Terraria: As We Play

As we play offers the thought strands of the reviewer as they’re going through the game. This offers unique content for the reader so they can come to understand the conflicting feelings of the reviewer as they’re playing a game for the very first time. All feedback on this concept is welcome.

How hard can it be?

Well it’s a bit like Minecraft only in 2D right? I thought as I pottered around my pretty pixelated land of plenty. If I use the pick I can dig, that axe is good for chopping down trees and once I’ve dug up some blocks of stuff (mainly dirt) I can make walls and stuff out of it. Erm… but what am I supposed to do? All I seem to be able to do it dig up dirt then pile it up again. I haven’t even bumped into anything smite-able with my mighty short sword except for a bunny and killing that made me feel a little guilty to be honest.

It turns out that under the simplistic hood of Terraria is a game with surprising depth. So I swallowed my pride, handed back some man points and loaded up the tutorial. The tutorial is a must if you want to hit the ground running (or you’re a trophy hunter you pick up a couple of shiny trophies just for taking part). It explains not only combat and building, but crafting the day/night cycle and the aim of the game. You see Terraria isn’t just about titting about building a fancy house (although that is surprisingly fun) it’s about vanquishing a number of increasingly difficult bosses – the last of which unlocks ‘Hard Mode’ with new NPCs and harder monsters to battle. During the day you must explore, gather resources and craft increasingly elaborate weapons to defeat the many vile creatures of the land. At night it’s probably best (early doors at least) to cower in your safe house and hope you don’t get mullered by the wandering hordes. Like zombies it seems the denizens of Terraria are more active at night. So lessons learned it was time to get back into my original adventure and see how I got on.

I’m going back to the start.

So I logged back in and after a short time chopping trees and a wee spot of digging I had myself a sturdy looking house and some surprisingly sturdy wooden armour. I’ll just dig a little hole and go hunting for some ore so I can build myself a pointier stick to beat those slimes with, just a small hole. An hour later I was halfway across the map, hopelessly lost with pockets full of cash a backpack full of ore desperately digging myself away from the onrushing zombie hordes. Dig, dig, dig… crap here one comes again switch to the sword, slash, slash, run slash. Phew. back to the pick, no not the axe the pick… argh another chuffing zombie! Yes switching between items in the old inventory can be a bit fiddly on the Vita touch screen.

Needless to say the adventuring spirit had taken me beyond my comfort zone and I was in big trouble, I wouldn’t mind but with some of the other critters you have to face later on Zombies aren’t even that tough! So one painful death later and I was beamed back to my safe house minus some loot to try to build myself up for another jaunt into the wilds. This time I won’t wander too far I think, this time I’ll be better prepared… but that is what I always say before the spirit of adventure takes over.

I spent a long time playing Terraria and I barely scratched the surface. I didn’t get to fight Skeletron, make a lightsaber or craft a castle so big that it reached way up into the heavens themselves. I will though because Terraria is a game that is tough to put down and the rewards for playing grow the more time you invest.

Worth the time and the Dollar?

Terraria is really fun, it is pretty much endlessly replayable and for the cost there aren’t may games you can wring as much gameplay out of. There are epic worlds to explore an plethora of things to build and more monsters than you can shake a cactus sword at, and if you were a fan Minecraft the chances are you’ll love Terraria to. However, if you prefer a game to lead you by the hand or give you a vast enthralling story to follow you might want to point your Vita somewhere else because you won’t get any of that here.