Beat me to it @lordkosc! Although judging by the chatter, I think this should be called the Gaming on Netflix Thread! :)
I chucked Terra Nil in with my spring sale haul last week because I adored the demo but what really drew me to it initially was that it’s so refreshing to see a game that focuses on restoring habitats and wildlife instead of destroying them in the name of industry and growth.
I live in the UK, ‘one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries’, depressingly, and every day I’m reminded that we’re not doing enough to put the brakes on that, let alone reverse it. A city council felling over 100 mature trees in a green space against public opposition. Raw sewage being dumped into our waterways. Emergency approval of neonicotinoids. Adoption of 3G pitches and astro turfing. Continued widespread use and sale of herbicides, pesticides and peat-based compost (which will be banned for amateur gardeners from 2024, thankfully). Garden centres selling invasive species such as rhododendron ponticum and cotoneaster. Don’t get me started on the ornamental plants that the community gardening group plant around our village.
Outside our house we used to have a big wild field full of common knapweed, birds-foot trefoil, vetch, field scabious and many other flowers and grasses, surrounded by brambles, hawthorne, blackthorn, elder, rowan etc. In summer the field was abuzz with bees, butterflies and other insects and for a couple of years or so it was home to a barn owl. Here’s my girlfriend getting a much closer than expected look at it: https://photos.app.goo.gl/RriRWcvBSy27jrU66
Over the last year, a development of 47~ dwellings (private and expensive–they applied to get rid of the affordable ones) was finally approved so the land was levelled and the entrance way cleared of trees. I suspect the remaining trees (which currently have magpies nesting in them) will be cut down later in the year before it is complete and replaced with fencing. Ultimately however, the field is gone and will never return. But don’t worry! They’ve installed five bee bricks across the entire site. To add to this, the developers use polystyrene for insulation (like most new builds these days) and so much of it has ended up littering the surrounding area (along with other litter from the builders themselves). I’ve complained to the council and some token effort has been made to clear it up but there’s still loads stuck in hedges and in folks’ gardens. Polystyrene takes hundreds of years to break down and comes with its own laundry list of potential problems.
Around our village, that was one of the only fields that was untouched and wild. Almost all the others are barren monoculture crop fields (grass for feed, wheat, vegetables etc.) lined by hedges that are flayed to within an inch of their life so their ability to flower for pollinators and in turn grow berries to feed wildlife is hugely diminished. Habitat loss is a real and continuing problem. We’re very fortunate to have an ancient woodland nearby but certain places there are affected by vandalism, folk on motorbikes churning the place up, and parties that leave such a mess behind. All that stuff really upsets me and that’s just in my little corner of the world. When I look further afield the scale of the problem seems overwhelming and hopeless.
Pulling this back round to Terra Nil: I know it’s more of a clean, idyllic game-y solitaire puzzler than a deep Eco-like environmental sim, but not many games attempt to put a spotlight on our relationship with the natural world and specifically a more restorative and harmonious one. Maybe it’s eco porn, but god, if I don’t need that right now! I’m hoping to start this over the next week or so once I’ve seen Kentucky Route Zero through.
