I’ve written before about how good Netflix’s gaming service is — and it’s inexplicably quiet. The streaming giant has been moving into gaming at a fairly rapid pace lately, churning out killer adaptations and spinoffs for The Witcher, Cyberpunk, League of Legends, Castlevania, Iron Fist, and more work. But it seems like most people (okay, 1% of the company’s 200 million users) don’t know that you get free access to incredible games as part of your subscription. And, yesterday, one of the most interesting games of 2023 was added to that roster.
This week, Netflix (along with publisher Devolver and developer Free Lives) released impressive and fun reverse city builder Terra Nil on iOS and Android. The game is also available on PC — which is where I’ve been playing for the past two weeks or so — but the mobile version of the game is by no means a cheap trade-off; it works just as well as its PC sibling.
Your goal in Terra Nil is simple: you are reviving a planet that has been destroyed and plundered for all its resources, leaving it to fester and rot in its own rotting filth. To do this, you need to detoxify the soil, increase biodiversity by reintroducing plants, rainforest and marine vegetation, and finally pack your bags and disappear. It’s the first truly worthwhile Solar Punk game I’ve seen in the wild, and it works flawlessly.
Positive, eco-first messages aside, I think Terra Nil’s greatest achievement comes from the way it lures you into its puzzles in clever and entertaining ways. The amount of resources available to you is limited, so deciding how to effectively clear the land of toxins before starting (for example, replanting algae forests) is always a headache.
The way the game rewards you for taking part in (and overcoming) challenges is also delightful: if you adjust the atmosphere to such an extent that rain clouds start to form over the peaks of your hilly region, you may notice that fresh rain will Affecting half of you works for you – bringing more green to your dead land, washing away trash, and restoring your chosen places with such a satisfying sweep that you can’t really believe what you’re seeing .
Terra Nil is an awesome game. It’s an interesting take on a clichéd genre that relies heavily on drawing from Earth. So in giving you a game that revolves around giving back to you, Free Lives injects some progressive and visionary life into the genre. It helps make puzzling level settings engaging and fun, and it’ll work happily in small 10- or 20-minute bursts on your phone, too.
If you want to stare blankly during your morning commute, or lie in bed at night and indulge in a bunch of old man-made structures and tricky environmental puzzles, then this game is for you. I couldn’t recommend this experience more, and considering it’s on Netflix games, you really have nothing to lose when you try it.
You can check out the full list of games available on Netflix here. To find Terra Nil via Netflix, tap the “Games” tab on the home screen of the mobile app and follow the instructions there.
