Terra Nil is billed as a "reverse city builder," and for the most part it's an accurate definition. Typically, the city builder genre has players constructing an elegant metropolis while managing all of the resources the burgeoning locale needs to keep going. Terra Nil takes a much different approach, and each map essentially has three different objectives that need to be fulfilled.
The first task in each map is establishing a set of wind turbines and using those to power buildings that will restore the soil and then plant grass. This is by far the most important sequence of resource management as players need to balance their green energy efficiently in order to restore the required amount of land. Once that threshold is reached and the gauge on the right reads 100 percent the next phase starts, where each of the three biomes needs to be restored.
This is the most interesting sequence as players need to strategically place different buildings and items to help restore each of the biomes. Beehives help spread grassland and flowers, cultivators need to be placed on purifiers by water in order to spread wetland, and controlled burns are used to break down buildings for a new facility that springs up forests. The biomes section becomes a game of space management, trying to balance controlled burns and building placement to spread each of the biomes equally.
Once the biomes are established the final phase starts, cleaning up the mess and leaving the rebuilt environment intact. At this point, players need to construct an airship and a collection drone before they set about the task of recycling every single building they've created. Recyclers can be used to recycle buildings in an entire area, and they can be staggered across the map to get them near a river, which is where collection towers are placed. The drone travels down rivers to the collection towers to collect all the recycling and bring it back to the airship. This third sequence is simpler than the other two but it's a nice piece of finality that fits with the entire game's theme of restoring environments, cleaning up any pollution that the process may have spawned.
Terra Nil isn't the most complex management sim out there, but its pacing and laidback feel are a breath of fresh air. It's an incredibly relaxing game that has no time limit and no overbearing objectives; it's simply up to the player to restore things at their own pace. Terra Nil isn't the most visually impressive title, but seeing a desolate wasteland turn into vibrant greenery is still a sight to behold. It also helps add to the overall soothing feeling of the experience.
The one foreseeable problem with Terra Nil is if its unique take on the genre can manage to stay engaging across hours of play, or if there are enough new elements introduced to keep things interesting. The first impression is strong, however, and there's certainly room in the city-builder genre for more unique experiences, which Terra Nil seems set to offer when it releases.
Terra Nil is currently in development for PC, with no release date announced. Screen Rant was provided with a digital PC code for the purpose of this preview.
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