Terrorarium – Review
Pikmin was a very popular game series in its time, but there’s been little to no activity with it other than the occasional re-release. Terrorarium draws a lot of inspiration from this iconic series, trying its hand with the formula, while also taking some ideas from ‘Overlord’. While the game is not the longest, it still has something to offer to its players in the form of a maker mode.
Story
Terrorarium’s story is basically irrelevant, it doesn’t come into play anywhere other than the few cutscenes found in the story mode. The plot revolves around a space grandma with a passion for horticulture who, after participating a lot of times, has always ended up second on the “Terrorarium” contest. After a call from her rival, Dolores, she sets out to obtain new plants with the help of an invasive sentient mushroom species.
These mushrooms are called the Moogul and they have several types, but the original species is considered a pest and banned from all planets. Later into the story, the contest organizers catch wind about the grandma’s use of Moogul’s and request a sample to determine if she truly has them. After sending a sample, they rule it to be a new species, thanks to the experiments the grandma has conducted on it. At the end of the game, she somehow manages to finally win the contest, though there is no explanation as to how or why.
It is pretty evident the story is just there to add some fluff, without any real depth or importance. The total count of cutscenes adds up to about five or six in total, placed randomly in-between a series of levels with no connection with them or to each other.
Graphics
The game’s graphics are pretty simple, almost everything is rendered in a low poly style and there is a huge amount of asset reuse. There’re a few different biomes and sets of objects, but that’s only for the decorative ones as those with an effect always stay the same.
This also applies to the enemies which, despite several different ones existing, don’t vary on a level to level basis. The same tree enemy can be found in a winter or cave biome. The animations are also quite simple for these, at times bugging and repeating in place.
Cutscenes also have quite a large amount of issues, such as awkward positioning, models remaining in the background, etc. At times these can look completely absurd, such as when the grandma stands in midair in front of her chair.
Sound
On top of the graphics not being the best, the sound is no improvement; both soundtrack and SFX are simplistic and repetitive. The soundtrack consists of a few tracks of clichéd “alien” music that repeats level after level. Sadly the SFX are worse, being comprised of squashing sounds and squeals that get very old very fast; every single time the player tosses one of their Mooguls the same scream sound plays, which luckily enough is somewhat quiet.
Gameplay
Terorarium is described as a puzzle-platformer, though this doesn’t fit it at all; most levels are more about keeping the Mooguls alive than about solving any puzzles. This is not made easy at all by the completely nonsensical pathing these have. Whenever the granny is around, all of the mushrooms follow her naturally, spreading out around her, which often leads to their death.
The Mooguls can be kept close by pressing space, but this is only a temporary solution. Instead, the game prefers forcing its players to stand aside while any hazard goes off. Every time a patch of grass is burnt, it is in the player’s best interest to stand as far as possible, lest one of the little brainless minions may wander off. It is a constant source of annoyance how, due to the natural positioning of the creatures, they tend to constantly die when close to a hazard. Even walking through a somewhat narrow, read “twice the size of the granny”, passage is a death trap for the little mongrels, leaving the player to watch as they plummet to their death.
Besides how easy it is for the little mushrooms to die, the granny, a.k.a the player character, is no better. She will die in a single hit to any of the same hazards that affect the Mooguls with a pair of exceptions. There would be no problem with the feebleness of neither the Mooguls nor the granny if it didn’t mean resetting the whole level every time. The previously mentioned less-than-optimal pathing issue also applies to enemies, which will pursue the player for a while after detecting them. The game also keeps insisting on forcing its players to deal with these beasties in narrow passages where wall-hugging becomes the only option.
Yet another issue with the game is how simplistic its mechanics are, as after the first introductory levels where everything is unveiled it does not evolve. There are no other Moogul breeds past the initial three or different objects besides the elevators and breakable ones. All of the game feels the same, just with increasingly longer and deadlier levels.
Other than the “story” levels, the game offers a previously mentioned maker mode and community levels. The maker mode is interesting, though very limited due to the already variation-lacking base game. Where other games feature a mode with full creative freedom, Terrorarium limits its players to clumsily placed objects, which often do not align or clip through the terrain.
Conclusion
Terrorarium is a very alright game for someone who knows what to expect; it is no Pikmin or Overlord as hard as it may try. The game is very lacking in a lot of ways, with little to entice those craving an actual puzzle. Before release, it used to have a much more accessible price, but once released the price rose to a whopping €20,99/$24,99, making it a questionable purchase.
Personal Opinion
“I went into Terrorarium expecting a fun and colorful little game, what I found was something where I was constantly fighting the mechanics. By the end of the base game, which can be beaten in around 4 hours, I was completely fed up with the gremlins and their constant wails when thrown. There is nothing challenging here besides how frail the player is, nothing forces you to think or solve a problem, it just becomes a trudge through level after level.”
Terrorarium - Review,
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