Terraria is a 2D survival sandbox game that a lot of people will compare to Minecraft. I understand why people look at it and think its just a 2D Minecraft, however, this game is very different. In my opinion one of the main focuses in vanillas Minecraft is to build a home base. Whether you build a complex mansion or a simple stone hut, most people make their main goal to build a nice base they like the look of. In Terraria this can be your interest as well, but I think the main draw to Terraria is the exploration and the combat. Even without mods Terraria has what seems like an infinite combinations of enemies, weapons, armor, ore, materials etc. Terraria even has world events that impact your gameplay, and bosses that you must defeat in a certain order to obtain better gear.
With that said you are still able to build an amazing home base if you would like to in Terraria, however I feel like the developers who made this game had their mind set to creating interesting combat encounters and player builds. If you want to be a character who focuses on tanking damage and running around with a shield you are able to find certain armor sets that will help you with that, Or you can be a flying mage who heals teammates while playing. Although this might sound complex, fans at the Terraria Wiki have created several tips to help new players out.
Something I fell in love with in the game is defeating the different bosses you are able to summon. Every time I play with my friends we make our main objective to better equip our characters, and defeat all of the main world bosses. Then once we have moments to relax, we use whatever loot we got from killing the bosses to decorate our homes. This gameplay loop is very fun and keeps things interesting as you can have moments with high action, or moments that are more relaxed.
In the end I recommend Terraria to someone who would like a game where you are fighting a lot of bosses. Although the bosses are not exactly all that complex, they are still very fun to play against for people and any level of skill.
Feel free to check out my recent review on Warframe also.
Gameplay Reviews 