Terraria drops you into a vast new world with only primitive equipment to begin your adventure. Without any direction (aside from vague hints from the guide), you begin to explore the land at your own pace. You meet many creatures, both friends and foes, and learn to defend yourself and the world from danger. With time, you begin to appreciate the many oddities of the various biomes you’ve explored. The very mannerisms of Terraria become second nature to you. Your playstyle, which is largely unique to you, is heavily influenced by the weapons, accessories, and armor you choose. Terraria offers a great deal of places to explore, enemies to fight, characters to befriend, and bosses to slay. Despite this, none of it is ever forced on the player, permitting us all to progress at our own tempo.

My personal experience with this game spans many years, from mobile to this very Steam account, and I still find new reasons to enjoy this beloved game. The soundtrack is superb, the sprite work is on point, and the gameplay is timeless. All of this, and I haven't even mentioned one of the game's best features: community. Terraria can be played alone or with friends, and I highly recommend both experiences. The sense of accomplishment you get after conquering a difficult boss through cooperation and teamwork is unparalleled. Before you know it, hours will have passed just messing around with your good ol' chums.

Community doesn’t just end there, however. The Terraria fandom is an extraordinary community with many talented individuals. Texture packs, adventure maps, creative builds, expansive mods—the amount of community content waiting for you is nigh infinite.

You can’t mention new content without giving a hand to the developers, though. For a game that was released in 2011, the fact that we have still been getting new, polished content updates is insane! Terraria might be the only game where the developers explicitly make a “final update” only to launch a huge content update right after. They manage to do so while keeping the price at a generous $10 (often $5 on sale!).

All in all, I can’t stress enough that you purchase this game.