Review

Terraria (Vita)

If you got a chance to read our review on Terraria for the PS3, you’d know that I absolutely adored the game. So when 505 Games announced that it was coming to other devices, namely the PS Vita, I was eager to get my hands on a review copy. Being able to play this game on the go was a great but the notion of cross platform play with the PS3 sent my excitement through the roof!

Terraria is an adventure game based on survival and exploration. Gamers are placed in world with only a few basic items to gather resources needed to build a place to live, craft more tools, and make stronger weapons or gear. There aren’t any goals or even a detailed storyline. However, unlike other games of this ilk there are objectives that you can choose to tackle; like fighting a tough boss to unlock a dungeon to explore. Every world is randomly generated at the start of a new game. Outside of some certain set pieces the environment is unique, making exploration more intriguing. What you find is based on your efforts; there’s no guide that could say “there’s a gold chest on a particular mountain peak” due to the random nature of things. Wondering these worlds alone would be fun on its own, but being able to do so with up to seven other players is a great. With multiple players, items can be traded, PvP can be toggled on and off, , etc. Cooperating with friends to take down a tough foe is often entertaining to say the least.

I believe in my last review I stated that Terraria is a mash up of Minecraft and the Legend of Zelda. You have the freedom to be able to create and explore however you want mixed with the thrill of finding (or crafting) a powerful sword to cut down monsters. A randomized world that still has a lot of charm – there isn’t a princess to rescue but your journey is just as magical as that first Zelda game. I know that’s a bit vague, but I feel that it best describes what Terraria offers.

Now, getting to the Vita version, I’m happy to announce that Terraria is better on the handheld than the PS3…mostly. For instance, the new touch screen controls bolster the options available to you in interesting ways. You can pinch the screen to zoom in and out on the area around your character, making it easier to be particular about the décor of  that castle you’re building. Items can be quickly moved to and from chests by drag and dropping. Instead of scrolling through your weapons on your active item bar, you can just touch its picture to equip whatever you need.

The touch screen controls aren’t the only way to control your character; the buttons are still present of course. You can still use the d-pad as a sort of “hotkey” set up to quickly select items and the shoulder buttons allow you to swap pages in the menus with ease. I didn’t really miss the buttons from my PS3 controller because of the touch controls. At the same time certain functions were kept, making the Vita the best way to control a character in Terraria At least until you try to use the back touch pad. Used to precisely move your curser around the screen, the touch pad is way too fickle to be of any use. Also, because the place on the touch pad that allows you to do anything is positioned towards its center, it was really hard to use it and keep my thumb on a face button. I had to stretch my index finger way too far to justify using the back pad. Thankfully, you don’t have to use the touch pad to enjoy the game as all the other buttons/touch screen works fine.

Earlier I said one of the reasons I was excited for Terraria on the Vita was the ability to play with friends on the PS3. This meant that I’d no longer need to share a screen when playing co-op with my wife. Heck, I wouldn’t even need to be at home to go on adventures with her. Not only that, but I could also play with friends who hadn’t yet invested in a Vita. This feature was something I was looking forward to; rightly so as 505 Games made sure gamers were aware of this selling point. As you can image I was extremely disappointed when I couldn’t join any of my friends on the PS3. For whatever reason, the Vita version of the game has had trouble connecting to people over PSN. That included people who owned Vitas. Invites sent out never showed up on the Vita, the “searching for games” screen never loaded any games, and no one ever joined my open-game sessions.

My first thought was to search the forums to see if it was just me that was having issues. Nope. It seems that a lot of people are experiencing the same thing. Some people were able to get things working, but other couldn’t. Those who got it working did so randomly; they couldn’t invite friends so they had to open a public game and hope they were able to join before others did. To my dismay, the general consensus was that “PSN isn’t reliable” and it wasn’t Engine’s fault that these features weren’t working. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help them sell a game. Blaming a service provider for an issue with a product you’ve placed on their service doesn’t make me confident in my decision to  purchase your product. Especially considering how this game has been released on multiple devices that actually function as advertised.

Though Terraria is fine as a single player game, the lack of competent multiplayer options makes this version the least desired one of them all. I feel, based on my lengthy play time, that Terraria is a game that was built with the idea of gamers sharing their experiences with one another. This issue Engine is having is a real shame because everything else worked fine – the ability to use remote play, cloud save swapping (transferring your PS3 game to the Vita and vice versa), and more are present and accounted for. The touch screen controls are intuitive and visually, this version outdoes the PS3 one. It’s just this one hang up that brings everything down. Hopefully, things will get fixed soon; as of this writing I still haven’t been able to connect to other players. As it stands though, I wouldn’t say that you shouldn’t purchase Terraria for the Vita. Just be mindful that you’d be missing out on a lot of what makes it a great game!