
You can even have different biomes that attract unique wildlife, though the “campaign” does somewhat dictate the style of your utopia. It’s a satisfying loop that really leaves you with a sense of accomplishment, a bit of pride as you fly away from a new paradise that used to be a barren wasteland. Once the penguins and turtles are back where they belong, it’s time to remove up all the machines and leave behind something that Bob Ross would be proud of.

From there, you can begin to place grassland and promote flora growth with the ultimate goal of attracting wildlife back. You’ll first need to create electricity by placing a specific unit upon a rock tile, which then allows a “cleansing” unit like the Toxin Scrubber to clean water and soil the ground. Terra Nil’s gameplay is isometric and tile-based (think Sim City meets Into the Breach), with you able to place down different mechanical tools to help kickstart the ecosystem. While it’s billed as a relaxing game, Terra Nil has a lot of layers and moving parts that may at some points overwhelm, but feel extremely satisfying when you pull off your plans and finally depart from one of the planet’s many varied regions. It’s a striking concept and one that’s far more intricate than many might initially believe. This is the unique selling point of Terra Nil, a reverse city builder in which you have to basically undo all of humanity’s worst habits and leave a planet with a thriving ecosystem, one that animals will flock back to and flourish in. But what if you were tasked with deconstructing a city instead and taking away humanity’s mucky, mucky handprints instead? While it can obviously take an immense amount of planning and preparation to be able to get your electricity system working in Cities: Skylines, or to stop the people from wanting to overthrow you over every little mistake in Frostpunk, seeing new buildings pop up across the landscape truly is a simple joy in building.

There’s something about city builders that really appeals to the ape brain inside all of us.
