More Terraria

 

Over a year ago, I reviewed what has become my most played video game of all time - a indie game known as Terraria. Terraria at its heart is a 2D hybrid of Minecraft and the Legend of Zelda, with a dash of sci-fi elements reminiscent of Metroid. While Terraria was released almost three years ago, development for the game is still ongoing, with a number of large content releases over that time, particularly in the last six months or so. 

Back in October, I reviewed the release of 1.2, which still stands as the biggest update since the game's release. But a ton of new content has been released since then, so I wanted to take the time today to document just how much has changed since then.

Essentially, there have been three major releases since then, with some smaller bugfix release in-between. The first was 1.2.1, which was a Halloween themed release. This included a whole host of costumes, pets, and items centered around Halloween, capped off with a massive end-game "invasion" event where the player battles wave after wave of some of the most difficult enemies in the game for the opportunity to walk away with some very powerful items. The update also added some cosmetic changes such that every year during the Halloween season (or anytime you change your computer's date to October), enemies dress in costumes, hearts change into candy apples, and pumpkins grow in abundance.

The second major release was 1.2.2, which was a Christmas themed release. This release actually augmented earlier content available only during the Christmas season, which included enemies dropping presents when killed, a Santa Claus NPC, holiday lights, and other festive decorations. The biggest change with this update was the addition of a second end-game "invasion" event, this time pitting the player against waves of Christmas enemies (like evil gingerbread men, angry Christmas trees, Santa-Claus mechs, and the Frost Queen). This event is even harder than the previous one, but once again gives the player access to some fantastic end-game content.

The most recent release was 1.2.3, which featured a change log over 5 pages long of new and updated content! It included two new NPCs, tons of new vanity items, increased stack-size for most blocks, tons of new home furnishings, more character customization options, a host of balance changes designed to make the early and mid game easier while increasing the difficulty of the end game, and even some optimizations to the game code that decreases it demand on lower-end computers. 

Development work is already underway for 1.2.4, and beyond that the long-awaited "Lunar" themed 1.3 release, which will probably be the last major content release for the game.

I'm not sure what I could say about this game that hasn't been said before. It's a fantastic game, and one that you owe it to yourself to play. You won't be disappointed.

See you next time.