Terraria Review
Terraria is an open world game that released in 2011 on the PC and has now, finally made its way to the Xbox Live Arcade. The game is a side-scroller that allows for players to create their own world whilst doing what they want. They will find themselves collecting materials to build and craft different items, and the more they do, the more recipes for things will become available. There are endless amounts of tasks to do throughout the game, teamed with dozens of enemies, bosses, NPCs and places to explore.
On the first day, the player will create his or her own avatar. Heavily pixelated as it is, there’s still much fun to be had picking hairstyles, colours and so on. You may also choose between being male or female, which I found to be a nice touch because too often are females left out. Next, the player will name their world and then be tossed into it. Each new world is randomly generated, so no one world is the same as another. I would heavily advise going through the tutorial option before doing any of this to gain a better understanding of what to do in the world. But if you don’t, it’s not the end of the world.
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​Your world comes complete with a human guide that will help you a little bit in the beginning. I personally found that he did come in handy for tips here and there, though again, he is nowhere near as helpful as the tutorial was. The first thing you will want to do (and do quickly!) is gather material needed to build yourself a little house. This is mainly because the guide has a knack for wondering around, and if he does this at night time… Well, let’s just say he will die. And so will you, if you’re not prepared.
A house will keep the creepers out at night and keep both you and the NPC safe. And it’s not tough at all to figure out what you’ll need. If you have taken the time for the tutorial, you’re already a pro, but if not, just chop some trees, dig up some stone or dirt, and start building away. Placing a chair, a table and a workbench and torches (as well as many, many other things as I found myself doing!) inside of your home is very advisable.
Crafting is extremely fun. As previously stated, the more things you craft and gather, the more recipes will become available. One of the first things made will be your workbench, which will enable you to create even more goodies for your home/world. You will create tools, armour and many other items. But, to make this possible you do have to venture out into the great big world and defeat monsters, mine for minerals and journey about. Bringing all that you’ve found home to craft gives the player a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction.
Enemies in the game are found anywhere and everywhere. I found the further out away from the starter zone I went, the more enemies I found. Night time is when the real creeps come out (zombies, flying eyeballs, etc), but going down underground produced some serious threat as well. Green, blue and other coloured blobs are common and if allowed to gather in numbers, dangerous. However, crafted armour and improved weapons will help along the way with these challenges.
Terraria is a well rounded game with a lot of heart. With the welcome to Xbox and PS3 came a few extras that the PC edition did not offer (things including new armour, ultimate weapons, new enemies, pets, etc.) The only downside I had with the port over was that it’s much easier to work with on a PC than using a controller with a console. Though, this did not cripple the ability to perform tasks. There is the option to click in the right stick and have a cursor (which helped a lot). Other than that, I really did enjoy this game and the fact that I could play it with pals on my Xbox list as well as earn much adored achievements.
I would recommend this game to any fan of Minecraft and multiplayer games. Sharing the jobs and building a world with up to 8 players online can only be a recipe for greatness.
8/10
Review By Jackie C​
