them a proper house. Invasions of goblins or zombies and floating eyeballs. Terraria is truly a massive game that is deceptively simple upon first glance.

I ended up putting over 50 hours into this game, most of it offline and solo, but some with friends as well. Even given all that effort, there is plenty left for me to do, should I ever wish to return to my "World 1." At $2.50, I got a lot of bang for my buck, and I would suggest picking it up at $5 or more. However, though I did enjoy the game, it wasn't the same kind of enjoyment I have gotten out of many other games, such as an awesome plot or heart pounding action found in other games, and upon reflection, I would say that the way that the game grabbed me and pulled me in was more akin to time spent playing an MMO, where you just want to farm out one more item to make that weapon of awesomeness, and by the time you finally get it, you realize it's been three hours. It was still fun, but time consuming to make progress, and ultimately once you reach a certain point, there isn't much more to do besides grind for gear or create works of wonder, though I've never been a fan of Diablo, and the closest I've come to making anything beautiful is to put some walls up for a castle like structure, and even that looks terrible. In the end, Terraira, with so much to do, is an 8 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 8/10

Suggested Price: $5+