Terra Nil review: a reverse city builder to vibe to

Strategy and sim games tend to follow a largely similar path: Build the biggest theme park. Conquer every square inch of enemy territory. Be the biggest, baddest tycoon of your hospital/city/zoo/farm/spaceship.

Terra Nil aims to offer fans of the strategy genre something a little different. Developer Free Lives bills its post-apocalyptic terraforming adventure as a “reverse city builder”, which is as good a description as any for what this particular title offers - even if it largely ends up feeling more like a puzzle game than anything else.

In Terra Nil you’ll manage resources and attempt to keep the world’s ecosystem in balance by following the right steps in the right order. At its most basic level you’re taught that every item you use will have a specific impact on the world depending on where you use it and in what order. For example, you can’t generate clean soil until you place down a wind farm to provide power to the turbines. And if you don’t have clean soil you can forget about creating those lush green fields and verdant forests. While a degree of experimentation is encouraged, there’s typically a set order in which to tackle things.

The trick is to master the game’s systems and place your tools for maximum impact, breathing life into the world as efficiently as possible. As you progress you’ll find yourself having to manage animal life, keep the ecosystem in check with measures like controlled fires, and even clean up after your own machinery in an effort to leave no trace. It’s a juggling act that can become increasingly tough, but seeing your digital ecosystem thrive is a real joy - like peeking into a terrarium to see how well your plants are doing.

Devolver Digital

At its easiest difficulty level Terra Nil is mindless, meditative fun. Watching rivers and wetlands spring to life at the press of a button is incredibly rewarding, thanks in no small part to the game’s gorgeous aesthetic and top-notch sound design. If you’re looking to unwind after a hard day, this is hands-down one of the most relaxing games I’ve played all year. And if you’re looking for a tougher strategic challenge, the harder difficulties make it so that every tile placement and resource has to be used perfectly.

If I have one complaint about Terra Nil, it’s that it’s nothing like as replayable as a game like Civilization VI or Cities: Skylines. To be fair to Free Lives I’m not sure the studio was ever trying to compete with these juggernauts of the genre, but Terra Nil’s mission structure and randomly generated maps don’t lend themselves to endless replayability in quite the same way as other strategy games.

Still, the time I’ve spent with Terra Nil has been an absolute delight, and a much-needed antidote to the hustle and bustle of modern life. Get yourself under a blanket on a rainy day with a cup of chamomile and I promise you this reverse city builder will hit just right. You might even learn a thing or two.

Pros: Chill af, beautiful presentation and sound design, expertly realised core concept

Cons: Not quite as replayable as others in its genre

For fans of: Age Of Empires 2, Cities: Skylines, Dorfromantik

8/10: Excellent

Terra Nil is available now for PC, iOS, and Android (version tested). Code for review was supplied by the publisher. Find a complete guide to GAMINGbible's review scores here