Terraria

Backstory: Back in college, I made a lot of stupid video game purchases with my friends. We would see a YouTube video of a new game, share it around with each other to let our hype build up, and then follow up by buying the game only to play for a few hours and realize that it sucks (looking at you Dungeonland and Guns of Icarus). So I thought it would be with Terraria. In 2011, Minecraft launched and gamers of all ages became enthralled with its open world and make-your-own-fun style of gameplay, but I found it to be completely uninteresting due to its minimalist art style and lack of clear objectives. So when my roommate approached me and told me about Terraria, a Minecraft-style adventure game with a 2D spin, I was skeptical to say the least. But despite my hesitance, I forked over my seven dollars to buy the game on sale and found myself lost in a world in which I had no idea what was going on. There were no quests, no waypoints, no goals or directions, and this was a concept that was completely foreign to me at the time. However, after some time the mechanics of the game started to clarify, and as I mined ores, crafted items, and slayed bosses, the true magic of the game began to sink in. I was having fun. Four years later, Terraria is still my most played game on Steam. It continues to satisfy my exploration itch to this day, and remains one of my favorite games to play with friends.

Review: Terraria is one of those games that's tough to explain to someone who has never played it. At face value, it looks like a dumbed down version of Minecraft with a lot less content to explore. However, the second you drop into a procedurally generated world and swing around your pickaxe for a while, it becomes apparent that there's a lot more to Terraria than meets the eye.

The game begins by having the player create a character, including gender, hairstyle, clothing and various color schemes. Afterwards, you choose a difficulty to play on: the default softcore, challenging mediumcore, or near-impossible hardcore in which permanent character deletion is the result of a single death. The player then chooses the size of the world they want to play on from small, medium, or large, and in a few short seconds a brand new world is built and the player is thrown right in. Characters begin with minimal supplies, including a pickaxe for mining, axe for chopping trees, and short sword for fighting enemies. From there it's left up to the player to figure things out. A guide NPC is present to point you in the right direction, but it's largely up to you to discover all that Terraria has to offer. You may decide to build a shelter to protect yourself from the powerful undead enemies that spawn at night, or perhaps you may seek out ores such as copper and iron to craft armor and better weapons to fight with. You can wander across the expansive overworld to discover desert, snow, and evil corrupted biomes that feature more difficult enemies but possible rare rewards, or maybe you will look to the ground and start digging down in hopes of stumbling upon an underground cavern with various creatures to fight and treasure to plunder.

The beauty of Terraria is that it wholeheartedly embraces player choice. Do you choose to fight up close with swords and axes, or from a distance with bows and magic? Do you want to move swiftly and avoid enemies, or build up your defense to withstand all that they throw at you? Or do you forgo combat altogether, instead choosing to focus on exploration and building the ultimate fortress? All of the options are viable, and all of them are enhanced by items that the player can find or craft. There is no story to complete, no waypoints to follow, only more treasure to find and items to craft. That is not to say that there isn't a progression system within the game, as there most certainly is. Progression is largely attributed to player-triggered boss battles, of which there are a possible 15-18, depending on the version being played. Some gameplay is locked until certain bosses are killed, most notably being the dungeon that unlocks after defeating Skeletron and the Hardmode-triggering boss fight against the Wall of Flesh.

There is no real storyline to be found within Terraria, as it tends to focus more on creating your own fun. This may turn some people off, but there's so much to do in the game that I don't feel that adding a comprehensive lore to it would be beneficial. The gameplay is fun, engaging, and the controls feel tight with a keyboard and mouse layout. My only gripe with it is that it's relatively easy to lose your cursor in the midst of a large boss battle or invasion, and changing the color of the cursor to help it stand out doesn't always help. Otherwise, the various weapons and items that can be used throughout the game feel balanced and unique.

Terraria boasts a gorgeous 2D art style with hand drawn backgrounds that bring about nostalgic memories of the SNES era. There are 18 different biome types that can be present on any given world, and each one is designed in a manner that helps them stand out and feel unique. The soundtrack of the game helps bring the world to life as well, as the music transitions along with where the player chooses to travel. A light, poppy song plays as the player moves along the lush, green overworld in the daytime and becomes a slower, more sinister sounding tune as day fades to night and the zombies come out. Venturing underground to the depths of the dirty, rocky cavern layer triggers a mysterious melody that helps to remind you that danger lurks around every corner, and the dark, evil, Corruption and Crimson biomes have their own distinct sinister soundtracks. it all fits together so well, and just helps to make exploring your own world in Terraria an absolute delight.

Your adventure can be a solo excursion if you so choose, but Terraria is best played with friends. Apparently, up to 255 players can be on a single server at a time, but if you can't round up 254 players to join you, 1 or 2 works just fine. Building your house, exploring caves, fighting off bosses and invasions alike all becomes more enjoyable with a buddy by your side. However, the amount of loot on any given world will remain the same no matter how many people join it, so it's best that you focus on one combat specialty (melee, ranged, magic, thrown weapons, or summoning) while your friend focuses on another. This ensures that one player will not get left behind gear-wise in the late game as rare and powerful items and weapons become increasingly more scarce and difficult to obtain.

This brings me to my next point: difficulty. For the most part, Terraria is not a hard game to play. After encountering most of the enemies a few times, getting used to the patterns of the bosses, and assuming the player has appropriate equipment, no combat scenario feels like it's impossible to overcome. On the other hand, sometimes finding those items or equipment in order to beat bosses and thus progress through the game can be extremely time-consuming and grindy. Additionally, there are some instances in which conditions must be met to trigger certain events that are not explained at all within the game. Without knowing this, it's definitely a possibility that the player will get stuck and not be able to figure out how to start the next boss fight or get an NPC that sells an item they want to move into their house.

Terraria is a game that has no end and can't be "beaten," and considering the fact that huge patches with additional content have been released multiple times since the game's release in 2011, it's not a guarantee that the final, most difficult boss now will be the same boss in a year or two. This creates a fun and rewarding gameplay loop that can be played countless different ways an infinite number of times. I've had a blast with each of my playthroughs of the game, and look forward to more in the future because I know that without a doubt, there are still adventures for me to have within this game.

Why you should play: Terraria is an adventure game, and if you enjoy exploring, battling tough enemies, building the perfect castle, and finding awesome and rare loot, this game is for you. You can sink hundreds of hours into Terraria and not discover all of the secrets to be found, and the feeling of finally obtaining an item after gathering the required components for it after hours of exploring and fighting is pure bliss.

Why you shouldn't play: Terraria doesn't hold your hand, and you can easily get stuck or lost when trying to figure out what to do next. Also, it may take you hours to gather enough materials to craft an item that becomes obsolete within a few minutes. If you don't enjoy grinding in games, Terraria will not appeal to you.