Have you every played Minecraft and felt like it was missing something? I have. And it’s not because I’m extra picky with games that don’t have an overarching plot or high-end graphics - sometime a game can have the same idea but execute it much better. You’ve probably already guessed which game I’m talking about, seeing as the title is pasted above in big grassy letters: Terraria.
I will admit, I was skeptical of Terraria at first. I wondered what it had that Minecraft didn’t. I was obviously naive. The first obvious difference would be the graphics - Terraria is a completely 2D world, although you can make things seem 3D with some careful building. Yes, building is a pretty robust part of this game. Many players end up just building a little shack at first to get their footing, but end up moving on to some better real estate once they get the hang of things. One man has a home, and the other has a castle. Things can get pretty elaborate if you let your creativity take hold.
Aside from building, there’s a whole lot of mining to do. One thing I like about Terraria is the random world generation, especially with the various ores that pepper the underground. In my first generation, I stumbled upon copper, iron, silver, and gold. In my other generation, I found tin, lead, tungsten, and platinum. Depending on which ore you use, you can craft weapons and armor to protect yourself - I prefer the melee approach, so I really like the molten armor (made from hellstone, an ore you find in the hot and perilous underworld). You can also find or craft armor from components other than metal, which give you different set bonuses (special stats you gain when wearing all pieces of the same kind). For example, jungle armor, crafted from vines, jungle spores and stingers, gives you -16% mana cost for magic weapons; and necro armor, crafted from cobwebs and bones, gives you an extra 20% chance not to consume ammo for ranged weapons.
You can also find and craft accessories to equip, which give you yet more bonus stats and effects (enhanced damage, increased movement speed, flight, and more). You’ll also use potions, which give temporary abilities and boosts (immunity to lava, breathing underwater, increased defense, etc.). These end up being a huge help when you face off against the big baddies making their home right alongside you.
This is what I like about Terraria the most: the boss battles. The first one you fight is a giant floating eyeball, the Eye of Cthulhu, which is a brief and unnerving introduction to the things you’ll have to deal with as you progress. You also fight a floating telekinetic brain or a hundred-eyed worm (depending on the world you generate), a huge slime, a giant queen bee, and last but not least, the Wall of Flesh (which looks exactly how it sounds). Each boss is more difficult than the last, the Wall of Flesh being an especially huge skill curve not only because of its environment - it lives in the underworld - but also because of just how many ways it attacks you. The Wall moves faster as you damage it, and if you’re not prepared, it will overtake you and kill you pretty much instantly.
Once you kill the Wall of Flesh, you enter hardmode - and trust me, Terraria isn’t bluffing. I’ll get into what makes hardmode the meat and potatoes of this game tomorrow.