Category Archives: Terraria
The GameSparked Podcast Jun-4-2013
The GameSparked Team
The GameSparked Podcast contains naughty words, and inappropriate content. Viewer discretion is advised.
The Team is here and ready to fight for customers everywhere with the help of another episode of The GameSparked Podcast! Joe starts us off this week with his final thoughts on Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, catches up on the much beloved Fast and Furious series, revisits an old favourite with The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, and chats with the crew about the upcoming Starbound. Mat has a few things to say about Gunpoint and the upcoming Injustice: Gods Among Us DLC, and has some problems that he needs to get off his chest. Myles rounds us off this week with lots to say about his solo trip to see The Great Gatsby, alone. By himself. And then the Team finishes the show with a bit of E3 news and a few predictions. All this, and much more, on this week’s episode of The GameSparked Podcast!
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Original Intro/Outro by Cody DeBoer
The DubSparked Remix by Kevin Madden
The GameSparked Podcast Jan-15-2013
The GameSparked Team
The GameSparked Podcast contains naughty words, and inappropriate content. Viewer discretion is advised.
Warm up during these chilly winter nights with another edition of The GameSparked Podcast! Joe joins us this week after having completed Torchlight II and taking a look back to some old friends with the help of mods for Terraria and Half-Life 2. Mat gives the gang a good look on the goings-on of the inside of his mouth before giving us all the scoop on Kentucky Route Zero and touching briefly on Dead Space 2. Myles, once again last but certainly not least, talks a little about professional wrestling, then dives into more Hotline Miami, Snuggle Truck, and Assassin’s Creed III. Also on the podcast this week: Team Fortress 2 news, the down and dirty on Dairy Queen, and a lot of strong opinions about famous musical groups. All that, and much more, in this week’s episode of The GameSparked Podcast!
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Original Intro/Outro by Cody DeBoer
The DubSparked Remix by Kevin Madden
[NEWS] Terraria Headed to Consoles
Mat Paget
Today, it was announced via the official Facebook page that Terraria would be coming to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in early 2013. To say the least, PC gamers aren’t impressed (whether they deserve to be or not is up for debate).
Regardless of the mostly negative recepetion, I am happy to hear that more people will be able to play it. For those who don’t know what this game is, it’s basically a side-scrolling Minecraft with RPG elements. You craft, mine, and build, as well as defend yourself against onslaughts of enemies, and even participate in a boss fight every now and then.
Terraria is pretty damn good; Jonny and I play this game for increasingly long sessions at a time. You can even check out Jonny’s review of the game right here.
We will keep you updated, as more is learned.
The GameSparked Podcast May-22-2012
The GameSparked Team
The Team talks about zombie survival, when they should really be talking about demon survival in Diablo III. Other matters delved into are games they have never been able to finish, Max Payne 3, Dear Esther, Mario Tennis Open, and a side of Mat’s adventures in Terraria. All that, and much more, in this week’s edition of The GameSparked Podcast!
Original Intro/Outro composed by Cody DeBoer
DubSparked Remix by Kevin Madden
[REVIEW] Terraria
Jonathan Tay
(PC [REVIEWED])
Throughout your journeys on the internet, you might have heard that Terraria is basically a 2D version of Minecraft. If you haven’t, let me tell you that Terraria is basically a 2D version of Minecraft. If you know anything about Minecraft, you’ll probably think that this is a very, very good thing. Is it? Read on to find out!
The first thing you’ll probably notice about Terraria is its art style. The game goes for the increasingly-trending 16-bit aesthetic, and manages to pull it off quite superbly. The character and enemy models look like something that you could find if you played a game like Chrono Trigger, while the animations themselves are fluid and silky smooth. The real beauty, however, comes from the environment. Terraria’s graphics are, in a word, reminiscent of other games of its ilk – but that’s as far as it goes. The game evokes an uncanny valley-type effect, but uses that to its advantage. What I mean by this is that the game looks familiar enough to evoke feelings of warm nostalgia, but different enough so that the game possesses a distinct style. This comes at the price of a somewhat long initial world-building time, but believe me, it’s well worth it.
