Restore the Planet, One Step at a Time
Terra Nil First Impressions

1 / 7

1 / 7

What if the idea of a city building game is turned on its head? Whereas the main objective of the game is not to build a huge bustling city, but instead to build a natural living world without any trace of technology or artificiality? Terra Nil is exactly that game for a change. A strategy game where players construct and deconstruct terraforming structures with the ultimate goal of restoring the land.

One of the things that got me hooked immediately was the therapeutic aspect. The Simcity 4-looking visuals look beautiful, there’s something in the art style that is highly mesmerizing. It’s a very soothing experience, coupled with a highly relaxing ambient music, it’s a tranquillizing game that just fits perfectly with what it advocates.

The main gameplay is divided into three main phases that overlap each other. Restoring water and plant life, biome restoration, and animal reintroduction. All of these phases are subdivided into multiple small steps and milestones that players have to check and complete. In parallel to this, players will also do some climate modification to change the humidity and temperature which affects the potency of other terraforming structures and how they affect their surroundings.

There are three difficulties in Terra Nil and I dare say it is a very hardcore game of sorts despite the simplicity in the goal. There are no saves, with the only convenience in the form of a limited rewind option (only rewinds to the last made move). Terra Nil is hard, your resources are limited and how you efficiently utilize it to restore the land will determine your success. It somehow becomes a puzzle game in disguise, especially in normal and hard difficulties.

In addition to the land restoration aspect. There is also an over world element with the overarching goal of restoring the ENTIRE planet. The planet is divided into different regions and that regions into different zones of lands represented by percentages that players need to complete. Entering a new zone will start a new “run” where players are placed in a brand new wasteland map that they will need to restore. Everything is procedurally generated, providing some nice replayability factor every time.

That’s basically the gameplay cycle of the game. Restore some tiles of land, continually improve them until the whole zone is restored with complete fauna and flora. In turn increasing the overall habitability of the planet. Restore some more, encounter different kinds of terrains; rivers, mountains, oceans, etc., Until the whole planet is 100% restored.

In my first successful run which took an hour and many do-overs to complete, I was captivated by Terra Nil’s relaxing but still challenging gameplay. It’s somewhat an addicting experience that has got me longing for more lands to reclaim.

Full Review will be posted soon here on Taptap! Stay tuned!

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Restore the Planet, One Step at a Time | Terra Nil First Impressions

What if the idea of a city building game is turned on its head? Whereas the main objective of the game is not to build a huge bustling city, but instead to build a natural living world without any trace of technology or artificiality? Terra Nil is exactly that game for a change. A strategy game where players construct and deconstruct terraforming structures with the ultimate goal of restoring the land.

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Restore the Planet, One Step at a Time | Terra Nil First Impressions. Read the full review on PlayTested: https://playtested.net/article/2023-03-31-restore-the-planet-one-step-at-a-time-first-impressions-terra-nil/