The developers of games such as Broforce, GORN, and Genital Jousting have released a surprising game for their usual theme: a strategy Terra Nil. The team behind violent and action-packed projects consciously dedicated their latest creation to nature. Free Lives also will donate 8% of its profits from the sales of Terra Nil on Steam to the Endangered Wildlife Trust.
Terra Nil is a very interesting environmental simulator that allows players to restore a dying planet from an unnamed ecological disaster. The game lets you enjoy the reverse city-building, not only restoring the planet but also erasing all traces of your presence afterward. Given the lack of strategies dedicated to this direction, the game is sure to get its own niche audience.
The plot of the game is very concise and simple. Your task is to return life to a husk of a planet, both plant and animal alike, across 4 continents differing in climatic conditions. On each of them, you will have to restore an appropriate ecosystem, see it sprawl and bloom and then erase all traces of your presence.
In the beginning, you are given a choice between one of the three levels of difficulty: the simplest is very pleasant and meditative and graciously allows your fumbles and mistakes without them getting in the way of your goal.
The second difficulty is a bit more demanding on the proper planning and requires you to think through your moves and actions in advance. Mistakes may extend or even damage a particular stage to the point of having to replay anew.
The third difficulty, the hardest one, is for those who have completed the game in its easier variations and are ready to meet the real challenge. Hints and tutorials are disabled, the cost of construction is increased while other parameters are reduced. This one is for those who prefer it hardcore.
The game presents us with 4 continents that differ both in terrain and conditions for animal and plant life. Tropics, midland forest, North Pole with ice and volcanoes, jungles and beaches – every map has its own unique charm.
As your work begins, you will see a lifeless piece of rock – a large area consisting of square polygons, with different levels of height and depth. Initially, you have access to a small amount of currency that will allow you to construct well-planned nodes, installations and equipment of various types. You will be able to build windmills on rocks, giving energy to a limited amount of equipment, then use it to restore biomes, return greenery and trees, fill rivers with water, control temperature, humidity and other parameters.
Each map is restored over three stages, the first being the physical restoration of biomes, followed by building certain environmental parameters to meet provided conditions. The biomes need their specific levels of humidity, shade, temperature, presence of other biomes nearby or even the amount of ice in the ocean.
Likewise, at first you only have access to the first and most basic level of technology that is just enough to ensure the return of the biomes. Then, upon developing, you will get access to the second and the third level of tech that opens up the possibilities for more complex tweaking of the ecosystem parameters.
I want to note that the way Terra Nil implemented the equipment progression system is quite smooth and interesting. Cloud generators, dehumidifiers, coolers to create ice, rainforest nets, etc. – you will need a lot of specialized tech to refurbish biomes. Just throwing it at the map and hoping it sticks won’t work, either. Competent pre-planning is quite a specific and complex task at times.
Windmills and generators provide energy that is needed for certain buildings and equipment, the arrangement requires you to consider all conditions before installing anything. You can put windmills only on stones and place other tech around. In turn, toxin cleaners can be placed only next to the toxins, sunflower base requires radiation sources, etc. Every building and piece of tech has its own operation and installation conditions. Thankfully, the game tells you what conditions are required for certain additional goals.
The third and the last stage is the discovery of animals, the collection of resources and a complete de-installation of all your equipment, removing all traces of your presence. For example, the deer need a certain amount of greenery for re-population, while wolves require the presence of the deer. Bears demand the presence of beehives as one of the additional conditions.
Every type of animal needs its own combination of biomes and additional conditions. Sometimes you may find out the specifics only almost at the very end of your particular playthrough, trying to rebuild some parts of the map for new biomes or the combination options to fit the requirements.
Packing up and going away might sound easy, but when it comes to gameplay it has its own set of complications. From the very beginning, you better be planning ways to collect equipment and to get it to the departure point, such as the monorails and the waterways. Redoing the already finished biomes to build them in would be quite a hassle.
The main difficulty of the game comes from wasteful use of currency and poor planning during the building process, and it might force you to restart the stage or even the entire map at some point. I know that I have used both options when just learning the ropes.
But once you are done, the biomes have been restored, the animals have been repopulated and your equipment is all gone, you will get to see it. The map, restored to its former glory, inhabited and alive, created by your hands and mind.
The game has plenty of positive sides such as the music and graphics. It features lively, slightly cartoon-ish graphics, smooth and flowing. The music is pleasant but same-y and not very expressive, allowing you to play meditatively as you relax. Weather conditions, movement of water and plants, animals – the game features it all and more with a good, modest level of detail.
However, it is also not without its drawbacks. Among them, a certain crude implementation of technologies and some technical problems. To reach certain goals and conditions, you will also have to build a certain combination of biomes next to each other, and they oftenly crudely superimpose. Sometimes the map conditions are left too vague, which can lead to you building up the watery part of the level by raising the ground level, etc. only to find out next to the end of the stage that you actually really need this water. Something like that almost automatically means restarting anew.
Terra Nil features four plot-driven generated maps. Once you’ve beaten the game, you will open another four regions that can be finished in 4-6 hours. Once you have figured the game out, it is unlikely that any particular stage will take more than 30 minutes to tackle.
As the final minus of the game, it is way too short. I’d have liked to see bigger regions, with maybe two maps fused into one that require you to tackle 8 biomes instead of 5 and so forth. Maybe even the endless sandbox mode with a way to swap from planet to planet that requires more advanced systems and features a more complicated recovery process. The game requires further development and support. But even with all its drawbacks, it will leave a good mark on you.
Note: the Steam key of Terra Nil was provided for the purpose of this review.
