Building, fighting, exploring, crafting, digging… The action-adventure game Terraria is a popular, widely known sandbox game where freedom and rewarding play a big role.
The fascinating pixelated 2D world and the core concept of manipulating your environment to get around really got me from the very beginning. While you first start out with only a limited selection of tools and possibilities, the game really starts do develop in its complexity over time. The goal is to build, craft and explore as much of the game map as possible, similar to another famous sandbox game called Minecraft. And while you explore the almost infinitely big land of Terraria you find yourself mostly digging underground and collecting items and raw materials such as metals and woods until you get killed, so that you don’t have to go all the way back to your shelter.
Building a house in Terraria is a big thing. On one hand, you have to build some kind of refuge to protect yourself from all the enemies that seem to crawl out more likely at night-time. But on the other hand, you also really need to expand your housing, because the bigger your house gets, the more NPC’s are coming to your settlement to sell items. And just let me say, that you really need them to proceed with the game!
There are several thousand different items you can collect and turn into armor, accessories, furniture and so on and there are many different crafting stations for different purposes you can unlock throughout the gameplay. And I really like how much effort was put even into little details like the sort of hell you’ll find if you dig down deep enough and the well-thought-through physics that show off with tools such as the climbing boots and the hoverboard. And there is also a big variety regarding weapons, like, guns, magic weapons, swords etc.
The boss fights are huge in Terraria, and especially in the beginning, it really takes a toll on you while trying to win at least one of them after a few attempts. That’s what I really find annoying sometimes. Also, there isn’t any clear way of figuring out how to do and get certain things to succeed. Sometimes these hidden things are acquired for progressing and that can be frustrating. But luckily you can turn to Terraria game communities and Wikis since there are many of them out on the internet.
The developers have done a good job with creating own aesthetics and unique appearances regarding Terraria worlds and I think it turned out pretty well for a 2D pixelated kind of game. As for the sounds; some sound effects are a little bit annoying, especially if you constantly use your laser gun. But you always can adjust the sounds and turn down a little bit the effects-audio in the menu.
To sum up, I’d say that there is a large variety of things you can do in this game as a single player, as well as in the multiplayer mode. Since there are so many unique details like for example the cute little bunnies that you cut by accident while fighting with zombies or skeletons or the interesting retro-funky background music, there is so much this game has to offer. You can lose your life in digging and the excitement when finding something special and new.
Personally, I would recommend this game to anyone enjoying freedom in playing through a huge universe of adventures and possibilities. And I think this game is really worth your time and money!
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All pictures used in this article are screenshots made by the author of this article.
Publisher: 505 Games
Developer: Re-Logic
Platforms: Microsoft Windows
Release date: May 16, 2011
Genres: Action-adventure, sandbox
PEGI: 12
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