I really don’t like Minecraft.
There, I said it.
I know it’s an unpopular opinion in the gaming community, but the fact remains regardless. I think the concept of the game is wonderful, in that it allows players the freedom to do pretty much anything they’d like in a massive open world. And, admittedly, some of the things people have built in Minecraft can be both beautiful and mind-boggling.
While something that massive is truly a wonder to behold, the game loses me at the “ground level”. The chunky, blocky visual style of the game bothers me for reasons I can’t even fully explain (especially given what I’m about to say in regards to Terraria and other “retro” games). The look of Minecraft feels like Pitfall Harry and Sofia from Battle Arena Toshinden got together and had a love-child.
Again, this is just my own personal opinion, and if you like Minecraft I can totally respect that. It’s just not for me.
But the bigger picture behind Minecraft, that of exploration and creation in tandem, is very appealing to me. I love the idea of being able to explore a world and use the things within that world to make my own creations. That’s art, right? To see things within the world and make something new and special from somewhere within our own souls?
I’ve been playing video games for almost as long as I can remember, since the days of the Intellivision or the Atari 2600. Some games from that era have retained their appeal even to this day, so that despite their simplicity they can still deliver an entertaining experience, much like chess or backgammon. Even the most jaded of gamers can usually find a bit of joy from a few rounds of Pac-Man or Q-Bert. Others, though, like Combat or Adventure, lost a bit of their original magic when they were overshadowed by better visuals and more involved storytelling the old systems simply couldn’t handle.
As soon as Nintendo entered the home-entertainment scene in the mid-80s, the number of “timeless” games multiplied exponentially. To this day, titles like Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda are beloved by gamers, while Contra or Mega Man are lauded for their challenging level of difficulty.
When 16-bit games came of age with the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis systems, graphics were finally able to convey realms of imagination we’ve often still to surpass. With just a touch of 3-D ability due to technical limitations of the consoles, game designers had to become adept at two-dimensional art.
These were the games that hooked me for life, to be honest. The creativity and visual storytelling of games like Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana, the ability to explore what felt like an entire planet in Super Metroid, the adventure and general bad-assery of Simon Belmont in Castlevania IV, a whole population to look after in SimCity … it was all amazing.
What it boils down to, I suppose, is that my appreciation for Terraria comes from an almost adolescent love for simple two-dimensional graphics able to portray an amazing world and a joyful sense of adventure.
Terraria definitely has many similarities to Minecraft. Completely open world, no obvious destination or purpose, and the option to build so many different things it blows the mind. On the surface (both figuratively and literally), it seems almost childishly simple. But dig into it, and suddenly things become insanely complex and interesting.
Exploration is essential, and the player will encounter dozens of different environments. From dry deserts to haunted forests, from ice caverns to dark jungles, from floating islands in the sky all the way down to Hell itself, nothing is really out of reach for a determined explorer. Each new location can be mined with a pickaxe for different material which can then be picked up and used for crafting.
Any sort of building can be created to house both the main character and different “NPCs” that eventually show up. You want to live in a giant castle in the sky made of glass? Do it. You want to make a sprawling village of tiny huts for everyone to live in? Do it. Any structure of any size or variety can be made with enough time and effort. But crafting isn’t just limited to buildings. Starting off with basic copper equipment and progressing in standard RPG fashion the player can find better and better materials like iron, tungsten, and eventually things like mythril. The character becomes stronger and stronger, able to deal more damage and withstand more attacks from monsters. A simple adventurer with nothing but a torch and a green shirt can eventually become a winged flame-armored hero.
Graphically the game retains a 16-bit feel, and with that the designers are able to give you seemingly thousands of things to look at. From weapons of all types, to magic spells, to a wide variety of bloodthirsty monsters, the game is never lacking for new things to throw at you.
Much like Minecraft, Terraria doesn’t really have much of a story. As the player explores and delves deeper into the caves and tunnels of this world they may encounter much larger and more ferocious creatures such as giant segmented worms, balls of slime the size of mansions, or even something known only as “The Wall of Flesh”.
There is a definite Lovecraftian influence to the creatures in Terraria, both blatantly stated and hinted at with things like The Brain of Cthulhu or a tribe of Lunatic Cultists worshiping the “Moon Lord” who just happens to be a tentacle-faced giant alien of near infinite power. But all of these strange beings and bizarre events often take a backseat to the nearly-meditative experience of digging a huge hole in the ground.
Terraria is a “sandbox” game in every respect, and it’s the most fun when you have a more child-like outlook on it. There is complex art hidden in a guise of simplicity as long we’re willing to look for it.
Just sit in it. Dig a while. Get your hands dirty. Build a castle.
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