This game is excellent, as a standalone DLC for Blades of the Shogun it's a great in-between adventure that makes the later plot even more bitter sweet, but beyond that it also really makes sad that Mimimi closed after Shadow Gambit, we'll never have another look into their worlds, we'll never revisit old characters again and the future of Aiko and her child; Yuki, Kuma and Takuma or Hayato's further life will stay in the shadows. As the second to last game from the studio that revived the Commandos-like, which they termed Stealth-Tactics it should be in any fan of the genre's library but to me it also makes me yearn for a different world, where those games could be profitable enough that Mimimi is still around to make great game after great game. But hell I'm also an immersive sim fan so I'm used to this feeling.
Game seems good but I can't know for sure since it keeps crashing, tried the usual of verifying game files, playing without galaxy and the advised removal of a snapshots folder, nothing works.
This game is fine, the puzzles are for the most part intuitive and not too easy or tediously hard (putting aside the last few percentage points of completion you get by micromanaging the Animals which IS tedious and annoying, also some of the Weather Effects needs you to ping pong the temperature and that's easy to miss and annoying to re-do the map for). But having played when this was just a Demo on Itch.io there is so little justifying the price beyond the graphics and the engine is sometimes really struggling with those for whatever reason. The length is good for the game but doesn't justify its insane price either. Keep in mind this costs more than games like Snowtopia, Slay the Spire, Fight In Tight Spaces, Creeper World 4, Spellcaster University, Song of Syx, Metal Wolf Chaos, Mad Max, Witcher 2, Just Cause 2 and so on. Most of those gave me many, MANY times more enjoyment and/or playtime than Terra Nil. This isn't even touching on the games that are EVEN CHEAPER such as Stranglehold, F.E.A.R., Deus Ex GOTY and HOLLOW KNIGHT among many others. Only ever buy this game if you like puzzles AND it's at least 50% off. It's what I did and after finishing the game it's right on the line between an OK purchase and disappointment.
Mixing twin-stick shooter and Im-Sim sounds (to me) like a bad idea but this game manages it OK. Despite managing to get the rough shape of the game and a lot of little things right such as polish, mod support and interactivity and responsiveness of the world I still can't really get into the game. Even writing the above paragraph I remember a lot of little touches that impressed me (the rain filling up containers, the npcs reacting to my showing up on fire, etc) but I can't summon any memories of really having fun playing. Maybe it's because I'm not a twin-stick guy, but I bought this game expecting the Weird West setting and the Arx Fatalis legacy (both of which I like a lot) to keep me in anyways, guess I was wrong about that. Tl;Dr: The game works and achieves what it sets out to do but it very much is a hit or miss, I would reccomend using GOG's refund window to try it out for yourself because this one is more niche than most Im-Sim which is saying something.
