Terra Nil self-describes itself as an “intricate environmental strategy game about transforming a barren wasteland into a thriving, balanced ecosystem”. If that sounds intriguing to you, strap yourselves in because you’ll be in for a ride here. An ecologically restorative ride to be specific.
Terra Nil kicks off with players being taught how to do specific things in a barren wasteland. You’ll have access to some basic resources and will be taught how to establish power for your buildings. Then you’ll be instructed on how to clean up the wasteland. The game has a pretty straightforward tutorial and it’s all really easy to understand. Whether you’re a child or a fully grown adult, Terra Nil isn’t exactly a difficult game and the key concepts are very
simple.
Terra Nil Restoring the Environment
Once you’ve put up a windmill, players will be able to build a toxin scrubber. These structures cleanse the land and allow you to then move on to the next step. The next step being irrigation. This is where things really get going and you can actually see the fruits of your labour. Once you’ve placed an irrigator, grass will grow over the now clean land and it looks oh so gorgeous.
Terra Nil incrementally introduces new concepts to you as you go along. Things become slightly more complex once you’ve cleansed the land and started growing grass. Soon enough you’ll be able to have water flowing through canals and you’ll be introducing various forms of flora into the environment. Once you’ve got the environmental conditions right, you’ll be able to put up an observation post which allows you to locate wildlife.
Wildlife in Terra Nil can be found by establishing the right conditions based on the hints provided to you and then scanning a region which ticks the right boxes. In this way, players will discover new animals and they’ll slowly start to populate the environment you’re restoring.
Terra Nil also introduces a set of objectives for you to complete such as altering the weather conditions to induce rain or snow. Completing these objectives is extremely rewarding because you can see the results almost immediately in the environment. For example, placing enough cloud seeders results in rainfall which immediately causes more grass to grow on land that’s been cleaned from toxins. Environmental puzzle solving using whatever buildings and resources you have on hand is what Terra Nil is all about.
As you progress in Terra Nil, you’ll unlock new areas and while getting through the game is rather quick, it does have enough content to keep you satiated for a couple of hours. There’s also some replayability factored into the equation since no two areas will be the same thanks to the procedural map generation.
Regions
Each region on the planet features different ecosystem mechanics and you’ll have to adapt to the situation on hand. In the snowy polar regions, you’ll be melting ice and working with lava flows and in the temperate regions you’ll be dealing with rivers and canals. This variation is great to see in action.The last major gameplay mechanic that’s incorporated into Terra Nil is quite important. This mechanic is leaving no trace of humanity behind. So what does that mean exactly? Well, it’s quite plain and simply put, packing up every structure that you’ve set up and removing yourself from the environment via an airship. Reduce, reuse and recycle eh?
Removing all traces of mankind is not too difficult since you’ll be able to place structures which absorb all your buildings. You’ll then just have to collect all the material from these structures and return it to your airship before leaving. This can be a bit challenging on the harder difficulties but since Terra Nil is intended as a zen-like restorative game, I’d suggest just playing on the lower difficulty setting, enjoying yourself and having a stress-free experience. The game also features a “Zen” mode which removes all prohibitive resource costs.
Terra Nil’s graphics are visually appealing and it all looks so beautiful in action. Animations in particular are so smooth and look great. The game also lets you “Appreciate” your hard work once you’ve cleaned up and restored the ecosystem in a region by panning the camera around and showing off your freshly created environment. This was quite a nice touch from the developers.
The soundtrack of Terra Nil is extremely chill and it fits right in with the game’s theme of restoring the world back to life while leaving no trace of humanity behind. There’s no voice acting here but the game’s sound effects are well done.
The message behind Terra Nil is also something that needs specific mention here. With the world going through so many changes on the regular, it’s great to see a game that takes a step back and helps players understand that mankind can alter the environment but can also restore it and should take better care of it. Packing up your structures and leaving no trace behind is quite a great way to convey this message to players.
Final Verdict
Overall Terra Nil is a very relaxing strategy game where restoring the world and completing objectives is rather satisfying. The core gameplay mechanics are straightforward and not too complicated while still compelling enough to keep you engaged and stimulated. Combined with the gorgeous visuals, Terra Nil is a game that gets a solid recommendation from me if you’re a fan of strategy games.
Grab your copy here https://store.steampowered.com/app/1593030/Terra_Nil/
Code was provided to the publisher
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