The Immersive 2D Sandbox Platformer Game You Have to Try

Terraria is an adventure sandbox survival game similar to Minecraft, wherein you explore, craft, build, and fight with different enemies in a randomly-generated 2D world. It was initially released in 2011 and has since been ported to various platforms after its success.

Conquer the World

The comparison with Minecraft is mostly because of the basic premise of exploring and surviving the destructible game world that will constantly be different every time you start anew. In Terraria, however, you’ll be faced with colorful 2D 16-bit pixel art graphics and a platformer style of exploration instead of 3D blocks. You’re encouraged to see this world full of potential and go on making discoveries while trying to stay alive amidst its formidable resident monsters. The concept is simple: daytime is safe so go ahead and roam about, but nighttime is when the monsters come so you should prepare. Like other survival games, you can craft and build items essential to your quest to not die a horrible death. From health potions and yummy dishes to reliable weapons and fortified homes, there’s a ton of things to do from the get-go. It gets even better since the world map is constantly getting generated with new areas you can explore and mine at the more powerful you become, and so you’ll find that there’s a grand adventure to be had even though there was hardly a story when you first started. 

Better With Friends

The best thing about a game like this, though, is that the vastness of the world must be shared with others. That’s why Terraria really shines through with the fun when you’ve got other people playing with you. You can play solo all you want—there’s nothing the game will withhold from you just because you decided to be a one-man army. With the thousands upon thousands of items Terraria has to offer, it’ll seem like a great goal to try and conquer the map all alone. Plus, it’s relaxing to go at your own pace. However, there’s nothing quite like the joy of multiplayer, as well, and Terraria lets you and your friends go all out with the fun. The game has dynamic-feeling NPCs you can attract to live in your crafted town and they’ll help you by selling items or healing your injuries—but they won’t be exploring and fighting alongside you. That’s where the multiplayer mode comes in. Unlike Minecraft, Terraria focuses more on the beauty of combat, and once you hit that mid-to-late part of your gaming, your enemies are no longer as big as you or even walking like you. No doubt having allies in your journey is a big bonus to defeating impossibly-strong boss monsters.

Go Ahead and Dig In

There are still some kinks to work out in Terraria, however. When you begin, the features can get pretty confusing with the lack of a proper tutorial. Avid collectors have to keep switching between the game and the online guides for crafting because there’s no in-game guide at all. Despite these, though, Terraria is still an addicting game and if you love exploration and the promise of discovering the unknown, this is highly recommended for you.