On paper, Terrorarium sounds like one of the funniest games in existence. You play as a small little space granny who's determined to see her name up in lights, by winning the blue ribbon from the Intergalactic Horrorcultural Society. This means cultivating the most beautiful garden in the galaxy, putting your little army of Moogu - a space species that are stupid but do pretty much as they are told - in harm's way to achieve your goals.
You'll be thrust immediately into proceedings and expected to pick up the controls and mechanics pretty quickly; there's no room for slow learners here! It doesn't take long before you're expected to fling your Moogu into walls to break them down, or even feed them to terrifying Venus Flytraps so you can progress safely, and things can get frustrating when you fail, as you'll be sent right back to the start to try all over again.
There's a heck of a lot of creativity that has gone into making Terrorarium a reality, from the artistic designs and fantastical characters, to the storyline and tricky puzzles. All of this however, falls a little short of making this a must-buy. The dark comedy is something most gamers will be able to celebrate, but there aren't any belly laugh moments here.
The music and sound effects are perfectly-produced. If you've seen those space movie posters of an era gone by and wondered what a video game taking place in those times would sound like, then you've got your answer right here. The sound technicians have done an impeccable job of enveloping players within the environment they'll see on screen.
What indie studio Stitch Media have also done incredibly, is integrate fan-created levels so that when you reach the end of those made by the developer, you've still got a wealth of material to experience.
Some of these are really inventive, allowing the developers of the future to put their skills to the test in a creation suite that's relatively easy to navigate. Choosing enemies, obstacles and the like and sliding them onto the screen is all that needs to be done and so, when you're finished up, you can put your own level to the test before sending it out to the masses.
Terrorarium is available now on PC. A code was given to Female First in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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