$20 Game of the Week: Terraria (PC)

To the layman’s eye, Terraria may seem like another Minecraft rip off. However, if you give this platformer a chance, you’ll find a bit more to it than that. After customizing your character, you are then given several tools for digging. All you have to go on (beside the game wiki) is a man who offers you a few hints as to what to do. Your task ideally is to build, build, build. Your tools give you the means to gather the materials you need to build houses, weapons, and other supplies. The houses allow people to move in, and before long your empty world is a village full of people who can provide goods and services. Oh, and there are also enemies to fight. The slimes and other small creatures you battle during the day are rough enough, but when it gets to night, you’ll have to deal with zombies, demons, and other strong creatures. Thankfully you can create weapons that will come in handy. The game encourages exploration, but it’s imperative that you concentrate on building. The game also features online multiplayer. The game controls well with a keyboard, but it would benefit from keypad/joystick support. The game is fun and addictive, and you’ll want to go deeper and deeper as you play, and the game’s 16-bit pixelated art style will appeal to old-school gamers.