First of all, let me preface this review by stating that before my experience with the Xbox One version, I had never Terraria on any console or PC before. Therefore this review will be more about whether Terraria is a good game as opposed to whether it is worth reinvesting if you have played it before. With that said, lets move on.

 

It is hard not to look at Terraria and think it is a 2D version of Minecraft. No matter how hard you try the comparisons are too obvious. Lets face it, you use a combination of axe’s and pickaxes to mine for various resources which you in turn craft into new and better items to allow you dig deeper and build better stuff. So far, so familiar. However spend enough time with the game and you will appreciate the subtle differences that make Terraria well worth your time.

Functionally the game starts out very similar to Minecraft. It drops you into a ramdomly generated world with the basic aim of creating a shelter. Where you go and what you do after that is largely up to you. One area Terraria sets itself apart though is in allowing you to develop your character. As opposed to Minecraft, where you are essentially gathering resources to give yourself slightly better armour and build more unique creations, items gathered in Terraria can actually go towards improving your character from a more fundamental level. Case in point, it took me no longer than five minutes into generating my first world to find a pair of rock climbing gloves with which I was able to escape caves without the need to ‘build’ my way out.

The game also has numerous difficulty settings to cater to how hardcore you as the player want your game to be. On the easiest setting you only drop any money you are carrying should you die. Knock this up a notch and you will drop every item in your inventory, although these can be recovered from reaching the scene of the death. On the final setting the game introduces perma-death, meaning if you die at any point, game over, you have to start a new character from scratch.

 

In a neat move as well, the game keeps your character and game world separate. In Minecraft starting a new world means starting a new character, Terraria treats them as separate entities, meaning you can take a character you have grown to love and start a new world with them if you have pillaged everything from your existing one. This negates the feeling of having to effectively start the game again everytime, particularly if you have a character full to the brim with unique, interesting items you do not want to give up.

The big area that Terraria really sets itself apart though is in its enemies encounters, particularly the bosses that are dotted around each world. They are all unique and require true skill to beat them, however doing so will award you with some of the rarest and most unique items in the game. It is encounters like these that help to really give the game a purpose and something to build towards, other than just building for the sake of doing so. Each area has its own set of challenges and unique enemies too, so in the jungle you might be facing carnivorous plants and giant bees, in other areas you might face goblins or one-eyed trolls. The variety keeps the game from becoming stale well after you have created your village.

They aren’t many criticisms that can be levied at the game, but that does not mean there are none. The controls take a fair bit of getting used too and are not as intuitive as they should be. It is quite apparent this was a PC game before a console one, lets put it that way. Also, although the lack of direction is undoubtedly one of the games strong points, it can be a bit overwhelming, particularly when you start your first game and the ‘tips’ from the resident villagers are far more cryptic than helpful. 

 

As for whether you should buy Terraria, if you have never played the game before and want a unique alternative to Minecraft the game is a must. However the game looks exactly the same as it did on previous consoles and on PC, and although a number of updates have been added to the console versions, it is still a dew steps behind its PC counterpart in terms of sheer features, so if you already own the game it may be worth holding off until it comes in a sale or is perhaps free with PS+/ Games with Gold.

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