Long ago computer role-playing games were either first-person or this weird isometric view. Then some stuff happened and both of those genres kinda went out of vogue. Then we got a new Wasteland and Shadowrun game and things are still a little weird even though Obsidian made Pillars of Eternity, the GOAT. Now that you’re caught up, Death Trash is like one of those games only in real-time and with a fairly unique setting. It’s not party-based, you’re not meeting in a city square to listen to the king’s speech and there are no horses. This story takes place on Planet Nexus, centuries after The Bleeding.
On character creation I wasn’t greeted with the ability to determine how high my character’s cheekbones were, I selected from a few pre-made characters or just changed the hair and body. Thrown right in and without too many tutorials, a game design concept I’ve grown to loathe, I was simply told that the operation was successful, I knew who I was, and I was being expelled. My citizenship had been revoked! Hilariously, they gave the revocation to me in writing. Who revoked my citizenship? That’s another great question. Death Trash isn’t interested in dumping exposition on you, it lives in the now. I’ll figure out how I got here later, I’m here now, what’s in front of me?
The robot creatures that expelled me from the habitat were kind enough to have me run through a simulation that taught me the mechanics of the game. While it was a tutorial level, the game didn’t stop me from continuing. All the tutorials were happening in real-time without stopping the game. Once out on my own, I saw Death Trash’s world for what it truly was, a barren fleshy wasteland. It’ll be easy to make comparisons to other games in its genre like Fallout but while it borrows some mechanics and ideas from the Fallout series, Death Trash is its own beast. Something you immediately realize after being expelled from the habitat into the Flesh Kraken’s temple.
Moving around has a very arcade feel going for it. I’m not clicking and waiting for a character to move in that direction, my character is running in real-time. The more action-focused movement and combat felt unique in the setting style. I could simply run up to enemies and whack them with my blunt weapon or shoot them from afar by aiming a crosshair in their direction with my joystick. I played on the Xbox Series X and it felt right at home with a controller. Not much for guns, I opted to sneak my way past anyone who didn’t like me with a stealth kit that I could keep equipped. Stealth is very simple, hit the left trigger and walk around slightly slower than normal. You have a stealth bar that runs out as long as you’re moving but regenerates when you stand still and enemies have a cone of vision. If you sit in the cone for too long, they’ll spot ya. I had a few points into stealth so I was able to maneuver around a lot of areas without engaging in combat, which I adored.
The way I typically play these styles of games is someone who has a lot of charisma, stealth, science, and lockpicking abilities. That’s precisely how I was able to play the Death Trash demo. Though there were few special conversation choices, I think, Death Trash specifically tells you that having high empathy will unlock new conversation choices. Likewise, I was able to complete some quests easily because I had high tech skill and high stealth. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a damn lockpick so I was never able to sneak and lockpick but I didn’t check every corner so maybe I missed something.
Those few times I did get into combat I was in for a rough time. I hadn’t really put any points into melee or rifles so I was trying to dodge-roll a lot. The combat is fairly simple with trading blows in real-time but it works. I wasn’t great at the combat but luckily the world is full of flesh. In some particularly fleshy parts of the world, you’re able to find meat and organs just laying around, free for eating to regenerate health. I even managed to coax a little flesh beastling into my inventory. And while I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it, I never let it go. It’s mine now!
Wandering around after leaving the Flesh Kraken’s temple led me to Tauris, a good-sized town of people just trying to survive. While many of the people were simply ‘stranger’ to me, I found a fair bit of people willing to talk and have conversations. I also managed to stumble into a subterranean area that looked similar to the habitat. That’s where I met Mortus. Mortus convinced me that I needed a medical workup and wanted to scan me. Getting the medical scanner and some brains around the area would be simple, but he needed me to get some oil and a machine core from a nearby bunker.
Using stealth to get through the bunker and my tech skills to obtain the machine core was very exciting. There were quite a few times where I wasn’t sure if I could make it past some guards and some very close calls in the few instances of combat I got into. More importantly, being spotted didn’t alert everyone in the bunker. I was very thankful for that both as a player and from a design perspective. Though shooting a gun in a bunker would no doubt alert everyone, a simple struggle might not be noticed, especially with closed doors and futuristic space walls.
When I returned back, Mortus had me attempt to commune with the Flesh Nexus. I tried but felt like I didn’t have enough of a voice. We decided the best thing to do would be to talk to the Flesh Kraken. But first, the Flesh Kraken wanted a friend. The juxtaposition of wackiness and horror elements mixed together makes for a very interesting and visually appealing world.
I’m absolutely pumped for the release of Death Trash in August. This is something I only recently learned about but am now adequately hyped for. If you want to learn more about Death Trash, its themes, and a bit about its conception, I highly recommend the RagnaRox video down below.
I hope I’m not overselling Death Trash but it feels very unique in the current landscape of gaming. Death Trash makes its fleshy debut on Steam Early Access on August 5th.
