Death Trash is twisted, and I mean that as a compliment
I'm glad Death Trash is pixel art, because otherwise I'd be disgusted by all the raw meat, vomit, and skinlessness. Not to mention the naked old men who seem to be happily hanging out on the fringes of this particular post-apocalypse. One of them danced for me.
Here are some names on Death Trash's world map: Festering Gorge, Woundland, Puke Bar. It's not a nice place. I was exiled here because of a disease that meant I couldn't stay in an underground bunker run by robots, where instead of finding jobs, people were chilled in their VR cyber womb all day. Now I live on the surface with outcasts, mutants, mysterious huge beings called titans, and an endless supply of flesh coming out of the ground.
Despite the worms running around, that raw meat seems to be the only thing anyone eats. With a successful livestock control I am getting a meat wolf to carry with me and be my friend. Then I feed him into a cluster of enemies for a distraction. There are a lot of enemies in the Early Access version of Death Trash, and the pre-release update notes "improved non-combat gameplay" will be part of the full release. So while I can sneak past some fights, I have to kill loads of mutants while exploring this grotesque wasteland.
Death Trash's combat is real-time, and what used to piss me off in classic RPG until you get good gear and enough skill points suddenly turns into fun. This happens when I find a sword, which I like to carry with me as it both suits my aesthetic and has done enough damage to drop someone with a single backstab.
The character creator lets you do your own punk, so I went with a saggy black ensemble that I would adorn with sunglasses and a bandana over my mouth later. Dressed like that, holding a sword down like an anime character feels right. At least until I find a claw glove that does more damage.
Most fights start secretly. I'm activating an implant that renders me invisible long enough to get behind someone's cone of vision and let them go. Being able to take down the most annoying enemy in a group before others get angry with him is a definite blessing. It's then a matter of frantically dodging between swipes, hoping that those precious invincibility frames keep me safe and everyone dies before my stamina runs out.
There are guns, and right-clicking brings up whichever I equip, fluidly switching between shooting and hacking. There are at least six different types of ammo, so even if I made a melee character, you better believe I carry one of each weapon type just in case.
In one corner of the map, I found a rogue-powered rogue - a one-shot kill weapon - that closed all angles of a stalemate. I threw something 'pips' enough to distract the rogue until I got Freddy Krueger's claws out. I've been carrying that rocket launcher ever since and haven't fired it once because what if I need it later? This is what happens to my brain in any game with limited ammo.
My favorite way to play Fallout, as a diplomat, was the way out of most problems, and despite Death Trash having an empath status, I only found a few places where it added dialogue options. Stealth or violence or a combination of the two seems to be the way to go, but that doesn't mean there's nothing but war in this Early Access release of Death Trash.
In a settlement, I met a few exiles who had entered a vomiting contest and agreed to help one of them win by finding something really disgusting for them to eat. Performance-enhancing substances are ruining the competitive sport of vomiting, and I am part of the problem. I also tried to figure out what the deal was with the mysterious disease that made me vomit so personally. Seeking experts in medicine and science has led to the mysteries of the titans obsessed with by some of the clever people of the wasteland, but within a few hours I hit a wall in that unfinished questline. Instead I'm doing side research, dealing with Puke Bar's meatworm problem and finding friends for Fleshkraken.
If it's not clear from my use of the word "vomit" three times in that paragraph, this is a game with a great style, enjoying the arrogance. Technology works on vomit, one of the crafting materials is garbage, and when you throw something out of your inventory you say "Fuck it" and "You don't need this shit". It's a garbage world, but that's okay because I'm a garbage goblin, all on a meat diet, and fully determined to improve on my stabbing tactics, Naruto running across the desert with my sword in one hand.
Death Trash is available on Steam.
