Terraria

Game: Terraria
Developer: Re-Logic
Platform: PC
Release Year: 2011
Stephen's Rating: 7/10

In essence Terraria is a retro 2D version of Minecraft but focused more on action and exploration.

Basic Plot

There is no plot, which is part of the beauty of the game. Instead, you are free to explore the world and build whatever you want.

In reality, once you read up on the game there are "tiers" of ore and items which require some effort to obtain. The game (for me) quickly became about obtaining better gear. For others, it became about building elaborate bases and fortresses.

Gameplay

Everything in the game is made up of small blocks. You use a tool (pickaxe, axe, or hammer) to collect blocks of certain kinds. You can then use these blocks to build whatever you want. There are also items which are not "blocks" and an extensive set of recipes to combine them into powerful weapons, armour, or more elaborite items of furniture, etc.

The world is split into environments. Each environment has its own look and feel, as well as other features. For example, The Corruption is an area littered with purple plant life and enemy units constantly spawn there. There are always caverns within the corruption which contain unique items and ore.

Player build construction on the surface, entrance to the underworld below.

Every generated map (they are unique each time you start a server) has one dungeon which is on the very edge of the map. The dungeon is guarded by a boss who you have to defeat before you can enter, but once inside all the best gear and monsters are ready to be discovered.

One of the best parts of the game is the multiplayer aspect. We found ourselves working together in quite wonderful unity. We built together, adventured together, shared items, and came up with joint projects. It was a micro community who were doing constructive activities for the time we played.

Positives

The game is pretty unique. Although you can call it a 2D version of Minecraft this game is actually complete, and is more combat and action orientated. The world is very dangerous, especially underground, so equiping good weapons and armour is vital for survival.

The music is pretty good, although you hear the same tunes a lot as you play more.

I can't think of a game where we've worked together so quietly and co-operatively before. It reminds me of when I was a kid playing with lego, and there would be these really long periods where my brother and I would be completely silent as we worked on some masterpiece together.

Someone's house.

Negatives

The game didn't have a lot of replayability for me beyond the one week I obsessed with it. I think the mechanics of tiers of items etc were a bit too visible for me to enjoy. I actually obtained the best equipment in the game within a week of first playing it, and I didn't feel like there was any point in continuing beyond that.

Memorable Moments

My friends and I played this game religiously for one week. I set up a dedicated server on my computer and we played it over Hamachi.

We did a lot in one week. We had about 3-4 consistent players each night. We each had our own house which we maintained and worked on, and tunnels and sky bridges between them. We walled our entire living area off to keep the monsters out (as one side of our village was bordering an area of The Corruption).

Originally we explored around our central area. We mined and upgraded our weapons and armour as best we could. Eventually we discovered how to summon and defeat the Eater of Worlds which gave us Demonite Ore. That gave us the ability to create the Nightmare Pickaxe which could cut through meteorite and hellstone ore. As the server, I used commands to force several meteors to fall. We harvested them and got meteorite ore.

 Fighting the Eater of Worlds.

The best bit was creating a huge vertical mine shaft right down to hell. It contained wooden platforms all the way down so you could descend and ascend it at will, although I had an item which allowed me to teleport back to my house which I used instead.

One memorable moment was when one particular friend joined our game fresh after we'd been at it for several days already. He didn't really get the game, and purposely flooded our mine shaft by tunneling the bottom of a lake into it... Another one of my friends spent hours re-diverting the water into side chasms to clear it.

After one week of pretty much obsessing over the game I got that same feeling I got after three months of World of Warcraft about how pointless and not-fun it had become (more like a chore) and I closed the server down and haven't touched the game since.