➤ Terra Nil, the review of a strategic game with an environmentalist background 🕹

We analyze Terra Nil, a management game for PC and mobile devices in which we must save the Earth from its greatest threat: man.

In an era where environmental problems are the order of the day, from drought to pollution, landslides, water pumps, etc., it was only a matter of time before someone would explore these issues again in the videogames.

Terra Nil, the latest effort from the independent development team free lives, the Cape Town-based studio that created Broforce and Genital Jousting, does just that, as it puts us at the forefront of a futuristic scientific expedition that aims to restore the Earth's ecosystem not so much to allow man to return to the planet, but it happens, for example, in Wall-E, in addition to hiding its passage under the carpet and returning its habitable spaces to nature.

The game, published by multifaceted. Devolver Digital, the American publisher famous for Hotline Miami, Enter the Gungeon, Katana ZERO, but also for its crazy conferences during E3 (or what's left of it), will arrive on PC and mobile devices, thanks to Netflix, on March 28, 2023.

In the Terra Nil Review We will tell you if we manage to save the Earth from its greatest threat: man.

Terra Nil, more puzzle than strategy?

Terra Nil, the review of a strategic game with an environmentalist background — At the beginning of each Terra Nil scenario it will be necessary to recover the Earth devastated by pollution.

As we said, the purpose of Terra Nil is restore ecological balance in four parts of the planet seriously ruined by pollution and the presence of man. Environmental recovery must always go through three very distinct phases that require meeting certain prerequisites to unlock the next moment and the new options that come with it.

We will always start with the recuperación level, a phase in which Terra Nil offers only the tools to generate energy and the structures necessary to clean contaminated land and water. Once a significant part of the map is freed, the buildings and machinery are unlocked to create new biomes that will restore biodiversity on the planet. Once the necessary conditions to sustain life have been achieved, it is time to look for the perfect habitats to reintroduce the 6 native species of that region. So the only thing left is raise the curtains, recycling all the machinery used up to that point and leaving the area forever.

Unlike similar experiences where the player is asked to manage a complex ecosystem with balances almost impossible to balance, so that each map can last almost infinitely, At Terra Nil the objectives are clear and, once achieved, there is not much left to do. Also because there is no turning back: except for some parameters, such as humidity or temperature, the ecosystem is not dynamic and only responds to the player's requests.

That is why the work of Vidas Libres reminded us More of a puzzle game than a classic strategic/management game., since limited resources, the close correlation between buildings, and the obligation to use certain structures push the player to understand how to "solve" the scenario, rather than managing it through constructions. In fact, the city construction part is the weakest, since it sometimes forces us to look for inelegant solutions to get around the limitations imposed on the table, such as when it is necessary to create channels just to recycle structures placed outside the range of the drone's Action. aquatic, although in other levels the one that moves on the monorail or even the flying variant has been used.

In this way, many times, the most complex part of a level turns out to be the first, the one where you need manage the few available resources well build the first electrical generators and structures with which to recover contaminated land. In fact, once the first areas of the map are restored, you can use the greenhouses to earn new "nature points" that you can spend on the more advanced functions, which will also allow you to achieve secondary environmental objectives that will not only earn you a lot of points. , but sometimes they activate events capable of modifying the gameplay, such as rain, an event that automatically erases the entire level and with which you can obtain practically infinite resources.

In fact, each biome is characterized by secondary requests that often need to be addressed with specific tools. In Terra Nil, the most advanced game phases do not correspond to those in which you can access all the structures and options found up to that point, but simply to those in which it is more complex to recover the environment with the few resources available. . The developers, in fact, created the levels like gods. small environmental puzzles that you have to solve it with what you have, looking for a way to fit the few tools available; For this reason, the limits imposed are higher than similar productions.

Others structures, for example, can only be created on top of others, just as some extra functions can only be activated in very particular cases. If something goes wrong you will have to find an alternative way to do things again since, except in the final "recycling" phase, it will not be possible to destroy your structures. A somewhat limiting aspect, which often forces us to devastate the environment, with new channels or dredging of the seabed, to find a way to save the planet. A bit of a contradiction.

A refreshing experience

The area where Terra Nil certainly hits the mark is artistic. In fact, the game, due to its small levels, limited interactions between the different systems, and readable but not complex graphics, can easily run on PCs without a dedicated graphics card, such as the ThinkPad T14 Gen 1 used for the review, and mobile devices. .

However, this should not cause us to underestimate theartistic impact of a work full of details to discover and small/big moments capable of surprising, like the first time you manage to make it snow, or when the northern lights shine again. By moving the mouse over an area you will hear the sounds produced there, a ploy designed so that the audio is also enriched along with the return of life. They are delicate but powerful moments, capable of making us understand that we have been able to reactivate those processes that allow nature to heal itself. At that moment it will be enough to eliminate all signs of humanity and the Earth will be able to say that it is safe again.

Conclusions

Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam, epic games store Price 24,99 € Holygamerz.com 7.5 Readers (9) 7.5 your vote

Terra Nil is a successful experience, which tries to put environmental issues at the center of the scene with a game that is not perfect, not even very long (it takes about 10 hours to complete everything with very low replayability) and with certain interface problems, but not because less satisfying and relaxing. Returning areas of the world devastated by man to their natural state could be a cathartic experience for some, capable of raising awareness about this decidedly central and delicate issue in recent times.