Terra Nil Review (GreatSphynx)
TLDR: Play the demo, that is the game. If $25 is a lot for you wait for a sale.
I don't review stuff often on steam but I played like 20+ hours of the original prototype of this game so I felt important to review the final version. Part of me wishes there was a mixed option, but I'd still recommend this over not.
First off this game is getting a lot of flack for not having enough "content". Yes after 4 hours you will see every biome and every building, I feel like if this is the main criticism of the game maybe people have only been playing games from the last 8 years or something. It's a puzzle game that has procedural levels, that is what the content and replayability is, the gameplay, not what types of biomes there are.
To me it's like complaining that you've seen all the content in a game like Tetris or Sim City after 5 minutes, because you technically have. There is no meta progression where you get new pieces in Tetris, there is no alternate biomes or mechanics in Sim City. You just get one thing done well.
I do think the price of the game is a little high and it feels like it was because it was picked up by a "larger indie" publisher and they felt they needed to recoup their costs. Which is a little disappointing.
It would also be nice if we did get just some basic updates with more achievements, optional larger maps, maybe a custom map maker, and some additional challenge modes or difficulty. In a lot of ways this game feels a bit easier than the hardest maps on the prototype, and as someone who has basically already played it a lot in an earlier for it would have been nice to see something to allow for that without having to add "new content".
If $25 for a game is a lot for you then you should probably hold off. Play the demo, that is what the game is + a few more biomes. The replayability is just enjoying the puzzle mechanics of the game, not meta progression or unlocking things. If you NEED that kind of gameplay to be engaged by a game then this probably isn't for you. That doesn't make it a bad game though as there are TONS of games that do one thing simple, and straightforward, without a ton of content and they are fantastic.