Terra Nil Review for Steam

Terra Nil, by developer Free Lives and publisher Devolver Digital, is an environmental strategy game centered around turning barren wastelands into thriving ecosystems. You are given a destroyed plot of land barren of life and your job is to use the tools and resources provided to restore its ecosystem. You are given all the tools necessary to bring life to the land, some of which you have to unlock as you progress. There are 3 main stages of restoration, purifying the land of toxins, reintroducing plant and animal life, then recycling your machines so you can leave without a trace. Will you be able to restore the barren wastelands of the world or will they remain broken and void of life?

When you start the game you can pick difficulty depending on the experience you wish to have. Gardener mode gives you more starting resources and lower building costs, perfect for a more relaxed experience. Ecologist mode gives you the standard number of resources and building costs for a more balanced experience. Environmental Engineer gives you the standard number of resources but building costs are higher and there are no tutorials or hints, this is for people who want an extra challenge and is not recommended for first time players. The difficulty can also be changed between levels. The first level gives you a tutorial on the basics of how to restore the land; it involves placing machines to aid you. Windmills can be placed on rocky ground to provide power for other machines. Toxin scrubbers require power to clean nearby soil, irrigators water nearby land so grass can grow, and water pumps will refill nearby riverbeds. These are the main machines you use to restore the wastelands but there are other things you will unlock as you progress to aid the ecosystem such as beehives, solar amplifiers, cloud seeders, and more. After you restore the land, you move on to create different biomes such as forests and wetlands so you can introduce animals to the ecosystem. The final step which can take some time is recycling all the materials and machines you placed so the ecosystem can thrive on its own without a trace of human activity. There are different levels with different kinds of wastelands to restore. Each wasteland has different biomes you have to try and recreate with different machines to unlock and help you on your journey. The visuals of the game are amazing. There are so many small components and such attention to detail making it very nice to look at. The music and sound effects are nice and relaxing to listen to while playing. Overall, it is a very relaxing and fun environmental strategy game.

There is very little to say about issues I may have had with the game. There is a bit of a learning curve, but the game goes slow introducing different steps as you go, not too slow as to be boring but not too fast as to make it overly confusing. The only part that tripped me up was the recycling of machines because it used riverways to retrieve the materials but some of the machines were too far away from rivers to easily recycle them. So, I had to go back and make new riverbeds and restore some new land. It became a little tedious at the end but overall, not too hard to overcome.

Terra Nil is a relaxing strategy game about restoring the environment of barren wastelands. You use machines to remove toxins and restore ecosystems before leaving without a trace. The visuals are amazing with so much attention to detail and the music is relaxing and nice to listen to while playing. There is a lot to explore and uncover as you make your way through the levels and different wastelands. I am giving this game 10 out of 10 as it is a lot of fun to play with little to no issues in the overall gameplay experience.

Terra Nil is heading to PC via Steam tomorrow, March 28th, and Netflix in 2023.

For more information, visit: terranil.com

Related: Reviews by Brianna Keller