In a not too far future people are collecting trash to beat vicious mutants, not a very happy outlook in the real time strategy game Trash.

Real Time Strategy Games by independent developers are pretty scarce. They take a lot to develop when it comes to AI, graphics and game play. Trash is a one of the later independent RTS games.

At first site Trash looks a lot like any other RTS game, the graphics are really nice and much of the game look really neat. The graphics are very similar to Total Annihilation with 3D rendering.

The units in the game are connected pretty much to the story. They are apocalyptic with old rusty cars with machine guns and motorcycles with flamethrowers. But there are also more advanced units like helicopters and tank-like vehicles. Unfortunately there aren’t any innovative units that we haven’t seen before. Most of them we’ve seen in one form or another in other RTS games.

Trash suffers a bit because the unit balancing aren’t that well done. There are some mutant units that can be built early in the game, which can destroy like fifteen of the human units before they are put down.

During the battle you have to remember that Trash has some advanced features. For example if the units has higher ground you gain more, there is also advanced line of fire features. You can hide your units behind a building without the enemy seeing them or being able to fire at them, neat.

There are also a lot of base and resource planning involved when playing. There are a number of buildings that can be built to gain resources or units. All of the buildings have to be connected with pipes to get energy. The pipe thing is probably there so that you can’t build outside a certain area of the map.

To get resources you have to collect trash, in order to do that you need garbage trucks, lots of them. In this sense the game resembles Command&Conquer with the harvesters, the garbage trucks is also one of your most vulnerable positions. The enemy AI constantly tries to attack them if given a chance so they need protection. The game also features a lot of different environments like winter, deserts and forests. Most of the levels are modelled with great care and are fun to play.

Overall Trash is a fairly nice game to play; somehow it’s not that engaging as other RTS games. The unbalanced units aren’t really that nice either, but the game might appeal to certain strategy players.