With a modest following and respectable community, Terrorarium has been floating around the Steam store for a while now. The 3D puzzle-platformer has now entered its latest and most stable version, created by small interactive media company – Stitch Media.
The early access route and the small size of the team behind the game offers an important context behind the project. Though I found Terrorarium a mostly frustrating and unenjoyable experience, the raw creative passion and flair is definitely there to see.
Murder Gardens?
It would be nice to talk about the game’s story/setting that surrounds the puzzle-platforming gameplay, but I just don’t fully understand it. You play as a gardener who is trying to win some sort of galactic gardening contest. To do this you must control a small army of creatures called Moogus who will assist you in the levels.
There may be some clever message or meaning here, but if so, it’s difficult to find. This is a shame because the game does have a certain quirky charm behind its art style and writing.
Lost and Not Found
Throughout the 20ish levels I completed in Terrorarium, it was rare that I really had any fun with the gameplay loop. The game plays similarly to the Pikmin games, where you traverse levels, collect little creatures that follow you around and use said creatures to get past obstacles.
Unfortunately, the game is such a mess that you find yourself frustrated about things completely out of your control, as you rely so heavily on these AI controlled creatures.
“Mugoos” the little creatures that follow you around tend to commit suicide accidentally or just disappear into geometry for no reason. This can force level restarts or long backtracking through levels in hope of finding more of them.
You require a certain amount of these creatures to get past obstacles, before needing a certain final amount to feed a big plant and complete the level; so losing Mugoos through no fault of your own is infuriating.
Mugoo Go Boom
When using these Mugoos to break obstacles you just throw them at said obstacle. It’s quite a lazy approach to puzzle solving and gets stale quickly, especially when the aiming mechanic is quite finicky at times.
The game tries to add some variety to these creatures by giving you different versions that can get past specific obstacles in later levels, but this Mugoo variety is very surface level with the gameplay loop never feeling any more engaging.
Vote to Skip
The levels in Terrorarium look nice, the palettes and general art style are actually quite charming, reminding me of the bizarre aesthetics from Tim Schafer games like Psychonauts. The same can’t be said about the level’s layout and design throughout the game, with plenty of scenarios occurring where I felt that I missed out 80% of the levels content because there were easy shortcuts to take.
This means solving levels is not satisfying and mostly feels accidental at times. Elements of levels that are mentioned and therefore deemed important, are often just walked past, and forgotten.
Without sophisticated level design to keep the puzzles engaging, the difficulty instead comes from problems with the how the Mugoos AI is programmed. There are also a host of other issues and bugs like dying at random times or getting stuck in geometry that feed the frustration.
Wild Guessing
Something that stands out is the lack of effort put into the player experience. The game doesn’t explain to you much at all, an example being that I accidentally found out you could rotate the camera about six levels in. Apparently this feature is vital to completing most of the levels.
This same lack of player information is present in the storytelling, with all the game’s setting coming from loading screen write ups and strange, vague cutscenes. There are also barely any settings to play around with, without even being able to reduce the game’s volume without turning it off completely.
It’s Not ALL Bad
Aside from all of these issues that scream inexperience from those behind Terrorarium, there is a fantastic level editor called “Maker Mode”, which works really well, making it easy for you to create your own levels and share them with the community. This highlights the focus that Stitch Media has placed on community sharing and they have done a stellar job in this area.
As mentioned briefly earlier, the art style is consistent and looks good. Colours pop and this helps sell a strange, lucid mood that fits the game well. Alongside this, the writing is charming and well done, if not a bit long in the teeth sometimes.
Whilst there is some creative flair to be seen in the game’s art direction and writing; Terrorarium frustrates and confuses most of the time making it a difficult game to recommend, especially at a frankly ridiculous £20/€21. That being said, it’s clear that this was made by a team still finding their feet and there is definitely some creative promise shining through the cracks.
