Ah, the open road. As far as I can tell, there’s no word for the feeling that overcomes you when you’re travelling from place to place, at speed, just taking the world in. Garbage Country hits that exact note, all while also being a surprisingly well paced exploration-meets-tower-defence game.
I know, right? That’s a weird combination of words. However, it completely works. In Garbage Country you travel through a ruined and, frankly, trashed Earth, where society has all but died off and nature is reclaiming the piles of junk that litter our planet. It feels great to trundle off-road, over both manmade waste and bumpy roads and routes.
Then, every so often, you’ll stop off to try to collect an item or upgrade, and drones will appear to try and stop you. Even these moments, which amount to a short tower-defence experience, are surprisingly chill. You simply slot your turrets out onto the battlefield and watch things play out, finessing locations as and when you need.
In fact, I don’t think it’s daring to say that this TD component, while really well executed, is not the star of the show at all. For me, that slow trundling over lumps and bumps, all playing out in that scrappy, pixelated, low-resolution PS1 era landscape, really calls out to something deep in me… even if it’s not quite the same as blasting down a motorway on a clear day. I cannot, for instance, ram things with my car to make resources and items come out, something that feels incredibly satisfying in Garbage Country.
I played through a good 20-30 minutes of Garbage Country while at the most recent Gamescom and massively enjoyed exploring, crafting and retooling my vehicle so that I could push further and further out into the wastes. I can’t wait for a chance to play more.
Garbage Country will be releasing for PC, via Steam, later this year.#
