Typically, when you think of development-focused sims, you think of games like SimCity or Civilization, where you start from humble beginnings and build grand structures and societies. Terra Nil, on the other hand, takes you in the opposite direction, asking you to restore ecosystems to a barren planet full of wastelands.

This is an interesting concept, but the learning curve can be a bit steep. While the game’s tutorials do a good job of teaching you the basics, you may need to restart a few times in order to get enough vegetation coverage to progress to the second phase of your first scenario.

In particular, if you’re a perfectionist who wants to cover every inch of the map with vegetation, you’re going to have a hard time. More often than not, your coverage will be imperfect, with overlaps or gaps. This is because you need to be careful not to waste your precious resources, which you can easily run out of if you’re not careful.

Once you get past this initial learning curve, you’ll be well on your way to completing your first region. And then, you’ll find that there are still a few more regions to conquer. Each has its own unique structures and rules, but the overall concepts remain consistent.

Terra Nil is thus a pretty satisfying take on rebuilding the world for the better, even if it does have a few rough edges.