Terra Nil is a game that was announced by Devolver Digital during E3. It’s a city builder that has you trying to help restore the ecosystem. It was definitely an interesting looking game and Devolver Digital was kind enough to let me test it out. The game is developed by Free Lives and has a demo on Steam that you can download for free. There is no release date yet, but it’ll be interesting to see what fans think of the game. I’ve included my thoughts below.
Terra Nil is a reverse city builder about ecosystem reconstruction. Turn a barren wasteland into an ecological paradise complete with different flora and fauna. Then clean up, leaving the environment pristine. Subverting the builder genre, Terra Nil is about the restoration of a ravaged environment.
In Terra Nil, you need to place structures that rebuild the environment. You’re typically trying to meet some criteria such as 33% forest, 33% wetlands, and 33% meadow or something. The trick is learning how to go about achieving that. Some structures will make ground useless, so timing is everything. It’s a puzzle game in that nature. Oh, you also are able to recycle certain buildings, feeding the theme. In addition, the more you help the environment, the less some items cost (and sometimes you get more than you spend). Overall, if you like city building games and want to flip the script and rebuild the environment, I would go download the free demo and give it a try.
There weren’t really any negative points unique to Terra Nil. There are times where I got frustrated because as I was learning, I didn’t know the most efficient ways to build areas and I hated having to destroy good land just to try to keep going, but that’s part of the learning curve. The art is pretty good. It has a bit of a retro vibe to it and the animations are really nice.