Terraria

Terraria is a two-dimensional world you can dig up, rebuild, and refill with your own constructions entirely. You start with a pickaxe, an axe, and a sword in the middle of a randomly generated landscape, where the first night mostly means building yourself some kind of shelter. From there the game unfolds into a remarkably vast adventure: you dig deep for better ores, discover underground temples, deserts, jungles, and strange corrupted regions, and each better piece of gear opens up the next tier of danger. Unlike purely building-focused games, Terraria has a clearly marked path forward, whose milestones are boss fights.

The core of the gameplay is a loop of exploration, mining, crafting, and combat. Equipment recipes are interconnected so that almost every material you find is good for something, and the arsenal ranges from swords and bows through magic staffs to summoned minions, allowing very different playstyles. Settlers gradually move into your world, requiring built houses and offering goods or services in return. After defeating a key boss, the world transforms and offers tougher enemies and better loot, so the second half of the game feels almost like a new campaign.

Technically it's an undemanding title with pixel art graphics that runs on virtually any PC and has always offered comfortable multiplayer, including your own servers. Cooperation is one of its strongest points, since building and expeditions into the depths both work noticeably better in a group. The music is calm and melodic, with distinctive motifs for each biome, and holds the relaxed mood well even during tough fights. Terraria became one of the most successful independent titles ever, and its creators supported it with enormous free updates for many years. Today it offers so much content that a single world can easily keep you busy for dozens of hours. The start can feel confusing, since the game explains very little, but after the first few hours its interconnectedness pays off and you start setting your own goals.