Hmmm just saw this on steam for ten bucks... It looks JAM PACKED with content. But I want a real review from someone who has actually played it.

Is it fun?

I wasnt blown over by it, it was also cheaper a few days ago I think

There's a big thread discussing the game, but I'll sum up.

I've logged 48 hours into the game, both single player and multiplayer. It really depends on what you want from the game.

If you want to primarily build structures or grand conceptual ideas? Stick with Minecraft.

If you want a form of a level RPG system (through gear), and grew up with adventure/platforming games? Buy Terraria.

Despite the rivalry going on, they're really two different games. They just happen to have crafting mechanics and building mechanics. Aside from that, they're nothing alike.

Personally, I grew up in the NES/SNES era. Platforming is in my gaming DNA. So Terraria for me is the vastly superior game. For me. It's not for everyone.

Only in a 4 pack, $10 was the single price right from the start. I'm afraid so, it doesn't work in Wine.

This is coming from someone who doesn't like the difficulty of platformers or the emphasis on building in Minecraft. Terraria is amazing for someone like me. I'll copy and paste my steam recommendation with some additional thoughts at the end.

"The game is a mix of Minecraft and Castlevania. It has the Minecraft elements of randomly generated worlds, a crafting system and emphasis on digging to find caverns. Castlevania elements are the perspective, combat, and really varied bosses. Strongly recommended if you are looking for a game like Minecraft but with an emphasis on combat and exploration."

It is easy enough for someone like me to get into because of how forgiving it is, offers great combat and has a minor enough building element to keep things interesting.

this game needs directx, right?

played it over 17 hours in just 4 days, taking a break from the game now, its damn addicting for me than minecraft cause there are damn tough monsters in the game to slay, having played rpgs like diablo 2 this game fits in well.

If you're a fan of old school 'Metroidvania' type of games I'd say it's a must buy.

Wait wait wait wait wait....Metroidvania is old school now? Shit, I feel old...or are we talking about how ass confusing the original Metroid was?

I must of have missed something in this case.
While I generally enjoyed most my time in Terraria, there's rather a lack in different and difficult enemies for me. I could only spot three distinct kind of monsters (if you ignore HP and graphics, that is).

you have to go deeper, the monsters differ according to the various places, there are also bosses who must be summoned using special tiems
[url=http://terraria.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Monsters]http://terraria.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Monsters[/url]

Awesome.

Thanks everyone for the excellent replies. Buying it next payday. :D

P.s. Yes I'm a Metroidvania dude. Castlevania Symphony of the Night is one of my all time favorites. Ah, Alucard, how thee kick ass.

It needs DirectX as well as the XNA framework.

My bad, I should have stated that I meant distinct kind of monsters as in requiring a different tactics/strategy, or even actually requiring strategy at all. Oh, wait. I did...

I've seen and fought every single opponent in the game, thanks for the link though.

SPOILER WARNING! PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO EXPLORE ON YOUR OWN!

There are three and only three different monsters in Terraria today, if you ignore variance in Hitpoints and graphics, which simply doesn't qualify as distinctively different to me.

1) You have various incarnation of plain, dumb, jump and run, follow the target creatures, namely Angry Bones, Goblin Peon, Goblin Thief, Goblin Warrior, Man Eater (slight variation here), Skeleton, Slime (including Pinky) and Zombie.

2) You have the many a fly around enemies (which you could group further into ignoring ground or not if it would really make a big enough difference) including Bone Serpent, Burning Skull, Demon Eye, Devourer, Eater of Souls, Eater of Worlds, Eye of Cthulu, Giant Worm, Hornet, Meteor Head and Servant of Cthulu.

3) There are some teleport and shoot monsters like Dark Caster, Fire Imp and Goblin Sorcerer.

And that's it. As for the difficulty, I doubt that you require more than 8 health potions for Skeletron and it shouldn't get you even remotely close to danger. The whole Goblin invasion ended up draining me a whole single health potion, simply because I was getting a bit lax towards the end. The only real threat I found was in the dungeon, simply because of the mass of enemies spawning while trying to open chests and bone serpents pushing you into lava.
Non of the creatures required me to take a different approach from 'stand there and shoot/hit', occasionally dodging an attack.

There's a plethora of possibilities to create a challenging and different encounter with distinct creatures and I'd be happy to iterate on my vision of the concept if you want.