Terra Nil is a beautiful and chilled out building strategy game where you attempt to reconstruct the ecosystem of a ravaged and barren environment.
While most Sim City-esque building/management games are about squeezing resources out of and squeezing buildings into an untouched environment, your goal in Terra Nil is pretty much the opposite. In each level of the game you’re presented with a totally barren landscape where the soil is polluted, the rivers are dried up and nothing will grow. You need to place a variety of different structures to help turn the wasteland back into a pristine ecological paradise.
The initial structures you can place are generally for generating power, detoxifying the soil and growing simple plant life, but as you progress through the levels you unlock more tiers of structures and things get a lot more complex. You can start wildfires to pave the way for lush forests, introduce wildlife to the land and even build a rocket.
It’s a great little game with fantastic pixel art animation and a surprising amount of depth. It’s easily one of the most satisfying takes on the building strategy genre, because it feels like you’ve done something worthwhile – you’ve brought life back to a dead land instead of paving it over with concrete. Highly recommended.
Download The Terra Nil Beta Here (Windows, Mac & Linux)