When comparing Borderlands vs Terraria, the Slant community recommends Terraria for most people. In the question“What are the best 4-player local multiplayer games?” Terraria is ranked 6th while Borderlands is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Terraria is:
Terraria uses a bright color palette and an upbeat chiptune soundtrack to ease you into its world. However, once you start exploring and spend time in it you'll notice it's not as cozy as it first seemed to be. Blood Moons that rouse the dead from their graves. Goblin armies trying to destroy everything in their wake. Vast and dark cave systems, filled with odd creatures and various dangers. Ancient ruins, teeming with the restless dead and evil spirits. Pockets of decaying land, thriving with misshapen monstrosities. It's really fun to explore and discover something new about the world of Terraria.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Addictive loot based gameplay
The loot in Borderlands is color coded to signal which loot is the most rare. This system of loot based collecting allows the user to always be on the hunt for more rare items, which can be addicting in the way it has been designed.
Pro Fun dungeon boss fights
Players can team up against dungeon bosses that are often large in scale and power making for fun tasks to complete that are separate from the main story tree.
Pro The character customization is great
In Borderlands, once you reach a certain level, you begin to acquire talent points. Each point can be spent in several different ways that will enhance your characters power, and there are quite a few paths to take. For example, one character can power up his melee attacks, his ability to take hits, or his explosive capabilities (specifically with rocket launchers). Of course, as you gain more levels, even if you completely fill out one of those trees, you can start to gain points in another, and your talents begin to interact in interesting ways.
Pro A great mix of first person shooter and RPG
Borderlands provides the feel of a first person shooter in the rich, story-driven world of an RPG.
Pro A great sense of humor
The entire Borderlands series takes comedy pretty seriously. More accurately, it doesn't. There's a lot of cheap, light-hearted jokes in the game that really keep you smiling while you're blowing your enemies to tiny bits.
Pro Intriguing world
Terraria uses a bright color palette and an upbeat chiptune soundtrack to ease you into its world. However, once you start exploring and spend time in it you'll notice it's not as cozy as it first seemed to be. Blood Moons that rouse the dead from their graves. Goblin armies trying to destroy everything in their wake. Vast and dark cave systems, filled with odd creatures and various dangers. Ancient ruins, teeming with the restless dead and evil spirits. Pockets of decaying land, thriving with misshapen monstrosities. It's really fun to explore and discover something new about the world of Terraria.
Pro Allows for freedom of expression for all ages, all at your own pace
Terraria has all kinds of tools and materials you can use to build whatever you can imagine. From housing, to furniture, to weapons, to types of structure, the possibilities are almost endless. This is great for children who enjoy building and problem solving, and for adults who enjoy the same. It also makes for a great objective-less game, where you can do just about anything you want at your own pace.
Pro Playing with friends allows for endless scenarios
Up to 8 players can join any Terraria world. You can progress through the game normally, build a race course and compete in it, or split into factions and wage war against each other. The scenarios are endless, you just have to let loose your creativity.
Pro Lots of community servers, tutorials, and streams
Terraria has a large community of players on every platform including mobile, desktop, and console. Because of this, there are many servers to play on, as well as tutorials and Let's Plays. Finding content or help getting started is quite easy.
Pro Fun combat
It starts out simple, with you whacking away at slow moving zombies and flying eyes, gradually shifting to more fierce and fearsome enemies such as flying demons, agile lizardmen, and many more. To survive you'll have to be always on the move, dodge enemy attacks, and be accurate when you retaliate.
There are also plenty of weapons to choose from. Melee weapons such as swords, hammers, lances, and flails. Ranged weapons such as bows, crossbows, rifles, and miniguns. And various items that allow you to cast spells. Whatever you choose, it feels great to destroy hordes of enemies.
Cons
Con No mini-map on screen
User will have to open the menu often in order to get their bearings as to where things are as there is no on-screen map, it is only in the menu. Having to pull up the menu so often for the map can be frustrating an immersion breaking.
Con Progress can feel slow
Quite often you'll have to collect tons of materials to craft the necessary tools, equipment, and boss summoning items to advance. This can take a really long time, especially if you're unlucky with the items dropped by mobs.
Con Low replay value for those who play it as an adventure game
Terraria is a sandbox platform-adventure game, so it partly hinges on beating various bosses. If you play it purely for the sake of defeating all the bosses, you might have little else to do afterwards. Restarting the game won't be as enjoyable either because you'll already know what to expect, causing continued play without a new goal feel mundane or boring.