Dead Trash

About

Dead Trash is a single player survival shooter game with horror, post-apocalyptic and violence themes. It was developed by Crowhill Studios and was released on March 11, 2025. It received positive reviews from players.

Years into a brutal lockdown, a once-thriving city lies in ruins, abandoned by its government and overrun by vicious, mindless infected. Grab your hammer, collect your nerves and enter the mayhem.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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86%

Audience ScoreBased on 267 reviews

graphics18 positive mentions

grinding5 negative mentions

Unique and gritty art style with digitized sprites and comic panel cutscenes that enhance the game's grindhouse and B-movie vibe.
Satisfying gunplay with punchy weapons and excellent sound design, providing a crunchy and visceral shooting experience.
Atmospheric levels and soundtrack delivering a dark, claustrophobic, and immersive retro FPS experience with strong horror and trashpunk aesthetics.

Short game length with limited replayability, lacking features like cheat codes, level editor, map/minimap, and adjustable difficulty settings.
Some frustrating gameplay issues such as slow movement, cumbersome weapon reloads (notably the shotgun), obscure level design with invisible walls, and annoying hit-scan enemies shooting from out of sight.
Final boss fights criticized for poor design, bullet sponge mechanics, and difficulty spikes that can lead to repetitive or exploitative tactics.

graphics
50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36%
58%
6%
The game's graphics are praised for their distinctive gritty, lo-fi, and retro "boomer shooter" aesthetic, evoking 80s-90s low-budget horror and arcade titles with pixelated textures, photorealistic elements, and digitized actors. While not aiming for high fidelity, the deliberately crude and grainy visuals strongly enhance the oppressive, punk-horror atmosphere, though some stylistic choices occasionally break immersion. Overall, the art style is considered a key strength that delivers a unique and memorable visual experience fitting the game's tone and theme.
- “Being that it takes place in a city completely overrun by disrepair and garbage, Dead Trash absolutely nails that aesthetic, enhanced thanks to its use of photorealistic texture and digitized actors for the enemies.”
- “The visuals are deliberately crude in a way that suits the game’s tone, with pixelated textures and digitized sprite enemies giving it a grainy, VHS-era horror film feel.”
- “Rather than chasing graphical fidelity, Dead Trash opts for atmosphere, and in that regard it excels.”
- “The game features somewhat lazy, simplistic 'retro' looking 3D graphics, and it's hard to say if this is a deliberate attempt for the game to look bad/retro on purpose, or if the assets are just, well, terrible looking.”
- “While its aesthetic choices are cohesive, they sometimes cross into the absurd, with jarring elements like odd cartoonish enemies or misplaced humor breaking the immersion.”
- “The trailer made it feel like a combination of blood and even a dash of redneck rampage (in a good way, although Dead Trash is similar in its overall failure at what it attempts to achieve) with the graphics of a sophisticated 90s railshooter (like arcade Area 51 games)...this was nothing like that.”
music
38 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45%
47%
8%
The music is widely praised for its authentic 80s-90s synth style, evoking dark, retro horror and action movie vibes that enhance the game's atmospheric and gritty tone. Many reviewers find the soundtrack addictive, memorable, and a standout feature complementing the punchy gameplay and visuals. While occasionally repetitive, the synth-driven score is considered a major highlight that elevates the overall experience.
- “No kidding, the excellent soundtrack, which seems to have been created for a dark old-school action movie, deserves a separate listen.”
- “The music is dripping with Carpenter synths, doom beats, and crunchy ambiance that radiates apocalyptic urban decay.”
- “The music, while very repetitive, is genuinely good and gets you going.”
- “It has a 70's-80's midnight cult horror movie vibe, where every element from the story, most of the visuals, and especially the music hammers that feeling home in a very satisfying way.”
- “Music is okay, obviously trying to imitate 80's Carpenter-style type music.”
gameplay
37 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
54%
8%
The gameplay of the game is generally praised for capturing a classic retro FPS vibe with satisfying gun mechanics, enemy variety, and atmospheric design, offering a charming but straightforward boomer shooter experience. However, criticisms highlight its short length, lack of polish, clunky controls, and unimpressive level design, with some players finding it frustrating or uninspired. Overall, it appeals most to those who appreciate nostalgic, old-school shooters and are willing to overlook technical flaws for style and atmosphere.
- “The digitized sprites feel authentic to the mid-90s, its synth OST is more interesting than the generic metal sound many newer FPS games aping the retro style go for, and the gameplay is reminiscent of a true "Doom clone" (neither a fast-paced movement shooter nor a flat Wolf 3D style maze crawler) in a charming way.”
- “The gameplay is great too, guns feel amazing, sound brutal to use, and are generally quite satisfying to get. There's tons of secrets that reward you with health, ammo, and even new weapons, although by the end I didn't have problems getting all weapons, which I like—I was worried some were going to be secret exclusive and the like.”
- “A well made, bite-sized boomer shooter with punchy gameplay that's absolutely oozing with style from the visuals to the music.”
- “Dead trash features a very frustrating gameplay experience.”
- “While the game's visual and audio design are incredible, the gameplay itself tends to feel lackluster throughout many portions of the game due to some questionable decisions.”
- “Some of the enemy behavior and environmental interactions feel half-finished, and it’s clear that the game’s budget limitations impacted aspects of polish and gameplay fluidity.”
