Trash

When I was asked if I would like to preview a game by the name Trash I was a little hesitant. Once I played the beta for a while I was glad that I choose to look it over because it adds a few new ideas into the generally stale market of Real-Time Strategy games. Why would someone use the name Trash because it normally has negative connotation attached to it. The reason for this is because it all has to do with the game’s story. Trash takes place in a post- apocalyptic future where various fractions are battling it out for supremacy in this war-torn world. Since this world is stripped of everything of value, the primary resource that players will use is trash that the world has left.

The most unique thing about this game is that trash is the main resource, and it is a resource that is never in short supply. What I mean by this is if you have sent a huge army out and you have decimated the enemy forces but lost the majority of yours as well, you will notice that the battlefield is littered with garbage. All you will have to do is get your trash collectors up and pick up all of the remains, which you can reuse for other unit production. This is a very unique idea that is also very practical as well.

In this beta version there are two different factions that you can be, the humans or the mutants. They each play differently and use different trains of thought to play with. The humans prefer to use convention methods of exterminating their enemies. They like to use bullets, flame throwers, and many other forms of weapons that you see in modern warfare. The mutants were made by getting insane amounts of nuclear radiation into their bodies. Unlike the humans these beings like to use their newfound powers in battle. So far the game is way unbalanced meaning the mutants are way overpowered and I am sure that will be fixed in the final version.

For this beta version, the game modes available were multiplayer and single player. The single-player mode is similar to a skirmish mode and it really only trains people for online mode. The multiplayer is fast and fun, but thus far there hasn’t been enough people to test the claim that you can play up to 24 players online at one time. While this is always good for first-person shooter games, I was curious to see how it would work for a real-time strategy game.

The game is nice looking, but it in no way can compare to some of the other games that are currently on the market and those that are about to be released. This in no way means that this game is ugly. The game has nice texture work and runs really smooth, which is something that is to be commended. Each of the units, from all factions, have their own unique look and feel to them, which makes this game better when you can see all of the enemies fighting on the screen to see what type they are using and what unit to counter it with next battle.

The sound for this game definitely needs some work as well. While the game doesn’t sound particularly bad, it just is not up to snuff in comparison to other games out there. Since this is the beta there is no music at all, which makes the game feel a little longer as you are not jamming out to some post-apocalyptic music as you are killing your enemies. The sound effects that the developers are using are also very generic and not that impressive; hopefully that will get revamped as well.

So far, Trash is shaping up to be a very interesting real-time strategy game that you will have to see to believe. I look forward to seeing how this game will compete with some of the other RTS games when it is finally released. Until that time, I need to go pick up some more trash so I can defeat these persistent humans who threaten my very existence.