Terraria - A rich, detailed package that lets you craft and explore until your heart is content Lose yourself in a gorgeous, immersive world that looks like it was created by a Super Nintendo on steroids

Introduction

"Terraria grabs the best of a variety of genres and mashes them into a neat little package." It's a largely openly world, sandbox game, with elements of RPG and exploration. It also leans heavily on crafting.

A world that looks like it was created by a Super Nintendo on steroids

Hard to define, but incredible to play

Terraria opens by plopping you into a procedural generated world. From there, you begin to explore, taking any number of pathways. You collect items, defeat bad guys, and fight main bosses. Doing so will allow you to construct new buildings and collect new items. In turn, this creates NPCs who can provide you with various upgrades or bonuses.

The game features an array of areas, called biomes, that provide for new areas to explore. These biomes all contain different themes, so they never get stale.

Graphics and Audio A big, big 2D world

One of the more unique aspects of Terraria is its 2D focus and sprite-like graphics. Many exploration and sandbox games utilize 3D graphics and exploration to maximize the potential for players to explore. Terraria takes a very different tack, and in so doing, maximizes the game's uniqueness. Thanks to excellent design, the game's 2D graphics never feel like a constraint. Indeed, Terraria's design enhances the game. Players feel like they are playing something genuinely different and unique.

Games with retro graphics are often criticized because it is a tactic that can look lazy or unoriginal. Nothing could be further from Terraria. The graphics are richly detailed and layered, offering a wide array of content.

Play your way, mode it if you want.

There are ample bad guys throughout the game. They adjust as you play, ensuring that you never meet an unfair challenge. They are also constant; you can never let your guard down. Like Minecraft, nighttime is the most dangerous - that's when the real enemies come out.

Terraria comes with multiple modes, giving players a chance to increase the game's difficulty. Most impressive is its "Journey" mode, which allows for item duplication and a host of customization options. The game has also built a robust modding community that is mostly native to the PC version of the game.

There is one problem with the game: and that is its control scheme. Simply put, this can be a problem if you are using a console as opposed to a PC. Many reviewers noted that building could be awkward and clunky on consoles as opposed to the PC. Building and crafting is a hugely important part of the game, so this is not an insignificant problem.

Conclusion

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of Terraria is its long history. The game was first released in 2011, with major updates occurring in 2013, 2015, 2019, and 2020. The 2020 update was the final one.

Terraria is available on a wide array of platforms, including Windows, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and many mobile devices. It is available for download on Steam for $9.99. For a mere $10, you can, quite literally, buy hundreds of hours of game-play. Reviewers were unanimous: Terraria has a massive amount of content, including almost endless items to build, pathways to explore, and bosses to defeat. Indeed, the game-play is designed to ensure you never, ever run out of content.

TL/DR

Terraria provides countless hours of content and allows you to lose yourself in a richly detailed world with boundless activities.