You know what game I have sunk the most hours into? It must certainly be World of Warcraft. Despite its advanced age it’s the biggest MMORPG out there and has been for a very long time. It has a huge development team behind it, a player base in the millions and half of a convention dedicated to it every year. It’s massive.
Want to take a guess what game comes in at second? Yes, it’s Terraria (the trick is that it’s written in the title). When you consider World of Warcraft, it’s a hefty 40GB and to run on max settings you need a fairly decent setup. This is not to mention that it will slowly but surely devour your soul as well. Terraria on the other hand is a grand total of 200MB including saves and you can run it on the brick that was hurled through your window for saying you play World of Warcraft. Bonus points as well for not devouring your soul.
So why the hell have I spent more time playing a game that looks like the two-dimensional dream of a Lego Land employee? Why not The Elder Scrolls or The Witcher series, or any other open-world-with-endless-things-to-do AAA game?
Let’s check it out!
Because it’s one of the best games I have ever played, in fact it’s number two in my top five. I’ll talk about number one another day, when you are ready (and no it’s not bloody WoW, so put the brick down). Redigit’s game is the diamond in the rough that everyone wants but doesn’t know it exists or hasn’t considered it. Either way, shame on you both.
The best way to describe Terraria would be to imagine Minecraft and promptly reimagine it as a 2D side-scroller. At this point you might think: “Why the hell would I want that? The whole point of Minecraft is infinite possibility in a 3D world.” As a response to that I’d say: “Everything Minecraft has, Terraria has, and oh so much more.”
Fresh start
It has nearly 2000 items, 15 bosses, 19 biome types, NPC vendors and events to name a few. That’s just the basics; the game also has something akin to a progression system. You can gain more health, create better armour, and weapons. Did I mention you can also have a class role? Want to be a little beef cake and roll through your foes with brute force? There are weapons and armour for that. Like Hawkeye for some reason? You can be an arrow toting weirdo too. Maybe those don’t tickle your fancy and you want vapourise your enemies with magic like a vengeful Merlin. Well in Terraria, you can.
Good God, Why?
In all honestly though, I have had some of the most fun in this game compared to any other purely because of the customisability of not only your character, but of the world itself. Designing your own boss arenas through trial and error, then finally figuring out the perfect setup for each boss is one of the most rewarding things you can do in a game. Fiddling with traps and electronics is a great aspect of the game that adds another layer to customising your house, fighting arena or world in general. Housing the NPCs that suddenly rock up to your house like desperate relatives can either be fun or an ordeal (just like in real life), though the benefits can be very rewarding.
They are lucky I haven’t locked them away.
If you are up for a real challenge, try out Expert Mode, and bring some friends with you. You’ll need them.
This game has set the bar for survival RPGs for me. I’ve played Minecraft, Space Engineers and 7 Days to Die to name a few, and though they have their differences, the main goal in each game is to better your character and survive. If you have played and enjoyed any of these games or those like them, you simply NEED to play Terraria.
Enough for now, I’m going to continue on my quest to put a shameful amount of hours into this game. At least until the day Terraria: Otherworld comes out…
Just waiting here..
