Terra Nil's “Reverse City Builder” Provides a Fun Way to Explore the Idea of Greening the Planet

Weilin Li -- Superpixel

At first glance, Terra Nil may seem like your typical city-building game with tags like nature, strategy, and city builder. However, after playing for several hours, we begin to understand that the game truly embodies its name as a "reverse city builder," as it places a significant emphasis on recycling during the later stages of each level. This innovative twist adds a fresh and exciting element to the gameplay.

Terra Nil has four distinct regions: Temperate, Tropical, Polar, and Continental.

In each region, the development is divided into three phases: the initial phase involves cleaning up the environment and constructing basic infrastructure, followed by improving the environment's quality and diversifying the ecosystem. Finally, players bring in fauna and recycle existing structures and buildings.

The starting phase of the Temperate region in Terra Nil.

Initially, the blocks are not conducive to plant growth and appear as a deep brown barren wasteland. So, players must generate electricity using wind turbines, deploy toxin scrubbers to clean the earth, and following that, irrigate to create greenery.

Even though these fundamental steps don't demand advanced expertise, they do necessitate basic tactics. You simply have to organize the structures sensibly, while ensuring that their effective ranges don't overlap excessively. The true magic occurs when we witness the polluted lands transforming into lush, green and vibrant places with just a few simple clicks.

Your initial objective in the game is to increase the green coverage, and as you achieve this goal, new structures are unlocked.

The guidebook outlines your tasks in the four regions.

During phase two of the first region, the irrigators can be upgraded to hydroponium, converting the land around them from grass to a Wetland biome and leading to beautiful changes across multiple areas of the map.

In Terra Nil, players can construct multiple buildings at the starting stage to create a small yet diverse ecosystem.

Another example of the game's skillful designs is the creation of the Fynbos biome, which is done by placing a beehive in a tree, causing flowers to bloom in grasslands around the tree.

As for the Forest biome, players can start a fire by selecting the Solar Amplifier and targeting a Fynbos Tile, which will generate "Ashy Nutrients" tiles to create a foundation for the growth of the Forest Biome. Overall, these clever mechanics keep the gameplay engaging and diverse.

Throughout the gameplay, the game can be viewed as a puzzle game to some extent, as you may need to restart the map in certain situations, such as when the resource for construction runs out.

As mentioned earlier, although the game's mechanics align with the conventional city builder genre, there is one significant difference and message conveyed to the players: the need to recycle all buildings during phase three. This phase involves using the Sonar system to attract animals and then using a logistic network to remove your presence piece by piece. This is why the game is referred to as a "reverse city builder."

In Terra Nil, players must construct a recycling network to recycle the facilities built in the early stages of the game.

By doing so, the game shows that the objective of its level design is not to achieve infinite growth but to balance and nurture the environment. It presents eco-friendly ideas in a playful manner, rather than being didactic.

In our testing, we opted for the Ecologist difficulty level, which falls in the middle range. The game employs procedurally generated terrain, which means that each playthrough is unique. Eruptions of lava, earthquakes, rain and snow are just some of what you will see while playing through the game.

On the game's last level, you will construct a rocket and engage in a mini-game where you collect seeds from every biome. These elements enhance the game's overall appeal and serve as a wonderful final touch.

On the last level, players can collect seeds in a mini-game.

Overall, we are convinced that the innovative concept of recycling and minimizing human impact in a strategy game will offer a fresh and enjoyable perspective on environmentalism.

Terra Nil was released on Steam on March 28th, developed by Free Lives and published by Devolver Digital. Players who enjoy strategy/building games should give it a try!