story
30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
60%
10%
The story is simple, straightforward, and often delivered through comic-style or slideshow cinematics that fit the game's gritty, cult horror vibe. While some find the narrative thin or basic, its pulpy, grindhouse aesthetic and presentation effectively complement the atmosphere and gameplay. Overall, the story serves as a functional and entertaining backdrop rather than a complex or ambitious plot.
- “The gloomy and frankly disturbing environment really creates the feeling of a pixelated urban dump, where you could tell a very complex story, like in a horror game.”
- “The story was decent and I can see a good bit of work went into it with all the real life digitized pictures taken for the sprites of enemies and the cut scenes.”
- “It has a 70's-80's midnight cult horror movie vibe, where every element from the story, most of the visuals, and especially the music hammers that feeling home in a very satisfying way.”
- “The plot is thin and told through comic-style cinematics.”
- “The story is lazy and told through a slideshow.”
- “Game is very direct and to the point, there is no complicated narrative, the story is just there as a vehicle to take the player from point A to point B.”
atmosphere
30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
47%
10%
The game is widely praised for its dense, gritty, and unsettling atmosphere, often described as dark, brutal, and nostalgically trashy with a strong B-movie or dystopian vibe. Players appreciate the creative, immersive design, thick audio, and synth-heavy soundtrack that enhance its claustrophobic and experimental feel, despite simple level design and some rough edges. Overall, the atmosphere is a standout element that deeply engages players who value mood and style over polished mechanics.
- “What unfolds is a gritty and claustrophobic experience that thrives on its oppressive atmosphere, lo-fi visuals, and brutal melee-focused combat.”
- “Dead Trash easily has the most satisfying gunplay of any Dosman game; the shotgun and pistol especially feel nice and punchy. I also dig the atmosphere and soundtrack, giving it a nice unsettling and dystopian vibe.”
- “The atmosphere and music feel as if playing through a B-movie, and a decent one at that.”
- “The dirt cheap price helps sell the extremely low rent atmosphere.”
- “While it is going for a campy nostalgic literally trashy atmosphere, it easily could've been better with some clearer level design and quality of life improvements.”
- “The atmosphere is brutal and 'dirty'; the level design is simple but intriguing enough to keep you going, and the shooting feels very, very good, very 'crunchy'.”
humor
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's humor is praised for its funny cutscenes, comic-style videos, and amusing easter eggs, contributing a nostalgic, lighthearted charm typical of 90s shooters. While mostly entertaining and clever, some humor can feel misplaced or break immersion with absurd elements, but overall it adds a fun, unpredictable, and memorable touch to the experience.
- “It's especially good during the cutscenes, which I found to be pretty funny.”
- “The humor, the easter eggs, the voice actors... pure fun.”
- “The videos, designed in the form of comics, give the game a humorous touch, which was typical for games of the 90s, especially 2.5d shooters, where the heroes and villains are played by the developers themselves.”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The grinding in the game is often tedious, with repetitive tasks like breaking countless trash bags for ammo and spawn trapping during certain boss phases leading to frustration. Manual saving and clunky menu navigation add to the annoyance, though the overall difficulty remains fair without becoming a significant deterrent.
- “The first phase of the final boss was really tedious due to spawn trapping, making the grinding quite annoying after a while.”
- “Having to constantly hit trash bags to find ammo early on was incredibly tedious and repetitive.”
- “Switching all weapons with 1-9 makes combat tedious, as there is no quick melee attack option, forcing you to switch back and forth often.”
stability
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
80%
The game's stability is generally solid, with occasional glitches such as inconsistent hit detection, delayed reloads, and erratic weapon behavior that can disrupt gameplay. Despite these issues, it rarely crashes and remains a stable, enjoyable experience overall.
- “It's nothing fancy, but it's stable, bug-free, and a fun distraction.”
- “It's got this nasty vibe to it, which the glitches and sloppiness add to.”
- “Hit detection can be inconsistent, and occasional glitches—like delayed reloads or weapons behaving erratically—can disrupt the flow of otherwise intense encounters.”
- “I want to shoot down another helicopter before it glitches my game into obsolescence again.”
replayability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The game's replayability is mixed, with some users finding it limited due to a short campaign and lack of difficulty options, while others appreciate its engaging gameplay and find it replayable despite its brevity. Overall, it offers decent value as a budget title but may not sustain long-term replay interest.
- “The game is short but replayable, the guns feel punchy and sound great.”
- “For a budget title it's fine, but there's no replayability, not even to play on hard because there's only one difficulty: easy.”
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is well-optimized, running smoothly without any performance issues reported by users.
- “It runs smoothly, I've had no issues whatsoever.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game evokes strong feelings of discomfort and disgust, with its visuals and content contributing to an overall unpleasant emotional experience.
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The character development is highlighted by fun and engaging boss fights, complemented by great character design that enhances the overall experience.