Terraria is a 2D sandbox and exploration based title that was developed by Re-Logic and combines a number of different game genres including adventure, role playing and platforming into a single large scale adventure. Following its initial 2011 release on Windows the game has expanded to all popular game platforms which has been combined with regular updates to expand your adventure beyond the initial concept. This constant development cycle and growth in available platforms has resulted in Terraria becoming one of the most sold video games across its more than a decade online.
Pat of this success is also the randomly generated worlds of Terraria which ensures that no two playthroughs are the same and is further varied given the sandbox objectives that the game offers. This randomised world is the heart of your adventure with a terrain unique to your world that offers green fields, snowy peaks and lava filled caverns with their own resources to gather and threats to conquer. This results in the familiar Terraria game tagline of dig, fight, explore, build that is the gameplay loop you’ll repeat again and again until you conquer all of them secrets that the game world offers.
Designing your adventure starts right from character creation with players able to select their difficult across journey, classic, mediumcore and hardcore that impacts the difficulty of enemies, some game mechanics and importantly the penalty for death which ranges from nothing to a complete character file deletion. Following some optional appearance customisation the most important decision of all is presented to players which is the world settings. Like many sandbox titles players can either use a seed from the community that will generate a specific world or create something that has never been generated before by altering the world size, a world difficulty setting and the level of world evil.
With your character and world created you’ll step into a relatively quiet area where you can begin to build out your initial base of operations, gather basic resources and begin adventuring away from your camp to tackle some of the enemy objectives. While players are free to set their own objectives most players will find themselves setting a goal that revolves around a boss monster which requires both combat mastery and advancing through the crafting tree to higher tier of equipment. With over a dozen of these boss monsters that have different summoning requirements, visual designs and mechanics it’s a tough battle for both solo and multiplayer groups.
This combat is influenced heavily by your choice of weapon which broadly fall into the categories of melee, ranged, magic, summoning and thrown weapons. Choices from the sword to flail, bow, staff and grenades all have their role to play as well so players that get tunnel visioned into a single playstyle or attempt these challenges solo may find themselves struggling.
In addition to friends you can invite into your world players will slowly attract a growing number of NPCs that are attracted to your base and serve various equipment purposes to help you push towards the end game. This end game is also surprisingly complex and chaotic for what starts out as a simple 2D and eventually has players flying around dangerous caverns with deadly bosses on their tail.
Summary:
- Massive random game worlds to explore alone or with friends.
- Huge number of enemies to encounter and kill with a diverse weapon set to craft.
- Variety of activities to keep you busy as you build out your home with NPCs, find rare resources and explore the depths of every cave.
- Conquer an array of unique bosses with their own mechanics to overcome.
- Tailor your adventure with world and difficulty settings as you progress from basic adventurer to expert.
Links:
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- Buy Terraria (Humble Store)
- Buy Terraria (iOS)
- Buy Terraria (Android)
- Buy Terraria (Microsoft Store – Xbox 360)
- Buy Terraria (Microsoft Store – Xbox One)
- Buy Terraria (PlayStation Store)
- Buy Terraria (Nintendo Store – 3DS)
- Buy Terraria (Nintendo Store)
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Review Platform: PC
