I recently had the chance to check out a demo build of the new “reverse” city-builder game, Terra Nil, and I’m hooked on the premise.
It’s possible you missed out on information about Terra Nil (coming from Devolver Digital and developers Free Lives), in the deluge of E3 2021 announcements and previews. If you love management/builder games, however, you’re definitely going to want to put this one on your radar. I recently had the chance to get in on a demo of the game, which covers the general basics of the game, and I’m here to tell you, it wasn’t nearly enough (and I’ve replayed that hour multiple times).
A World in Recovery
First of all, I really love the idea behind the game. I’m all about my city-building games and managing resources (boring dude, I know), but Terra Nil is set up a bit differently. Rather than working to build up a thriving civilization, your job is to RECOVER from it. The world is a desolate place, with arid and harsh wastelands. From that, you must find a way to restore the world’s ecology and various biospheres.
So yeah, it’s a “reverse city-builder” where you’ll have to strategically rebuild the natural world through soil purifiers, water stations to replenish rivers, and much more. So yeah, you’ll still have to place buildings in order to make progress, but ultimately, once you get your piece of the world to a point of being self-sustaining, you’ll also have to recycle those buildings you’ve placed.
You’re overall goal is to leave the land lush, vibrant, and healthy without a trace of your presence. It’s just a neat concept, and while it uses much of the same concepts you’ve come to associate with the building genre (so it’s easy to pick up and play), the mindset is a bit different and forces you to think about your progress in a different way. After all, whatever buildings you lay down will eventually have to be taken care of, so planning ahead is crucial.
I’m not sure if there’s any sort of story elements you’ll be given in Terra Nil when it fully launches. The demo I played around with was very straightforward and dove me right into the action with a tutorial the held my hand just enough to get rolling without being obtrusive. I would love to see some sort of story element combined with this game, if only for the lore aspect of WHY the world is so bad. That said, it’s hard to complain when the gameplay managed to suck me in so completely.
Making the Green
Right away, Terra Nil throws you onto a desolate map. These are procedurally generated so no two maps are going to be the same. This really helps with the replay factor (even in terms of the demo that I just continually restarted) and promises some fun challenges along the way.
The basics are pretty simple. As with any builder game, you start out with a limited set of tools/construction and, of course, you’ll need a power supply to do anything. We’re going green, however, so you power comes from windmills. Once you have those in place, you’ll need to put down some reclamators to make the soil fertile once again. You’ll have to place these strategically within the power grid so that you can cover as much ground as possible.
Put them too close together and you’ll end up with overlaps in some areas. It seems like a small thing, but this overlap can waste space, resulting in needing more buildings to cover gaps…buildings you’ll eventually have to reckon with. From there, it’s time to replant, which is handled by a building that covers a specific amount of ground.
Almost like Tetris, you’ll be able to twist these irrigation buildings around (with a simple mouse scroll) in order to find the angle to ensure maximum coverage. You’ll have to be strategic in your placement here as well, since the replanting will ONLY take hold on soil you’ve cleaned. So if you have it facing the wrong way, you might end up wasting a bunch of seed/water and have to hit it from another angle.
What I loved, was how much this game made me really think about my building placement. My first time through, I was dropping things down all willy-nilly, not realizing until later that my layout was hindering me from other tasks I would have to complete later on. The more you do, the bigger you map becomes, and once you hit a certain level of “green coverage” your goals shift as well.
You’ll be given another set of buildings/tools to use, which you’ll have to use in order to build out new biomes (wetland, forests, and maintaining a certain level of general vegetation). Each biome has their own building requirements, so you’ll have to balance all three of these elements, while carving out dedicated space to all of them.
Hell, sometimes, a piece of land requires you to destroy a patch of fertile land via controlled fires (you need the nutrients from ash to plant forests). You’ll need a certain amount of Sun power (resource management!) in order to start a fire, and even then you’ll need to make sure you’re close enough to the right buildings to do so.
As you can see, there’s a lot of specifics you’ll have to keep in mind when laying down your buildings and planning out the individual biomes. Power management remains a key aspect as even windmills can only be built on rocks. If you have a river flowing, you can use a ‘Calcifier’ machine near the banks in order to build up more rocks if you need them.
But what if you need a river where there isn’t one? You’re in luck as you have a machine that will violently create a ditch across the map in whichever direction you choose (then you can fill it with water/connect it to an existing river). When I saw violently, I mean it literally fires a Death Star-esque laser across your map. It’s helpful, but it also destroys any land you’ve built up in the process. So yeah, sometimes you’ll have to work backwards in order to move forward, but that’s a fun part of the strategy this game brings to the table.
Easy to Get Into
It sounds like a lot, and it can be, but Terra Nil handles all these elements deftly. I never once felt overwhelmed, and the progression of your land and buildings is doled out in a way that keeps the flow simple even as the objectives get harder.
The overall layout of the game is fairly intuitive. The taskbar at the bottom of the screen holds all your buildings, and you can get more details on what they do/require by simply scrolling your mouse over the top of them. The HUD expands along with your gameplay, eventually adding in a smaller map (that helps keep track of your biomes), and a gauge keeping up with your resources and progress.
If this isn’t your first city-builder or management style game, you’ll be able to dive right in an pick up the controls without thinking about. Even for players new to the genre, it’s laid out so smart that it should only take a few minutes to get the hang of things and really go wild with rebuilding the world.
Personally speaking, I loved the pacing it brought, though I admit it can be a bit…uneven. As I said, your map increases in size at certain points. This is cool, but sometimes seeing the more complete map makes it clear that some of my building layouts aren’t going to work the way I’d hoped. I can’t tell you how many times a surprise rock outcropping or even river bend through off my planning, simply because I hadn’t seen it before!
Even so, it mostly felt like another layer of strategy to the game, rather than being a complete annoyance. By and large, however, I very much loved how easy it was to pick up and play this game. There’s a depth to the core mechanics that clearly will take time to master and sure to make even diehard building-gamers dedicate hours to figuring out. Before I knew it I was trying new maps and starting over just to see what I could develop next.
Despite being a simple demo, I very much enjoyed my hands on time with Terra Nil and am eager to see what the full game brings. I would love to see an expansion on WHY you’re rebuilding the world, if only to give your progress a deeper sense of purpose. Also, I’m interested to see what their “endgame” content might bring and how more challenges will be added in.
If you hadn’t put Terra Nil on your Steam wishlist yet, I would encourage you to do so. There’s no release date yet, but this is definitely a title you’ll want to keep on your radar. The gameplay is addictive, with a cool concept, and just feels super chill to play through.
