There's mining and crafting, but also so much more.

It's hard to review a game that is the second entry into a genre. Especially a genre so specific as the "Crafting" genre crafted by (pun totally intended) Notch and his mainstream phenomenon, Minecraft.  I very specifically promised myself I would avoid comparisons, but here I am, first paragraph and I'm already starting on it.

  

Terraria is a 2D, loot-based platformer (much like Castlevania) featuring 16-bit retro style graphics, and craftin g element s very similar to Minecraft. The other similarity it holds? Randomly generated worlds with a big emphasis on multiplayer, where the user content becomes something else entirely . The emphasis on loot makes the game play out like a dungeon crawler. Especially in multiplayer, where you will often find yourself farming bosses for the right material to craft a special weapon, o r praying for the cool rare drop some high level enemy holds.  
 

 And like any good loot-based game, it's all only as good as how the loot is, and how powerful it makes you feel. And Terraria's loot is great, and inventive. It goes from standard accessories that you can fit into five slots, to your weapons and items, and your armor. Accessories vary from allowing you to double jump, to swimming, to higher jumps, becoming immune to burning blocks, and more. Weapons come in a great variety, from mouse guided missiles, to flails, to swords that shoot stars, boomerangs, lightsaber's and much more, and it has the same approach on better tools, and better armor sets, that when completed grant special bonuses. Obtaining this loot, and using it along with your friends to get even better loot is what sells this game, and ultimately, what will have you hooked for hours.
  

The building aspect you see in Minecraft also appears here. Monsters attack by night, but by the halfway point of the game, it won't even bother you. The game shifts from crafting to dungeon looting fairly fast, and mining simply becomes an element in the navigation of the world as you search for chests with loot and heart crystals to improve your HP. The interesting part of the building, is that it's required. You're almost forced to build a house suitable for resident's because there are residents. NPC's that sell stuff, buy stuff from you, and give you some critical items for later on in the game.
 
 
Honestly, the main problem with Terraria is how little there is of it. Building just isn't something that you want to keep doing, since, well, it's 2D, and fairly simple. If they ad more decorative items, or gave some extra incentive aside from those NPC's, maybe it'd have better legs, but as of this writing, once you get to hell and make that molten armor, something that took me around 10-12 hours, that's pretty much it, aside from looking for some extra special item, or goofing off with friends, the emergent gameplay present in Minecraft isn't all that present in what everyone is calling a clone. There's no thirst to make your castle bigger, expand your lands. Your strong enough to stand alone in the middle of nowhere and not die, and there's no incentive to continue.
 
 But of course, as soon as those updates hit, I'll be hooked again, and it's the potential that Terraria shows, (Along with the 10 hours of fun I've gotten from my first character alone) a potential that could lead to anything at this point, that, in the end, makes it a great recommendation to anyone, and no just fans of this brand new genre.
 
 
 
Note: I review on a 1 to 5 scale with no half stars.