EARLY ACCESS: DEATH TRASH

MEAT. Meat is everywhere. In trying to identify a predominant element that could accurately describe Death Trash to someone who wishes to learn more about it, this phrase may be the most apt: "Death Trash is a game about PIXELATED RAW MEAT". It grabs your attention, if nothing else.

Leaving the meat aside for the moment (with a heavy heart, for sure) and starting from the beginning, Death Trash is an indie RPG that was released a few days ago in Early Access status, on Steam, GoG, itch.io and Epic Store. Being in development for at least six years, it first came to my attention via a sponsored Facebook ad several years ago, proving that the system sometimes really works. I've watched its development with great interest through the little snippets its creators have released over the years, until we were finally lucky enough to get a small, first taste of it at the recent Steam Next Fest, and a second, slightly larger bite on this early EA release.

It is quite difficult to describe the atmosphere and the background lore of Death Trash. In the game's opening cutscene we are given some rudimentary information about humanity living on the planet Nexus, on the ruins of civilizations that were wiped out during a vague catastrophe known as The Bleeding. Humanity seems to be under the direct or indirect protection/yoke of intelligent Machines, and divided between those who inhabit the cities and the Outcasts who have been exiled and roam the world.

One such Outcast is the character we create. Or, more accurately, in the first few seconds of the game we experience the beginning of his exile, as a group of Machines informs us that we are carrying "a disease" (with the first symptom being vomiting - I forgot to mention the VERY IMPORTANT vomiting aspect, which is a secondary feature of the game after RAW MEAT) and that we can never enter a city again. And with this little bit of information we begin our journey into Death Trash, visiting the locations of its semi-open world in order to seek information primarily about our illness... but secondarily about the nature of the mysterious raw meat that seems to grow everywhere directly out of the ground.

Beyond explaining its lore, it's also quite difficult to point out any other game that resembles Death Trash in its gameplay or broader aesthetics. There are certainly more or less obvious influences that could be identified, with the first Fallout being the dominant one among them. This influence mainly has to do with the "Cavalier Oblique" isometric display, the post-apocalyptic aesthetic of its world (and the world's exploration through travelling around the world map and discovering locations within it), the character/skill creation system, which is reminiscent of a fairly simplified version of S.P.E.C.I.A.L., and the fairly dark humour that makes an occasional appearance. Of course, the fact that we start the game as "exiles" thrown into the unknown world and asked to "make do" could also be pointed out as a Fallout influence.

Even that influence is "up to a point" though, since Death Trash differs from Fallout in several key areas. First among these is the combat, which, unlike Fallout, is fully Real-Time and has a rather Action-y philosophy and aesthetic. Another (and perhaps more important) such area is the writing, as, in its Early Access phase at least, Death Trash seems to feature quite "simple" dialogue, both in terms of its "depth" and length, and in terms of the dialogue system itself. Equally absent seems to be any deep moral or philosophical "ambiguity" in the design of the world, locations or Quests. Meanwhile, while there may be the option for a Melee, Ranged or Stealth approach to combat, and some of the Skills may offer some extra path when navigating a location, the "Falloutian" plethora of options in the resolution of Quests seems to be absent, with Quests usually having a single possible outcome.

As a small differentiation we could also point out the fact that, unlike the hardcore single-player Fallout, Death Trash can also be played as multiplayer, via the offered option for split screen co-op!

The parameter "in its Early Access phase at least" might prove to be quite decisive, of course, as it is a fact that the initial EA release of Death Trash is, as expected, quite lacking. Certainly the accessible part of the World Map is much larger than, say, what we saw in the Demo available at the recent Steam Fest, with the world also featuring many more locations, we can advance the Main Quest by 3-4 more missions, and, similarly, encounter more NPCs and take on quite a few extra Quests. The content, however, is currently equivalent to 4-5 hours of the final 20+ hours announced, and some shortcomings such as the available gear and loot (most enemies in the world seem to use the same 3-4 weapons) and some Skills that find limited to no application in the game world at the moment are pretty obvious, too. Given that this is clearly a "Work-in-Progress" (and in such an early form that saves in the current version of EA will not be compatible with the next versions, as the disclaimer at launch says) and that the above areas will be definitely enriched, we shouldn't be surprised to see a corresponding enrichment in the offered options even in the already existing quests.

However, as Early as the current Access is in Death Trash, and as much as the game will be enriched in the future in terms of content, its atmosphere already manages to impress. This is mainly due to the grotesque aesthetic created by such an intense concentration of blood, vomit and RAW MEAT, which hits directly into the psyche and "disturbs" by triggering particular horror notes. The rather strange and mysterious backstory also plays its part, involving things like strange MEAT TITANS and Machines overseeing humanity, alongside of course the main quest itself, which caught my interest even in its early stages. Death Trash may need a lot of enrichment before we can reach any final conclusions about its quality, but even so I feel an inexplicable urge to further explore this post-apocalyptic world full of Machines and RAW MEAT. Cyberpunk and Steampunk are so last year - we have proudly entered the age of MEATPUNK. What a time to be alive, dear reader.

Death Trash is expected to remain in Early Access for at least a year, or "even longer if necessary" according to its small development team. Its price is expected to increase after its full release, but for now it's available at a 10% discount across all digital stores.