I love Terraria. I really do. I've logged around 400 hours of Terraria-time, and that's not including the time I spent with the game accidentally running. Considering the fact that I might have payed 7 bucks for the game and I probably got it on sale for 5, I'm pretty pleased with the return on that particular investment.
If you're not aware of what Terraria is, follow that link up there. If you're too lazy for that, lemme 'splain. No, is too much. Lemme sum up.
Terraria is sort of like Minecraft in 2D. If that doesn't mean anything to you, then imagine, if you will, a game where all materials are mineable. Your entire purpose in the game is to explore, mine important materials like gold and diamonds and iron so you can build weapons, armor, and other tools. The game is presented in 2D, which I feel is a good choice for something of this nature. Minecraft always felt out of scale to me, and I didn't care for the blocky aesthetic that everything in the game has. Terraria has a much smoother look to it, even though it's still pixelated.
The thing about Terraria that I love is the fact that you get to play how you want to play. Yes, there is a sort of progression that you can follow, but you really don't have to. Yes, there are deeper, more dangerous regions of the game to explore, but again, you don't have to. Obviously that sounds like a lot of video games. Don't want to leave the Kokiri forest in Ocarina of Time? You don't have to! But, the difference is that you will definitely run out of things to do in Kokiri forest, where in Terraria you can spend your time building a nice house, chopping down and planting trees, building furniture and fending off zombies at night. Now, that's not how I play, of course. I'm all for delving too deep into the earth, searching out gold and diamonds and chests filled with treasure. I love getting that next tier of armor and weapons so I can deal out (and take) more damage. And that's the beauty of Terraria. Whether you're a cautious player who wants to take things nice and slow or you're reckless and filled with the spirit of adventure, Terraria can provide a satisfying experience.
Now, one of the few things I wish Terraria had was a bit more scope. Even the largest world you can generate in Terraria still isn't that big, and, when it comes down to it, it's the only one there is.
Enter Starbound. Starbound really looks and feels (at least in the gameplay videos) like Terraria's older, more mature brother. The graphics, while still 2D and pixely, are more complex, with sprites having several more animation frames for different actions. The movement and combat seem more complex as well, but the crowning jewel of what Starbound offers is the scope: Starbound procedurally generates planets, equipment, even enemies, with a complex algorithm that promises endless unique experiences. In Starbound you can travel from planet to planet, mining, exploring, and crafting, just like in Terraria. Apparently there are NPC-given quests that are procedurally generated as well, which means that you'll never run out of things to do. Each planet is supposed to have different materials, enemies, and treasures, making it important to actually explore as many different places as you can. The addition of different player-races, persistent NPCs that can be recruited to help your cause, and a fancy, upgradeable spaceship that serves as your base of operations all serve to give Starbound that added scale that I feel Terraria is missing. Now, as has been mentioned, Starbound is still a 2D side-scrolling type game, but that's ok. In fact, in my opinion, that's actually better, for now. Maybe in an immersive VR environment a 3D sandbox mining game would be fun and feel ok, but until then, if you feel the need to explore large worlds, find materials to craft new and ever-better equipment, and discover secret treasures, Terraria and Starbound definitely have what you need.
EDIT:
I realized that I didn't really get to express what I wanted to about this topic. Yes, Terraria and Starbound are cool, but the important bit is what they indicate for the future of gaming.
For a long time, video games were pretty much linear. A lot of games still are. Even games like the Civilization series and games in other genres are still fairly linear, in a way. Yes, you may have a lot of options on how to play the game, but you're still basically progressing towards a single end point.
With Starbound's procedurally generated content, we're starting to see the beginning of true open-world games.
Other games that are "open-world" like Skyrim, Borderlands, etc, still have a linear storyline that you can choose to follow at your own pace, but not really in your own order, most of the time. Additionally, something that bothers me in a lot of games is the questing system. "Please hurry, bandits are raiding this village!" and yet, in most games, whether you hurry or not, you always get there at precisely the right time, as if by magic. In reality, you just trigger the beginning of the event when you arrive, regardless of when you arrive. In games where the quest is important to the story AND the timing is important, they generally make you repeat the mission or revert to a save point if you don't arrive in time.
Why not make a game where the events of the world are based on the same sort of procedurally generated algorithms? Make a game where stuff happens whether or not you're there. Make a game where the story isn't told in cutscenes and voice acting, but is told by the actions of the player.
Obviously Terraria still has a sort of progression. However, there are some things that definitely deviate from the norm. For example, the first boss you generally encounter, the Eye of Cthulu, can be summoned once your character is ready for it, but if you find enough heart crystals to bring your max life above a threshold, there is a chance that the Eye could spawn whether you are ready or not. This means you may have the health, but not the equipment when the Eye spawns, and, in that situation, you will probably die. The same goes for several of the bosses and events. You can trigger many of them at your leisure, but they'll happen on their own if certain conditions are met.
Now, if that sort of concept were implemented into a game where the presence of a boss monster like that could have a permanent and lasting effect on different parts of the game, say, by killing NPCs or destroying resources, and the longer they roamed unchecked, the worse the effect becomes. Then it's up to you to decide if you want to risk facing the enemy head-on with less-than-ideal equipment in order to save people or resources, or if that risk is too much.
I think this is the direction gaming needs to go, or at least a portion of the industry. I think the idea of a dynamic environment that is affected by more than just the actions of the player could create an extremely immersive universe. And, when it comes down to it, isn't that the point?
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