An old man awaits at the entrance of a dungeon. Stricken by a mysterious curse, he urges you to return after the sun has set, to free him of the madness that has infected his body. So you spend the day amid the grassy splendor of Terraria, surveying caves, slaying rabbits and slimes, as the hours tick by. Once night has set, you return to the old man, to free him of his curse and reap whatever rewards he wishes to give you. It turns out that the little curse transformed the old man into a demonic skeleton, a hovering monstrosity that unleashes holy hell upon your poorly equipped explorer. The battle rages for 10 seconds, maybe 20 if you run away at the onset, and then you're left staring at your corpse and wondering how you could ever defeat such a beast.
But there's no reason to be deterred by such a thorough beating. Terraria uses an empowering sense of discovery to grab you, and that unrestrained freedom is a double-edged sword. Free to explore the untouched lands, you may happen upon a monster much more powerful than you, or you may find a chest filled with precious treasures. You're never sure where your travels will lead you, but your curiosity is always rewarded. You may gain knowledge, such as knowing not to talk to old men at night, or happen upon a cache of gold, which can be used to forge a powerful sword. It's a world bursting with possibilities. Terraria is an incredible adventure that continually excites your imagination with the endless secrets that await.
Digging a helevator is the quickest way to reach the bottom of the world.
Be prepared to die a lot when bosses make an appearance. Every battle is against a massive beast that dwarfs your feeble adventurer, so you have to be smart and well prepared if you're going to come out on top. If you collect enough shooting stars beforehand, you can craft mana crystals that let you use magic. It's much safer to shoot magical strikes from a distance than to get up close with your warhammer. Still, there are many different tactics to take out the various bosses. And, who knows, maybe you won't have a chance to plan out a strategy at all. The Eye of Cthulhu randomly appears once you've become powerful enough, and it's crazy to fight this flying beast while in a subterranean jungle. Always be prepared for a fight; you wouldn't want to lose your hard-earned money because you forgot your bow at your home base.
Terraria is a perfect fit on the Vita. Playing this adventure on a handheld is a huge bonus to a game that was already incredibly well made. Now you can mine for hellstone while sitting on the throne or on a bus, so you're always making up an excuse to play for five more minutes. But watch those minutes spiral into the thousands without you even realizing it. And once you go as far as you think you can, you unlock hard mode, and there are even more items to craft and bosses to defeat. Terraria includes the updates to the PC version, so there are lots more bosses, items, and even biomes than when the game was first released. It takes a special game to make you fully care about all the little activities you're taking part in while still keeping your eye on a faraway prize, and Terraria deftly balances those ideas.
Terraria is really fun, it is pretty much endlessly replayable and for the cost there arent may games you can wring as much gameplay out of. There are epic worlds to explore and a plethora of things to build and more monsters than you can shake a cactus sword at, and if you were a fan Minecraft, the chances are youll love Terraria too.
However, if you prefer a game to lead you by the hand or give you a vast enthralling story to follow you might want to point your Vita somewhere else because you wont get any of that here.
Bracken Lee-Rudolph from ITF Gaming writes: Indie games have undergone a massive resurgence in the past couple of years; whether it be Minecraft and Terraria lighting up gamers screens, or the locally-developed Desktop Dungeons. Along with these, downloadable titles have become more accessible thanks to the platforms of Steam, Xbox Live and PlayStation Network providing a stable launching point for them, and thus have improved in quality. Below, youll find the games our writers were happiest to have on their download lists this year.
TheEscapist - "Terraria, like many games encountered in my recent years, is a title I wanted to play on a handheld system so badly. There's something about games full of grinding that lend themselves well to the casual, "on the go" experience of a portable system, and the PlayStation Vita is proving to be the perfect system for such endeavors."
Imagine what Minecraft might be like if it had been made with pixel-art sprites and released in the Super Nintendo era. That sums up the overall vibe of Terraria pretty well.
