Spec Ops: The Line did a brilliant job by breaking the fourth wall during the loading screens, addressing directly to the player by quoting ‘The US military doesn’t condone the killing of unarmed combatants. But this ain’t real, so why should you care?’ Though the ending [SPOLIER] gave PTSD to most gamers, leaving us in despair and/or full of guilt, that doesn’t mean we would mind a little gore-fest now and then. Heck, most of us actually have an innate fetish for murder macabre and gruesome fatalities and hence we turn to games like Mortal Kombat and The Shank to satiate that weird flex. But I’m not here to give you another of those bloody indulgence because I’ve something brand-new that would quench that animalistic thirst for slaughter without showing actual gore.

Behold, your very own murder-garden! Terrorarium!

Developed and published by Stitch Media, Terrorarium takes mayhem to the next level, allowing you to massacre tiny, innocent, mushroom-shaped creatures called Moogus, multiply them by making them copulate with their dead ones, then massacre them again in case they proliferate uncontrollably, all in treacherous sand-boxes that you can design yourself. If this isn’t enough to awaken your inner Dexter, then you are probably dead inside, because all these are served to you on a platter of wanton yet hilarious destruction where fruit jam liquids replace actual blood.

Let’s take a deep-dive and find out what Terrorarium really is.

Story and Narrative

As of now, Terrorarium has no narrative owing to its early access stage, just some levels consisting of puzzles. But the devs have promised to put in a narrative once Terrorarium hits the main stage. So all you can do is stay tuned.

Gameplay and Mechanics

You are the crafty, spry and intensely ambitious Gardener who is willing to recklessly sacrifice her Moogus in order to achieve her goal… which is basically destroying the force-field of the totem monster at the end of each level by launching a requisite quantity of Moogus at it using your cane and still have some of them alive because as adorable they may seem, they are nothing but expendables. The single-player campaign consists of 24 levels, the puzzles in which are so intelligently crafted that even if you aren’t a puzzle-junkie, you’ll still like it. And since the game offers more than one Moogu variants and a new gauntlet to run in each level, all the 24 ones will feel unique with each getting tougher and more innovative as you progress. Controls are extremely simple, camera movement is slick, and the animations are so funnily crafted that you’ll laugh your ass off as you let your Moogus attain martyrdom in your quest to reach the end.

Now since Terrorarium is still in early access, for the time being, there are only 4 Moogu variants, each with its own special ability. There’s the Thick Moogus with which you start the campaign, who can weigh down platforms and can coalesce to form impenetrable walls that block out fire and wind-jets. There’s the Spicy Moogus who love to set the vegetation on fire and in the process end up killing themselves. There’s the Gassy Moogus who can bounce off any surface and amalgamate together to carry the Gardener over environmental hazards like lava or thorn traps. And finally, the Gooey Moogus who can entrap the enemies allowing its brethren to pass unharmed.

Speaking of enemies, they are extremely annoying and do nothing but add a layer of difficulty to the already intriguing puzzle because those creatures kill the Moogus indiscriminately without harming you. But have no fear, because Terrorarium allows the Moogus to indulge themselves in necrophilia and produce more of themselves. These calls for some serious Moogu management as each level in Terrorarium has an upper limit on the number of Moogus it can sustain i.e. if your Moogu count reaches 100, you’ll automatically fail the level. Your Moogus are reproducing out of control? Kill’em! But don’t let the live ones come near dead as you’ll only end up spawning more of them.

Since things can get awry pretty quick in Terrorarium, you’ll need to accrue your reaction time and drag that mouse across the screen to get the situation under control by strategic elimination. And sometimes your Moogus begin dying faster than they can reproduce either due to environmental hazards, enemy creatures or because of your own stupidity, and if you lose all of them then it’s Game Over. That said, you can’t have too few or too many of these mushroom creatures at any given time.

Just like Spec Ops: The Line, Terrorarium kinda breaks the fourth wall either congratulating or chiding you based on your playthrough. Sometimes even if you complete the level but have very less number of Moogus, the game sends you on a guilt trip. But who cares! To kill for entertainment is harmless!

Level Design

Here I would like to mention Terrorarium’s Maker Mode where you can design your own levels ranging from straight rocky pathways with destructible terrain to deep forests with water and lava traps. Utilize hundreds of low-poly, customizable assets including and not limited to vicious creatures, nasty plant monsters, combustible foliage, indestructible boulders to create your very own murder-gardens and let your Gardener run the gauntlet. Live out you chaotic fantasy or your builder’s dream to the full extent in Terrorarium’s Maker Mode as you’re limited only by your own imagination… and the game’s early access nature because Terrorarium goes full-blown Minecraft on this one. Construct a beautiful forest with traps in each corner, a deadly maze, or even a bubbling lava-pit! It’s all up to you.

You even have the option to share your weird creations with other players and challenge them up for it. For the time, the community isn’t as active as I expected it to be, but seeing the ample options of creation, I’m guessing Terrorarium’s discord channel’s gonna explode in the months to come.

Visuals, Performance, and Sound

Since Terrorarium’s minimum system requirements are 4 GB RAM and any graphics card with DirectX10, it ran fine at 30 fps even on Nvidia 710m with very minor lag. The graphics are colorful, characters are adorable, but most importantly is the hilariously funky soundtrack that makes the Moogu’s frolicking so delightfully cute that you’ll love to let them die, spawn and repeat. Even if you lose catastrophically, it’s fun too… unless the chiding after you fail the level gets on your nerves.

But-but there’s a downside of Terrorarium. It’s the dumb AI. You see, the only reason these Moogus keep dying and multiplying incessantly is that they have no sense of awareness without the Gardener’s guidance. You have the option to halt them, go ahead, and beckon them. But in doing that you risk losing them as they will gleefully walk over lava, water or moving enemies only to burn, drown or get stomped to death instead of reaching you. It’s as if Terrorarium’s AI is biased towards the enemies but not the Moogus. And these sometimes will irk you when you’re so close to reaching the end. No doubt you’ll require superfast clicks of the mouse to get going.

VERDICT

Priced at 349 INR, this game is worth every penny! You’ve got mindless destruction, playful characters, funky music, challenging levels, everything you might expect from an orbital camera puzzler. If you can look past the lack of Moogu variants and the biased AI, this game has the potential to become something greater because it justifies the collateral damage that it offers. Just look at Terrorarium’s comical trailer on YouTube!