Cooking For Mutants In The New Horror Sim Wasteland Bites

The world has ended, leaving behind an irradiated hellscape where civilization is a memory. This does not mean the shambling figures wandering the wasteland have lost their appetite. For those curious about employment in a post-apocalyptic world, the game Wasteland Bites offers a specific simulation. It is a food truck simulator where you become a short-order cook for the hungry mouths of a fallen world, even when those mouths contain jagged, bloodstained teeth.

A demo is available on Steam, with the full game scheduled for release in April.

Your food truck comes equipped with certain essentials. You have raw meat and canned goods, alongside piles of vegetables that look unwell. The inventory also includes cigarettes, large rats, a shotgun, and rabid dogs. In a functional society, several of these items would not be standard in a food preparation vehicle, but these are the End Times. Adaptation is necessary.

To begin a shift, you honk the truck’s horn, which scares away the pack of dogs. You nudge the rats off the mounds of meat and piles of vegetables. Killing them is not a permanent solution, as they will keep returning. The shotgun rests on the counter. A line forms outside, and while one should not judge by appearances, some of the customers are hideous.

The mutants and monsters who arrive place their orders. Despite being rotting ghouls, some with missing limbs or even heads, they are quite impatient. They will wander off if not served quickly. The meals can consist of almost anything available in the truck. One order might be a raw egg and a clove of garlic served on a stick. Another customer might request a sandwich made from a turnip and a potato, briefly warmed in a toaster. Hey, I just cook 'em. These mutants are, for the most part, regular individuals trying to survive in a world that has gone wrong.

However, some true horrors will appear at the food truck with the intention of making a meal out of you. While serving a line of impatient ghouls and mutants, a strange glowing apparition might be seen sidling up to the truck, moving slowly until it finally lunges.

On another occasion, a poltergeist could appear inside the kitchen. It might slam the food service window shut, flip all the fuses to cut the power, and then begin to shake the entire truck while grinning in your face. As far as I'm concerned, it is a uniquely stressful work environment. I have even observed an alien spaceship hovering in the distant desert sky, only for it to suddenly swoop in for a much closer inspection.

There are methods for dealing with these lethal nuisances. Sometimes, simply aiming a flashlight at them is enough to scare them away. Other times, it becomes necessary to shut off all the lights, a frightening prospect in itself. Simply looking away from a horror can cause it to lose interest and depart. A specific warning applies if you turn and find a gross clown leering at you from within the truck. This situation requires you to perform the unpleasant task of honking its nose. It is a necessary interaction in the wasteland; you will occasionally have to please a dirty clown.

This title joins a growing trend of unusual cooking simulators, a welcome development for those who enjoy the genre.