Now even though this game is often first viewed like MineCraft, and it seems that this by no means hurts this game it isn’t quite true. While there are similarities (Both do not have much in the way of a story line and is more about the exploration and the developing a character without knowing where resources are or what monsters you might encounter) there are obviously things that they don’t really share such as MineCraft being a semblance of 3D and Terraria only being 2D (which is quite reminiscent of 8 bit graphics from back in the day). I know people that can’t get into Terraria but can get into MineCraft and somewhat vice versa. So here is a review to try and help make your decision if you’re on the fence about whether or not to spend that 10 bucks on Terraria.
Overall Score : 88 / 100
Money's Worth:
BUY! It’s Completely Worth it. If you like games that have possibilities as big as your imagination (building and exploring wise) then this game will fit for you.
Story
Score: N/A
Beginning:
There isn’t much of a story (if any that I actually know of) for Terraria, it’s like MineCraft in the fact that you just start on a randomly generated world with a hero of your choosing. You have guide at the start of this game though that will give you a few little tips on how to start and what you should do to get started.
Game Play-
Score: 90/100
Length –
Well, At the time of writing this I have already logged about 47 hours of game time and I have finally killed all the bosses (I probably could have done earlier if I hadn’t just been exploring for a large portion of that time) and explored a dungeon or two (which can be pretty crazy at the end parts of it) and gotten some pretty sick loot as well as traded for some things I haven’t been able to find. There is a lot of things to do in Terraria especially with the devs adding more content every other few weeks it seems.
Leveling -
Now there isn’t Leveling like most games have (number levels) it’s much more of a you either can or can’t beat the boss with the gear you have acquired and if you can’t then you have to go back to grinding/exploring to get better gear till you can over take that boss. It’s a fun system cause there is really only one way to find out if you can take that boss and that is to try it.
Places/Zones –
So Far there are a few different “Zones” you can explore (which recently even became a lil easier to locate one of them, The Jungle), these zones are,
Woodlands-
The General area you find yourself in in most cases when starting a world.
Desert- This is as you would figure, a large area where there is mostly nothing but sand, not much special about it for now.
Corruption – A pretty dangerous area, these areas (as there can be multiple areas of Corruption in a world) are characterized by the sun becoming darker, flying enemies and purple thorns that will hurt you if you touch them. In these areas are also orbs that are needed for summoning a boss as well as the possibility of crafting some items.
Jungle – This used to be a strictly underground zone (was really annoying to try and find) but now it has also been able to find the start of a jungle zone above ground so you know where to start digging and fighting other monsters for more gear and fun.
Dungeon – Per world there is also a dungeon which is guarded by a pretty fun boss, but takes a lil strategy as well as some decent gear. After beating the guardian, you can enter the actual dungeon and go in search of more gear and all the difficulty of fighting non stop spawning mobs.
Underworld – This is currently the hardest End Game area available (at writing time). This is the Deepest area in the maps as well as one with the craziest enemies (in my opinion). Here you will find the ore needed to make the highest tier of gear that you can craft as well as LOTS of lava. The enemies you will find here are Imps (that throw lots of fireballs) and Bone Serpents (really annoying worm type creatures that burrow through the map and come at you).
There are a few bosses in game and they are :
Eye of Cthulu – This is the first boss you should encounter on your way to end game content, it’s a giant eye that fly’s in the sky and is really (at the time that I did him which was apparently about the right time) a fun but kind of tough fight.
Devourer of Worlds – This is the boss you will summon from the Corruption, it is a giant worm like boss that will coil around you and try to smash you from under and above ground.
Skeletron – This is the Guardian boss of dungeons, he is a giant skull that will spin at you as well as hit you with two giant bone arms. You need a good strategy, gear and probably a lot of potions.
Multiplayer-
Well the multiplayer in this game can be pretty awesome such as just getting a few people and starting from the very start on a multiplayer server world and then going and seeing how fast you can get to the bosses with a fresh start or even just creating cool buildings to share with others. One of the things I find fun was just getting a few others and digging a hole straight down to Hell right at the start and seeing how fast we could do it (People will die doing this, it’s always fun though.) You can also do trading on this game which is always cool and adds a really fun thing to the community.
Controls –
Score: 90/100
Defaults and Customizability-
You can of course change your controls if you really don’t like the default ones (not that there is really much to change you only have a few buttons for the gameplay).
Default controls are the usual WASD to move, SPACE to jump, as well as Q to throw things from your action bar, 1-0 for selecting different items on your hot bar, Esc for inventory (as well as to either save and quit to main screen or disconnect if you are on a multiplayer server) and your mouse to choose where to mine and place objects. Over all, the controls are very easy to get used to as most games now a days use them.
Magic-
There is a bunch of different Mana using spells and weapons that you can acquire throughout the game as well as being able to increase you mana by collecting falling stars (10 of them per mana crystal) and then crafting them into a mana crystal that will up your mana by 1 star. Magic is usually just used by using a weapon or accessory and is usually very easy to use.
Items-
There truly is quite a lot of item content in this game from different types of armors with set bonus’ as well as appearances as well as different things used for crafting all sorts of things from potions to Vanity Items (items that you can put over top of your armor to change your appearance) to weapon enhancements and the like.
Weapons-
There is a ton of weapons in the game for almost every play style. Want to get up close and personal? Take out your sword, axe or hammer and go smash things to bits. Feel like killing your enemies from afar? Why not use any of the magic using weapons or a bow with different arrows (such as regular wooden, all the way to unholy arrows). There is also a bunch of other items such as guns (different ones from a handgun to a space gun and a star shooting gun) and a controllable fireball.
Camera-
Camera is just a 2D camera that keeps you in the screen, not much to comment about it.
Graphics-
In-Game:
For being a 2D game, the graphics are really pretty sweet in my opinion, the weapons and effects are awesome and make me love just swinging my weapons just to see the effects or go and smash some monsters for the fun of seeing them explode on my mace or my sword. I love seeing the area around my character light up when I run (Molten Armor) or even seeing my character more or less explode when I die to a monster. All around fun to see these graphics in this style of game.
The things that people create out of the blocks in this game are pretty amazing and very much like the creativity of a lot of MineCraft players (a lot of which also play Terraria.).
At the end of the day though, this is a 2D game, I would have loved to see this game be a 3D game but I can’t penalize them for that but the blocks and such could definitely have been a bit bigger in my opinion (sometimes it’s really annoying to mine when you first start out. I know a few people that couldn’t get into this game because of the size of stuff…it’s pretty small.)
The Bad and Annoying
Score: 0
I really don’t have anything to gripe about in this game, the game is pretty balanced (if you play it right and don’t try to take on bosses before you should be able to) and things like dungeon runs are always fun and entertaining and there isn’t much that you can’t do if you put the time into it and you can always just get creative and build something to show to the Terraria community.