The next thing that might catch your eye – or ear, in this case – is the soundtrack. I don’t know what to say about it other than that it’s…appropriate. Oh, and small. You’ll constantly hear the same handful of songs from the game’s 13-track album, such as the music for the Overworld or underground. The music that plays during the day is filled with whimsy and energy, yet still manages to be laid-back. The track that plays during the night, however, manages to be both calm and suspenseful – and it fits. Looking at the brilliant night sky can be a soothing and exhilarating experience, but the horde of zombies outside your door might be a wee bit troubling. The music for boss fights is appropriately awesome – even if you don’t plan on purchasing the game (shame on you!), you should look it up!
That last sentence might have tipped my hand, so I’ll just cut to the chase and talk about the actual gameplay. When you first start, you’ll be able to create and customize a character. For a 16-bit game, the options are surprisingly deep – the obsessed among us will surely get a kick out of specifying the exact amount of red, green, and blue in almost every aspect of their characters. Next, you’ll have to create a world, which is considerably simpler. You get three options: small, medium, or large, which are pretty self-explanatory.
This fellow probably wants “large”.
After you spend what feels like a year actually loading the world, you’ll finally get to play. Incidentally, save and load times afterwards are much shorter. The controls are really simple, but a bit frustrating to wrestle with in the first few minutes. After you pick them up, though, they’ll become second-nature. Minecraft vets (and I know that there are a lot of you!), you know what to do from here. You begin the game with three items in your inventory: a pickaxe for mining, an axe for cutting wood, and a shortsword for hitting things. Equipping items is easy, and using them involves a simple click.
A big part of the game involves using natural resources, such as wood or iron, to craft items. Crafting in Terraria is relatively simple in comparison to Minecraft. You won’t have to arrange your materials in a certain way – merely having them in your inventory and clicking on what you want to craft in a menu is sufficient. And boy, will you craft a lot. Whether you’re using clay to make bricks for a house or smelting silver ore to make some armour, there’s always something new to create.
Making things isn’t really an optional activity, however – you’ll need to do it in order to survive. Monsters roam around at night, threatening anyone foolish enough to take a causal stroll in the dark. Building a small house is enough to protect you from the majority of Terraria’s hostile denizens… but as you know, it has never been in our nature to stay on the defence. A large bevy of weapons and armour are available to you, ranging from swords that can make stars fall from the sky, to the garments of Hylian hero, Link. You’ll most likely use these on your adventures into the underground, or when facing bosses.
You might even end up using your equipment to fight other players. All that’s needed for Terraria’s multiplayer is for someone to set up a server, and for other people to join. From there, you can set up teams, enable PvP, or just mess around with someone else’s world. It’ll probably get lonely when you only have the games’ (bad) AI to keep you company, after all.
A typical multiplayer game of Terraria.
At this point you might be wondering, “What is the point of Terraria? What is my goal? What am I supposed to do?” Well, depending on whom you ask, you’ll get a variety of different answers. One of my friends told me that all she wanted to do was get the best equipment and beat all of the bosses in the game. When a friend and I were playing, our goal was to build a stairway to heaven – and we did! Too bad we didn’t see any Led Zeppelins up there. *gets ready for tomato throwing .gifs*
From these small anecdotes, you might see the main draw of Terraria: it’s the game that YOU want it to be. It’s a hybrid of platformer, action-adventure, and RPG, all wrapped up in a box of LEGO. Satisfying your creativity is your main objective. You can build castles in the sky, cities underground, buff up your character, fight in gang wars with and against your friends, bury AIs alive…whatever! It is this aspect of the game that will hook you and keep you playing for hours and hours. The canvas is set up; the paint is ready. All you need to do is let your imagination run loose.
…
But for the love of God, please don’t kill the bunnies.
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