Our unlucky planet in Wasteland Waste Disposal has suffered not just one apocalypse, but all of them. Turns out, the “megapocalypse” was a sick combination of “every worst-case doomsday scenario imaginable.” Luckily, in this upcoming sandbox adventure, you have a giant metal fortress that walks over pools of toxic sludge on enormous spider legs and gobbles up any trash you bring it. If that doesn’t intrigue you, maybe the little janitor with a sci-fi vacuum cleaner (or the comforting Adventure Time-esque music) will.
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It looks like your mobile metal fortress will be the center of attention, as you upgrade it with new equipment and bits of scaffolding on the outside to make room for smelting pots and rooftop gardens. But acid rain and radioactive storms could damage the hull, according to developers Kluk Digital. The other big thing you'll be doing is lowering yourself down to the earth's rutted surface on a large elevator and doing a lot of environmental cleanup. We see our hero driving a small digger and a forklift, for example, as he regularly cleans up a small city block. There will also be creatures to collect and farm, with both helpful and harmful habits. “Not all organisms are created equally useful,” the game's creators say.
Cleaning games have a power over me. Viscera Cleanup Detail’s red sludge is a gag stretched like a yellow rubber glove, until it becomes an irresistible chore. Its down-to-earth counterpart, PowerWash Simulator, fills me with a healthy dread because I know that if I start playing it, I’ll never stop. But my favorite recycling game is Hardspace: Shipbreaker, in which you blast metal and glass with lasers in zero gravity, surrounded by giant disposal machines that will swallow you as quickly as they swallow old passenger seats.
All of these games make you want to turn goo into shine, or gnarliness into cleanliness. And watching the timelapse of Wasteland Waste Disposal’s puffy beautifier as it scurries around vacuuming up leaves, twigs, and mud to transform an urban ruin into a habitable space really gets my “tidying” glands going. The developers want to create a “small open world” inspired in part by The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Dredge, they say, which is a nice mix of influences. Many open-world games can afford to be more compact. I’m looking at you, Elden Ring.
It's not out yet, but you can wishlist it on Steam, if you're the detox type.