On a later level, you use Igneous Heatsinks to cool lava and form rock, on which you can then grow lichens using an Algae Greenhouse. To make forests, for example, you might need to first burn some of those fynbos with a Solar Amplifier, before scattering Arboretums across the ash piles that are left behind. Do enough to fill the percentage bar, and your job's a good'un. Whack beehives on trees to make fynbos, or chuck Hydroponiums on top of Irrigators to create wetland. In stage two, the goal is to increase biodiversity, and you get another batch of buildings to help grow different types of plants. It's a chill setup stage, but one that never really changes as you progress through the four main levels. That creates a flurry of leaves that zip towards your percentage meter, and when that reaches 100%, you’re onto the next step. You whack down some power resources, cover the land in Toxic Scrubbers to remove the pollution they produce, and then chuck down some Irrigators to grow grass. These differ slightly depending on the map - the first has Turbines to provide power, while a later snowy map has Geothermal Plants, for example - but you go through more or less exactly the same motions per map. You do so using buildings that appear in a row along the bottom of the screen. The first stage always involves painting that beige box with some vivid verde. Your progress for the current stage is indicated with a couple of percentage meters in the top-left corner, and completing all three means mission accomplished.

A handbook, which you can whip out at any time, breaks down each level into three stages. Regardless of which level you start with in Terra Nil, it plops you onto a desolate wasteland that’s yours to save.

Getting to that point, though, is an often repetitive experience marred with frustration. When it all comes together and you can look over the fruits of your labour, birds chirping and piano melodically playing in the background, it’s beautiful. You replace pollution with lush life across a series of four randomly generated dioramas (plus four slightly more complicated challenge levels), covering the landscape in fynbos and forests, lichen and lagoons. Terra Nil is a puzzle-citybuilder about reclaiming the environment. A puzzle-citybuilder about rejuvenating the environment, Terra Nil has an almost lovely message, but it's buried beneath tedious chores.

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