The term “reverse city builder” takes me back to the SimCity 2000 play sessions of my childhood. I used to spend hours building a near-perfect metropolis. I’d construct every facility a city could ask for, from hospitals and schools to arcologies. I’d map out robust highway systems, ensuring that my citizens could get to where they were going with minimal traffic. I’d build fusion power plants, enact various ordinances, and would even connect my town to nearby cities.
Then, I’d summon a monster to destroy it all.
Terra Nil shifts the city-builder genre in a slightly more wholesome way. In this game, your goal isn’t to build roadways or construct sprawling skyscrapers. Instead, you’ll start with a barren environment and will help nature do some healing. You’ll plant trees, get water flowing, and will create a paradise that any animal would want to live in.
Once you’ve brought life back to the wasteland, you’ll want to make it look like you were never there in the first place. From there, you’ll clean up structures or mess you’ve made, leaving the flora and fauna with an environment that looks like it was untouched by human hands.
As someone that enjoys building and destroying cities, I’m excited to see more of the restorative approach that Terra Nil is taking to city builder games. While the title doesn’t have a release date just yet, there’s currently a free demo you can try on Steam.
