Terra Nil First Impressions: Reclaiming the Wasteland

Terra Nil is a reverse-city builder akin to titles like Sim City or Cities: Skyline. But, instead of building a population center, the goal is to rebuild the environment after an ambiguous event renders it barren. It was visually interesting, and the sound design was incredibly relaxing.

In fact, the music reminded me of games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, making me want to try out the Terra Nil demo.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

As you jump into the game for the first time, you’ll immediately notice the barren wasteland that serves as your canvas. In Terra Nil, your goal is to reclaim the wastes by planting greenery and repopulating biomes before leaving via airship. First, you’ll be given access to tools such as wind turbines and water pumps to help revitalize the area. As you succeed in bringing the plants and wildlife back, you’ll unlock new tools like a research center and an arboretum, but be careful! Some tools require destruction in exchange for new creation, and you’ll have to decide how best to accomplish your mission.

In the final act of the demo, you’ll be tasked with building an airship from recycled parts. It’s almost nostalgic, recycling the buildings and tools that have helped you in rebuilding nature. Knowing they’ll be reused to assist in your departure is an almost beautiful sentiment. Especially as you notice new animal life begin to populate this once desolate area. If each area in the game feels like this, there should be no doubt it’s worth a full playthrough.

A Natural Challenge

It should be noted, though, that the game can be quite challenging. In fact, my first run was soft-locked by my failure to create enough riverbed tiles. This meant that I couldn’t recycle enough materials to create the airship without going broke, prematurely ending the game for me. I had better luck in my second run, when I made an effort to create more riverbed tiles from the start. It was still challenging, but a rewarding challenge given the nature of Terra Nil.

Terra Nil does not have a release date available, but you can download the free demo via Steam. It is being developed by Free Lives and published by Devolver Digital. Stick with Gamer Journalist for more information on Terra Nil as it is made available.