Welcome Time Wasters!
This week I went back to play a game that I’ve already reviewed once before, Terraria. Normally I wouldn’t review a game twice, but Terraria recently had a huge update (Version 1.2) that came out and added tons of extra content. I figured this warranted going back and giving the game another look.
As I mentioned in my previous review of Terraria (over two years ago!), there is no such thing as a story. Instead, players are dropped in a world and must survive its endless amounts of monsters and challenges. To do this, players can mine for resources and cut down trees to get lumber for a home. The game also heavily relies off of players crafting better items to move further in the game.
Different in Terraria 1.2 is the inclusion of more bosses. When I first reviewed Terraria, there were only three bosses in the game. Now there are 12 bosses (four of which were added in 1.2) and several mini-bosses. These bosses are separated into two different categories, normal bosses and hard-mode bosses. Being that a large amount of the appeal to Terraria is its boss fights, it’s great to get on and know that there is so much more to do now.
The 1.2 update also added over 1,000 new items to the game. This makes for a lot more crafting, but that’s a good thing. Part of the appeal of Terraria is working past the base cooper tools and weapons to better, faster and stronger items. This includes armor, which now has so many variants that players can have a defined role in the game, such as one player being a tank while another is geared toward spell casting.
Also new to Terraria 1.2 are more NPCs. During my first play through of Terraria, there were only a handful of NPCs in the game. Now there are 18 NPCs all told, eight of which were added in 1.2.
NPCs are a payer’s best friend. They live in homes that players construct and sell a wide variety of items that will help players out. Some of these items are just for fun, such as the Party Girl NPC’s confetti gun, but others are a great boon to the player.
The game has also added new biomes. One of these is the crimson, which acts as a counterpart of the corruption found in the original Terraria. Players can explore the crimson to fight off deadly creatures and break demon hearts, which give players special items that can assist them at the start of the game. There is also a snow biome now. This biome includes all the typical icy elements, such as sliding while walking, and is filled with penguins.
Graphical updates in Terraria 1.2 include new water effects and more weather conditions. The game still looks like an old Final Fantasy game, but this isn’t a bad thing. The game also has more particle effects now than when I first played it and there have been quite a few cool looking armors added. Also, players can now choose to dye armor different colors.
Audio in Terraria hasn’t changed much in the past two years. The main songs are all there, but there has been new music added for areas that didn’t previously exist in the game. Sound effects in Terraria also haven’t changed much. New bosses and enemies have their own sound effects and some weapons have special sounds when used.
Terraria’s 1.2 update added a lot of content to a game that already had so much to do, and the best part is that the game hasn’t gone up in price since it was gifted to me two years ago (I’ve since paid the kindness forward and bought a copy of the game for my cousin). Also, players who already own the game didn’t have to pay a thing for this new content. Now that’s how DLC should work.
Terraria V 1.2 earns 5 GiN Gems out of 5!