To classic Nintendo fans, Terrorarium’s formula will look familiar. In a callback to 2001’s Pikmin, players control a ghoulish Gardener with an army of bite-sized, sentient fungi called moogu, which the Gardner lobs to overcome obstacles. Different moogu have different abilities: Thick moogu are heavy enough to weigh down platforms and withstand powerful winds. Spicy moogu can burn objects and are immune to fire. Gassy moogu can float the Gardner over dangerous pitfalls.
Developer: Stitch Media
Price: $25
Platform: PC (Steam)
MonsterVine was supplied with a Steam code for review
Terrorarium shines brightest when you’re figuring out how to best navigate its terrain. Each of the game’s 24 gauntlets has a diverse set of hazards that will affect moogu and the Gardner differently. Spikes, for example, will impale the Gardner, but moogu are small enough to travel through them (mostly) without issue. Puddles, on the other hand, are deep enough to drown moogu, but the Gardner has no problem just walking over them. At its most fundamental, Terrorarium is a 3-D puzzler, and traversing these objectives certainly solidified its placement in the genre.
Unfortunately, the game is rife with flaws. Perhaps its greatest is that it lacks enough polish to really call it a complete experience. The developer’s elevator pitch describes Terrorarium as a game “about wanton destruction, adorable gore and… gardening.” But this depiction rings hollow after spending some time with the game. There’s certainly some destruction, but it’s more controlled and with less flourish than you’d probably expect. I also don’t understand the gardening aspect, as you’re not planting or harvesting anything. You play as a gardener, but that doesn’t really justify the description.
While enjoyable, puzzles in the game aren’t remotely difficult. Terrorarium only took a generous 90-minutes to beat. Most – if not all – of the puzzles didn’t require much thought. However, there was a noticeable ramping in design and pace as I continued forward. A bit of fine-tuning could very well be the difference between slogging through the obvious solution and engaging in a real brain buster. Terrorarium also offers a “Maker Mode,” where players design their own levels. It’s possible, then, that the main game is meant to offer a more baseline experience before players delve into more frantic and trickier creations.
Each level only has one objective: Get to the finish. A lot of Terrorarium‘s monotony would be mitigated if there was just more to do. Having the same main objective every level is common practice, but having a list of differing minor objectives could break up much of the tedium. Terrorarium doesn’t demand enough from players, which seems like a misstep for a puzzle game.
There’s also a total absence of obvious “quality-of-life” features that increasingly make the experience shakier and shakier. Moogu, for example, can multiply by breeding with corpses (yuck), but brand new moogu aren’t fertile and therefore cannot breed whatsoever. There’s no indication when a moogu has reached fertility, so when you need your moogu to reproduce, it’s often just a matter of standing around until the deed is done. Moogu also sometimes get stuck on other textures and objects, which isn’t usually a big deal, but more than once prompted me to restart a level because I then didn’t have enough of them to beat the level. Controller functionality is also poor: The d-pad is unsupported, the “A” and “B” Xbox gamepad functions are reversed from the status quo, and there isn’t any way to access the menu.
Terrorarium isn’t all doom and gloom. Its low-poly aesthetic is timeless and, as mentioned before, it uses a formula that is rarely repeated and thus remains unique. In its current state, Terrorarium is merely serviceable and only just breaks the boundary that qualifies it as a legitimate puzzler. The online “Maker Mode,” which I didn’t have a chance to try, perhaps makes the gameplay a bit more robust. But as it stands, Terrorarium lacks enough polish to really fulfill a wholly pleasant experience.
The Final Word
A basic 3-D puzzler that grows stale despite a relatively short playtime.
– MonsterVine Rating: 2.5 out of 5 – Mediocre
