At the beginning of 2011, an indie computer game began its meteoric rise to fame. The game featured a fully destructible environment: every hill could be leveled, every tree felled, every rock capable of being mined and picked up. You could use the materials you gathered to create a range of equipment, from pickaxes to swords. Enemies spawned during the day and night sequences, and your task was to build yourself shelter while you tried to move up the “tech tree” and gather better resources and equipment.
Minecraft, which had been kicking around for about two years, was the name of this game. Mojang’s exploration game was already popular when Andrew Spinks released Terraria in May of 2011. The comparisons between the two began immediately, with some calling Terraria a Minecraft “clone” – and others declaring that Terraria was a better game, whereas Minecraft was a sandbox.
Having never played Minecraft, I picked up Terraria shortly after its release in 2011 – and was instantly hooked. It had the look of the great platformers of old, but included the addictive resource-gathering and crafting that Minecraft had introduced. It also streamlined that experience – no longer did you need to carefully arrange resources in a grid to conjure your tools, as Terraria let you simply select them if you possessed the proper quantities in your inventory.
Terraria also introduced a progression in the content and world difficulty that Minecraft lacked at the time. Boss monsters punctuated your experience with the world, with each one unlocking more possible content with its defeat. This culminated in a fight with the games ultimate boss, which at release was arguably the Eater of Worlds, who was subsequently outclassed by an ever-increasing series of difficult bosses introduced in the game’s subsequent patches.
I’ve never actually “beaten” Terraria and gotten to the end bosses they’ve added since launch – I have too much fun building castles, creating efficient transportation systems, and even fishing. Over the years, they’ve added dozens of little goals, from crafting rare building materials and furniture to collecting powerful artifacts. Every time I return to the game, it seems I find that they’ve added something new and interesting to discover, prompting me to start a world all over again to experience it fresh.
The long list of goals combined with the classic platforming gameplay is what makes Terraria a great game well worth playing. I’ve enjoyed it for more hours than I care to admit – the combination of combat, crafting, and exploration is something I find calming and compelling. I love the fact that the game creates a new random world with every start – a random world with caves, treasure, and foes spread out at just the right intervals to keep you engaged. You also have the real ability to make your own mark on that world – to shape it according to your own wishes.
Terraria is now a classic, and can routinely be found for between $5 and $10 on Steam or GOG. If you have a computer that acts as a server, grab the dedicated server software (link is at the bottom of the page), configure your Windows firewall and router, and invite your friends to play. Writing about why I love the game has made me want to do just that, in fact…might have to do that sometime.