What makes Terraria great? (WMGG #1)

 What Makes Terraria Great?

"What Makes Games Great?" #1

Hi there, welcome to the first entry in our "What Makes Games Great?" series of posts, where we discuss what design aspects make our favorite games so... great!

So... TERRARIA!

When I first came across this game I was like "Yo, what is this?".

It seemed very childish and even girlish; with stuff like butterfly wings and it's cartoony theme. And not even to mention that back then it looked like a cheap 2D Minecraft clone,

Never have I been so damn wrong in my entire life.

THIS is one of the greatest video games ever made. Period. 

Terraria starts you off by creating a character (just the looks) and a world (can be small, big...). 

You start off with 3 items: The sword(for killing stuff), the pickaxe(for mining and digging) and the axe(for chopping down trees). Along the game you'll find A LOT of better variations of these 3 items.

You can also equip armor and items (like wings, grappling hooks, climbing boots... more on this later).

You can build houses and make NPCs move in, summon and defeat bosses, and literally dig down to hell itself. 

That's the game summed up, now let's see what makes it so awesome!

 

Physics and Movement:

The physics and movement are amazing.

The player's speed, jump and gravity feel spot on. 

Items can also drastically change how you traverse the game. 

You can get climbing year to let you latch onto walls, grappling hooks, multiple grappling hooks which let you latch on to multiple walls at once, clouds in a bottle that let you double jump...

These can make traversing the world very fun. And what I just mentioned are early game items, don't even get me started on the rocket boots, wings, hoverboard, or even mini UFOs.

The "drug": The Game Loop:

Once you've made a house/base, here's the game loop in a nutshell:

    - You prepare to head out and explore, could be a cave, cavern, dungeon, ice cave, jungle, temple,             hell, etc. 

    - You start digging, mining and killing stuff

    - You collect a bunch of awesome stuff

    - You head back to base, either by dying or teleporting.

    - You store all your loot in chests and expand your base

And yeah, that's it. But what's the secret?

Well, I think it's the variety. Not just of the locations and enemies, but of the items. There are A LOT of items, and you'll get cool new stuff EVERY TIME you head out. 

It may sound stupid, but this is the reason you can sit there on your couch for like 8 hours straight. 

And the boss loot... oh boy.

The Bosses:

The bosses in this game are epic.

First, you have to find out how to summon a boss. 

This can be done by obtaining summoning items, talking to an NPC at a certain time of the day, destroying a nest or plant, or doing weird specific "rituals" like dropping a voodoo doll item in a lava pool in hell. 

Chances are, you won't defeat the boss your first time. 

Most bosses, if not all, require you to build an arena to give you an advantage. 

So in hell, where there are a lot of lava pools, you'll want to make a long bridge to defeat the Wall of Flesh. 

This allows you to get very creative.

You can implement teleporters, booby traps, etc.

And you will base your arena design depending on what weapons and items you use as well. Maybe you have a long range weapon, wings that give you a vertical boost...

And obviously, the loot is some of the best in the game. 

Speaking of loot...

EVERYTHING has value:

There are well over 3000 unique items in the game, and they all have a purpose.

Nothing is ever discarded as useless (Except for maybe the sword you start out with, screw that one).

But for example, you can create the Night's Edge weapon, which in the early game is pretty OP, but soon enough you find a thousand weapons that are a million times better.

And so, you might assume "oh well I'm gonna throw this weak sword in the garbage or sell it". That is a rookie's mistake, because later on, you need that sword to craft the True Night's Edge, and that sword is very OP in the mid to late game.

This happens with most weapons, armors and items in the game.

You can even combine items like the climbing gear and a belt that lets you dash to create a master ninja item that lets you climb and dash. Nothing is ever wasted, ever. 

Even the early game ores are extremely precious. There are a lot of ore types and they are all useful.

Conclusion: 

One of the keys to Terraria's success is basically content. Terraria has a lot of weapons, armors, gadgets, and materials, and they are all unique and extremely useful. Also variety when it comes to biomes, locations, bosses and NPCs. 

You never get tired of spelunking down a cave and finding a new cool weapon to play with.  

This is implemented in many games, but Terraria stands out for how drastically each indvidual thing changes the rules of the game, and hence, you never get tired of the overwhelming amount of content. 

Nothing is "just a reskin", each item has it's own script.

Terraria is an incredible accomplishment in gaming, and offers far more than most AAA titles.