17 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 44.8 hrs on record (30.3 hrs at review time)
Posted: 5 Apr, 2023 @ 2:28pm
Updated: 21 Nov, 2023 @ 10:42am

Early Access Review
Terra Randoma is a turn-based dungeon crawler (and also a wilderness crawler) that can be played as a roguelike (with permanent death) or as an RPG (with no punishment or almost no punishment for dying), and it’s clearly a labor of love that deserves your attention if you’re into these genres.

The first thing that stands out in this game is that the whole world is procedurally generated, not just the dungeons. When starting a game you can even choose the kind of map you want (think Sid Meier’s Civilization), which adds to the replayability. The permadeath setting (called Ironman in the game) is also separate from the game’s difficulty, which is a nice touch. During the character creation process, you can mix several classes with different starting perks, leading to dozens of combinations.

As you might have noticed, the game’s graphics resemble tabletop games, and are very beautiful in my opinion. What’s not beautiful (yet, I hope) are the sound effects and soundtrack, which can be easily muted, thankfully. You can play using only the mouse (with optional keyboard commands) and the interface is very big (for better or worse), which makes Terra Randoma a great choice for playing on laptops.

The gameplay feels very strategic and tactical, constantly demanding from the player their full attention while dealing with the character’s resources, life, stamina and hunger. There’s also cooking and crafting, which usually are things I dismiss on roguelikes and RPGs, but in Terra Randoma they’re super handy and will literally save your life, especially since buying potions (already crafted) is super expensive and there are buffs you get from cooked food that you can’t buy anywhere, even if you have a lot of spare money, so it’s handy to invest some points (and time) in cooking and crafting.

I have beaten the game with permadeath and on Normal difficulty, and it was mostly a breeze (it took me about 16 hours, more or less). Now I’m playing on hard and permadeath, and suddenly Terra Randoma became a tough as hell roguelike, which is something I really appreciate. There are also difficulties that are easier than Normal, so I believe this is a game that can appeal to all kinds of players.

Overall, I’m having a great time, the developer is super active and communicative, and the gameplay feels very polished and satisfying. Yes, Terra Randoma it’s still tagged as Early Access, but it already feels like a complete game that will only get better from now on. Totally recommended!

May the tides bring you triumph!
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4 Comments
Gnome 6 Apr, 2023 @ 5:23am 
Thank you, Toshiro! I'm glad that you like my reviews. It means a lot! :thumbsup:
Toshiro 5 Apr, 2023 @ 7:16pm 
Your reviews are top notch, and the care and dedication shows. Thank you! :Chandlo:
Gnome 5 Apr, 2023 @ 4:18pm 
Happy to help, Marianne! :woodlehappy:
marianne~ 5 Apr, 2023 @ 4:16pm 
Very well written review and thank you :steamthumbsup: