PowerWash Simulator

Genre: First-Person Shooter / Simulation

Players: 1-6 Co-Op (Online)

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Review:

PowerWash Simulator, released on PC and Xbox One in 2022 and ported to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2023, is a game that mixes First-Person Shooter and Simulation elements to deliver an experience exactly like what the title says. Players are presented with various vehicles and environments covered with dirt and grime, and must use their high-powered cleaning equipment to clean it off.

The presentation here is very good, with pretty detailed 3D objects and really excellent textures that do a good job conveying how wet they are when you spray them. And while I feel like this game could have gone even farther with its visuals to show water runoff or to show water deflecting off of surfaces, what’s here is still quite excellent.

When it comes to sound, pretty much all you’ll be hearing here is the constant white noise of the spraying water, varying in pitch based on what you’re spraying with it, with the only other sound being the pinging of your phone as you receive texts regarding other jobs as they become available to you. There’s no music to speak of here, no environment noises, nothing to break the monotony of sound, for better or worse.

As for the gameplay, you’re really just moving around in first-person spraying things with water until they’re clean. You can select nozzles with different widths, with more focused nozzles better able to get out stains but wider ones covering a larger area, and you can change their orientation from horizontal to vertical, or change their angle to get to hard-to-reach places. Over time you’ll get access to new cleaning equipment, as well as soaps to make you more effective at cleaning specific surfaces, but you’ll pretty much still be doing the same basic thing.

When it comes to that basic gameplay, there’s very little to the gameplay here beyond the simple act of cleaning. You’re not building up a business, not competing to get the best time or most efficient use of water (though there are additional game modes where you can do so). There aren’t areas that need to stay dry and you’re penalized for hitting with your spray, nor any limit to what you’re doing. Sometimes it can be a challenge to find the right angle, or to find a way to jump up to where you can spray on a roof or something like that, but you’re given an unlimited amount of time to figure it out. And if you’re ever unsure where you still need to clean, you have a button that will highlight the dirt, a readout showing how clean the surface you’re targeting is, and a menu listing all the things still needing to be cleaned. And if you want things to go more quickly, you can also play in online co-op, where you can clean together with others.

Having said that, for the most part the only “game” here is… continuing to clean until you get everything done, then moving on to the next job. And because of this lack of significant goal structure, this isn’t going to be a game for everyone. However, there’s something almost meditative about the process of systematically cleaning everything in the game, and something satisfying when you get a “ting” and the thing you’re currently cleaning flashes to let you know it’s complete.

A few more things I should note before wrapping up this review. PowerWash Simulator makes use of neither the touchscreen nor gyroscopic motion controls, and the game’s load times are somewhat long, meaning that this game doesn’t especially excel on the Nintendo Switch, even if otherwise it looks and plays fine. Also, the menus annoyingly have you moving around a cursor with the analog stick rather than selecting menu options directly. It certainly seems like there could have been better optimization in this regard.

Overall, if ever there were a game that would speak to your “inner OCD”, PowerWash Simulator is it. And while it feels like there definitely could be more here, and there are certainly areas that could be improved on, what is here is surprisingly compelling, and can easily suck you into hours of slowly, methodically cleaning everything around you. Which is enjoyable, sure, but it also makes me look up from the game to my less-than-perfectly-clean real-life house and wonder if perhaps I could be making better use of my time.

tl;dr – PowerWash Simulator is a game that mixes First-Person Shooter and Simulation elements where players use high-powered cleaning equipment to clean off various vehicles and environments. This game could benefit from more structured goals, the loading times are a bit much, and the menu interface is pretty terrible, but while this game definitely has room for improvement, it still makes for a surprisingly compelling, almost meditative experience. This game won’t be for everyone, but some players will find this to be surprisingly compelling.

Grade: B

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2023 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Simulation, Best Misc. Game, Most Original, The “Wow, this game was way better than I expected!” Award

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