Terraria: Finally better with updates
By Dark_Laharl
Released in 2011, Terraria came out when Minecraft was at its height in popularity. As a Minecraft fan myself, I wanted something new and similar to the Minecraft style of gameplay. Terrariaseemed like the perfect fit, but honestly, I wasn’t completely impressed upon the initial release. Terraria offered a lot of different features such as boss battles but otherwise didn’t have much from the get go.
Over the last 4 years Terraria received new updates and with each update improved gameplay. The 1.1 update released in December 2011 introduced a “Hard” mode and a biome of blood thirsty unicorns. With this update we also got new armors and weapons. Hard mode was updated once again in September 2013 making the game even more challenging by adding more biomes like the Crimson and a jungle-based boss Plantera. Finally, the latest 1.3 update in June 2015 added Lunar Events, which added what could be the end boss for the game –a whole 4 years after its original release. The final boss, the Moon Lord, has an epic design that looks like a horror straight out of an H.P. Lovecraft novel.
In terms of graphics, Terraria is a 2D world. You can travel left, right, up and down but not towards the background or into the foreground. Even with the 2D platform, you get a classic, retro, 8-bit feel which is kind of nostalgic and doesn’t detract from the game itself. I also like the background music Terraria offers. A neat little feature is that the music changes in every biome you visit and for every event that occurs. You won’t find yourself terribly annoyed by the music; unless you spend massive amounts of time in a specific area but even then, the soundtrack is rather enjoyable.
I put a cumulative 2 weeks into Terrariawhere I mined for ores to craft better weapons and armors to fight the new epic bosses. I know it doesn’t sound exciting but it felt rewarding defeating an epic boss that originally gave me a ton of trouble. The exploration and hunting for accessories melts your free time, but in a good way.
After the updates, I have nothing but good things to say about Terraria. It is available for mobile devices, Xbox and Playstation. I have tried it on both Xbox and my phone but the controls felt awkward. If you’re going to get the game, I definitely recommend it for the PC.
New Challenger Gaming 