My review of the budget indie RTS Trash is now up at DIYGames.

It’s games like Trash that make reviewing indies such a trial. It’s only twenty dollars, so it’s pocket change compared to most games. It’s not as good as any large commercial RTS, and for obvious reasons. Money can’t buy you a perfect game, but it buy you a lot of almost good-ness. Trash is a very good indie RTS.

So do you evaluate it based on its “objective” qualities, comparing it to all other RTS on the market and available to consumers, or do you just compare it to all other games with similar budgets and resources? Should an indie review site be like the minor leagues, pushing and promoting small developers through encouragement or should it be an advocate for the consumer – twenty dollars is almost half of a AAA title that will almost certainly have more replay and more options?

I settled on 3.5 stars because Trash is good for what it is – an old school RTS made on the cheap with a sense of style. But it wasn’t an easy call.