Is Terraria Really Just “2D MineCraft”?

Posted on June 1st, 2011 By Mike "Scrimshaw" Potts Under: Game Reviews, Games Tags: minecraft, terraria

Since the explosion of Minecraft onto the gaming scene, few titles have been able to compare to its unique style and success; until now. Released May 16, 2011 on Steam, Terraria sold 50,000 copies its first day, and 200,000 over its first 7 days. First dubbed simply “2D MineCraft” by dubious fans, the game does prove similar when compared side by side with its older 3D cousin. Both are mining games, set in a randomly generated world in which you dig tunnels, explore caverns and hunt treasure and minerals to craft into helpful items. To prevent any snap judgments on Terraria’s worth, I offer a comparison. You decide: is Terraria the next step in the mining genre or a little boy trying to fill his big brothers shoes?

Major Differences:

Terraria is 2D and focuses more on combat and exploration than building
MineCraft is 3D and focuses heavily on building, with combat resembling an afterthought in game development.
Terraria’s worlds are randomly generated but fixed in size at small, medium and large.
MineCraft’s worlds are randomly generated and infinite, extending on forever.

Terraria's houses attract useful NPCs

Crafting and Resources:

Terraria

When broken, blocks of the world are collected and become placeable, allowing for building two-dimensional structures.
Tools, armor and weapons can be constructed out of the basic materials wood, iron, copper, silver and gold which are smelted into bricks at a Furnace and crafted at an Anvil and never deteriorate. Beds set spawn points.
Gold is the strongest basic mineral in Terraria.
There are also special and extremely rare minerals: (Demonite, Hellstone and Meteorite) that can be used to construct tools and armor and are obtained by defeating bosses and destroying artifacts.
Picks are used to break all forms of minerals. Axes deconstruct trees and wood structures and hammers remove walls and objects.
words and bows are the only basic craftable weapons, while all other weapons must be found in chests.

A very small part of MineCraft's very big world

MineCraft

Blocks are broken and collected and become placeable just as they do in Terraria allowing for construction of three-dimensional structures.
Tools, armor and weapons are constructed from the basic materials wood, stone, iron, gold and diamond which deteriorate at different speeds depending on material. Some must be smelted into ingots at furnaces. Beds set spawn points and progress night to day immediately.
Gold is extremely fragile and essentially useless for tool building in MineCraft.
Other more rare minerals, along with many other resources such as Red Stone, Netherrack, Glowstone, sugar and leather can also be used for crafting tools and armor.
All tools can break all surfaces, but item collection is quickened if picks mine ore, shovels break dirt/sand and axes break wood.
Swords and bows are the only weapons in the game and are crafted at crafting tables.

Environments and Mobs:

Terraria

Environments include beach, water, hill/mountain, cave, underground jungle, floating island, meteorite, dungeon, corruption and underworld.
The underworld is constructed of Hellstone which damages the player at the touch and lava.
Certain environments feature exclusive mob. Imps and Bone Serpents spawn only in the underworld, Man-eaters and Wasps in the underground jungle and Dark Casters in the Dungeon.
3 bosses will appear when summoned in particular ways and reward players for defeating them with rare items and materials.
Mobs will spawn anywhere at any time (some appearing only during the day or night), even inside of your house if it does not have walls.
Water is fluid and will drain dynamically.
When more homes are created, featuring walls, doors, a light source and table/chair set, NPC’s will arrive to sell items to the player. These include a merchant, a demo expert, a druid etc.

MineCraft

Environments include beach, water, hill/mountain, snow, cave, desert, spawn rooms and Nether.
The Nether is a hell world constructed of Glowstone, ever burning Netherrack and lava.
Enemies appear randomly in dark areas, including your house. Spawners can be located and destroyed to stop large numbers of mod from being created.
Water is created in blocks that flow from a source block. If the source block is removed all water disappears.
No NPCs appear in game. The player is the only human character.

Combat:

Terraria

Weapons are either thrown or swung, but most function similarly. Swung weapons are in an arc pattern, hitting attackers on all sides of the player. Several thrown weapons return to the player or can be picked up again and re-thrown.
Bows use arrows dropped by mob or found in pots and chests.
Mob drop specified items and money when killed. MineCraft
Swords and bows are the only combat items in the game. Swords can be swung vertically and bows fired rapidly with arrows dropped by mob.
Mob drop specified items when killed, such as Creepers dropping gunpowder and skeletons dropping bones or arrows.

MineCraft

Swords and bows are the only combat items in the game. Swords can be swung vertically and bows fired rapidly with arrows dropped by mob.
Mob drop specified items when killed, such as Creepers dropping gunpowder and skeletons dropping bones or arrows.