ah, terraria, the eternally updated game even though it's stopped development more than 5 times
who hasn't played terraria in this day and age? no, the real question is who hasn't burnt out on terraria in this day and age
terraria is what i'm going to call a "procedurally generated metroidvania with survival crafting and terrain deformation". yes, that's a mouthful, but it's accurate. if your mind is blown by me calling it a metroidvania then hoo boy wait until i tell you about the modding scene
i will preface this by saying that i am currently hella burnt out on terraria. is that a bit unfair and going to show in my review? yes, but i don't care. you're not here for an IGN review, you're hear to see what i say about it
terraria's gameplay loop is simple: gather resources, turn the resources into equipment, fight the boss gatekeeping the next tier of resources, rinse and repeat until you have terraria's progression. it's a circle and circles are Boring.
yeah sure there's other forms of progression, like npc housing, but that's closer to a footnote than actual progression. I liked it when they added npc happiness to encourage you to actually build spread-out towns in the different biomes, but it's closer to a footnote in progression than actual progression.
overall, i feel like it's not really a survival sandbox game, it's a metroidvania. Its progression is fighting bosses which are gatekeeping new abilities and areas. Which is all fine and dandy, but sometimes i want to build pretty buildings and not worry about the eye of chuthulu trying to maul me whilst doing so.
also known as the section where i gush about scott lloyd shelly for 20 minutes without breathing
the music in terraria is an absolute *chef's kiss*. it's very expressive and Out There, very similar to C418's work in that regard. I don't know how to properly express how much i like the music in this section so i'm just gonna list my top terraria songs(as of jan 2025).
as for the pixel art: ehhhh? you don't really notice it much, except for when you're trying to see what weapon is next in your pre-made progression list for your class. like, it's there? it does its job? in this case it's easier to argue that the parts make up the whole, here. overall the game looks pretty alright, if a bit bland in some areas. lookin at you, underground
story? what story? the only story is the friends we made along the way
there's not really a story in terraria. yeah, i know there's "official deep lore", but i'm talking about story progression In The Game, not provided by external means.
this won't impact the game's final score at all, but i figured i should at least adknowledge it.
is it a good game? yes. does it have its flaws? also yes. but the developers are pretty active in the community and know of some of the flaws, so that's a pretty big point in their favor.
i wish i could be more invested in terraria, but i just can't. it's such an immense time sink that i just can't afford anymore, and my backlog is only going to get larger as time goes on.