Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Diggin' Deep.

A bit about Terraria. For those of you who played Minecraft, the general concept is going to be very familiar. You are in a massive world that is randomly generated and populated by creatures both good and bad, and you can both destroy and construct with and around the environment. Night is dangerous and means you really need to consider shelter, while day isn't 100% safe, but certainly safer then night.
The sun goes down and out comes THE HIDEOUS GIANT EYE OF DEATH!
After that, Terraria becomes a beast of its own. As you build your house, and your house becomes a town, NPCs will move in and offer services for money. Merchants will sell you things, a nurse will heal, and a demolitionist will give you all the means and opportunity to kill yourself you need for a nominal fee. The world is also more alive then in Minecraft, various environments offer unique enemies and drops, and you can also find and explore dungeons that hold amazing treasures. Equipment offers various stat boosts, and full armor sets get set bonuses, encouraging players to get enough materials for the whole collection. You can also equip various accessories, like rings of regeneration, grappling hooks, or mystical artifacts that protect you against fire.

You can also cast magic spells, which you find deep in the corrupted zones in shadowy orbs guarded by soul devourers. Thus far I have a magical vine spell that pierces enemies multiple times, and an orb of light that keeps the darkness at bay as I mine for hellstone in... well, hell. I then proceeded to flood hell with water out of spite.
WHATS WRONG HELL? TOO WET?!
Why do we need all this stuff? Well, that's the big difference between Minecraft and Terraria, in Terraria you can and WILL encounter massive bosses to defeat, or your home will be overrun with the living dead, or goblins will invade your kingdom. The world is alive with terrible and mystical threats, and you will not be able to meet them all and live unless you go out and "level up" your character.

Thus far I have built a few big castles/mansions/long houses with friends, battled massive eyeballs and world consuming worms, explored the corrupted lands and searched for meteor impacts, and tunneled into the very depths of hell. I am currently building a massive tower into the sky where I will mount a search for some of the forgotten cloud kingdom's floating islands, and I want to venture out and find the entrance to a dungeon and fight whatever horrors lurk within.

The game has the open world of Minecraft, where you are dropped wordlessly into a beautiful and foreign environment to forge your life in, but it has a unique life to it. You and your friends will create narratives as you defend your homes and explore the labyrinthine cave systems under the ground. You will retell stories of the time you made a massive underground city, only to break into the underside of a lava pool and watch it all sink under molten rock. I love this game because it marries Dwarf Fortress with Minecraft and the baby was adopted and raised by A Link to the Past.

It is very much worth your time.

28 comments:

  1. That first picture is epic. Been playing Terraria for a week and haven't seen anything like that yet!

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  2. Argh, it's so tempting! The last game I've bought was Minecraft and I hate buying games but it's only like $10, right?

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  3. Like the retro style as well. Looks cool.

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  4. Wow. Color me excited. I thought this was a MC ripoff, but didn't know about bosses, levels, etc.

    Damn, sounds like a purchase.

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  5. Wow I didnt like minecraft but I wanna play this!

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  6. Looks interesting. Hopefully I can get into this game.

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  7. The giant eye of death made me chuckle lol.

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  8. That eye is like the death star, but it looks at you all creepy like.

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  9. I agree with your opinion, it's like Dwarf Fortress x Minecraft.
    But you didn't mention one thing, are there pvp or something like that?

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  10. Pretty interesting sounding game. I actually have never played Minecraft :O but the way you described this sounds pretty interesting and I might take a look at it.

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  11. This looks awesome. Did you find this on TIGsource?

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  12. So many people talking about Minecraft, is time to try it!

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  13. I enjoyed Dwarf Fortress. Its a fun game for passing office time.

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  14. #BKK - Right! I forgot to mention that PVP can be enables with up to 5 teams. So if you wanted bases could be built and then attacked, or even strange games of capture the flag could be arranged.

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  15. @Joe - found it on Steam, where I get all my games! =D

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  16. @ The rest of you guys - The game is about a week old, and it sells for $10, although if you get 4 friends it goes for $7.50 a person in a 4pack.

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  17. I've heard about this game before. Sounded really exciting.

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  18. i love your recommendations. i would have never heard about this game if it wasnt for your blog thanks!

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  19. I see, so it's not open pvp like Minecraft heh? So we can build without worry getting killed :P

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  20. Wow this game seams to be quite popular!

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  21. Waiting for your next post ^^

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  22. I saw a mod for minecraft where a town was built by NPCs. Kind of glitchy, but still awesome.

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