Terrorarium – Preview (PC)

Life is full of sacrifices. As I am currently learning, if you want to have a wedding, you need to sacrifice most of your income and all of your savings. If you want to get in better physical shape, you need to sacrifice a lot of your free time to the gym and all of your junk food. And, thanks to the twisted minds at Stitch Media, I’ve learned that if you want to traverse a garden full of demon vegetation and haunted shrubbery, you need to sacrifice an army of exploding and farting groupies. Terrorarium is a new third person puzzle game from Toronto based developer Stitch Media and best describes itself as a “tricky balance between indiscriminate murder and careful cultivation.”

Terrorarium presents the player with a set of twenty-four levels, or terror gardens. In each garden, you take control of a gardener where the goal is to progress to the end of the level where a haunted tree awaits. Each garden is strewn with obstacles and enemies that the gardener will need to overcome in order to reach the end. These obstacles include barriers, exploding and incendiary vegetables, spike plants, wind tunnels, lava pits, water traps, and more. Enemies range from static Turret Bulbs that will attack from a distance, to roving Splatter Flies and Nightmare Striders that will hunt you down from different areas of the map.

In order to progress past obstacles, the gardener will need to utilize Moogus – small Pikmin-like creatures with an assortment of powers and abilities. By default, these tiny creatures will blindly follow the gardener where ever she goes. But Moogus can also be hurled at barriers and force fields, summoned from a distance, put to sleep, or even use secondary abilities. There are a variety of different Moogus that can be used – each with their own special ability. Thick Moogus can be thrown at breakable objects in order to destroy them, and can easily move past wind tunnels due to their extra weight. Spicy Moogus harness thermal and kinetic energy in order to set fire to burnable objects to remove them from your path. Gassy Moogus can expel a burst of flatulence to propel the gardener over barriers and hazardous terrain. Each stage will start the player off with a predetermined type of Moogu. In some cases, this will be on the only kind of Moogu at your disposal throughout the level. In other instances, you will be granted the ability to use multiple types from the start, or unlock a new type of Moogu at a certain point in the stage.

However, simply knowing when and where use your Moogus isn’t enough to progress to victory. The Gardener must have at least one live Moogu at the end of the stage in order to complete. Using certain Moogu abilities will mean sacrificing your tiny companions and many environmental hazards will kill your Moogus indicated by a quick and painful popping noise. Once a Moogu has been killed, it’s gone for the remainder of the level. While starting a level with a population of forty Moogu may seem like a lot, these wandering minions can quickly be killed off if you’re not careful. This means the player will need to employ careful planning and trial and error in order to progress with enough of a live posse to clear the stage.

In addition to the standard set of stages provided by the developers, Terrorarium will also offer players the ability to make their own terror gardens with Maker Mode. This gives you access to a full suite of creation tools and allows you to quickly and easily play other peoples creations. Maker Mode allows you the option to work with four different level types – Arena, Mountain, Dungeon or Sprint – and offers full access to all in game assets to create whatever your gardening heart desires. Even in early access, Maker Mode is fun, simple and easy to use. Furthermore there is already a decent amount of player created levels to browse and play through once you’ve completed the base game.

Terrorarium is shaping up to be a wacky and frantic puzzle based experience for players of all ages. With a lucrative and accessible Maker Mode, the game has the potential to build a strong offering of content for months after launch.

Terrorarium launches in early access on Steam on March 20th, 2019.