PowerWash Simulator (2022)

I found PowerWash Simulator surprisingly enjoyable, despite the limits of its premise and presentation.

The core gameplay loop is monotonous but strangely satisfying. I never felt compelled to devote my full attention to it, but it was relaxing to play as a secondary experience while catching up on shows or podcasts.

I appreciate the game’s restrained approach to hints and tutorials, the lack of time limits and ability to save whenever, and the variety of career mode jobs that avoid a linear growth in scale and complexity. (My personal favorite job was the Subway. Lots of surfaces to cover without as many finicky intersections as the Carousel or Ferris Wheel.)

That said, this has to be one of the least stylish or aesthetically interesting games I've rolled credits on. There's no music, no real differentiation in sound effects, the structures and objects feel pulled from a stock asset store, and the dirt and grime lacks any real dimension or heft. It feels exactly "good enough."

Quick note on platforms: I acquired this game via my PlayStation Plus "Essentials" subscription, but I found it most enjoyable to stream to my Steam Deck via chiaki-ng for its gyro aiming and suitability for a second screen experience. I did encounter hiccups in larger levels that required me to close and re-open the game on the PlayStation 5 to resolve.

I first have to disclaim that I'm not a big fan of zen games, those which help you turn your brain off and do a mindless relaxing task for a good chunk of time, but I still bought this game and for the first few hours was really happy with it: the mechanics are surprisingly polished and seeing a place turn from the crappiest sight on Earth to the cleanest one can be really satisfying. But this game's campaign is really long, can easily take 30 hours or more, and the gameplay doesn't really change or add anything that is remotely challenging. You get better nozzles, but they just make cleaning faster, with no other real change. The quirky dialog is very enjoyable, but you only get them at specific milestones in each level and amount to only around 15-20 lines per each one. And the lore is surprisingly charming and intriguing, but takes a lot to really get going (I'd say you must get to around 75% of the campaign before it really has any impact on the levels). Everything I like about this game comes with a great BUT for me, and it really makes me sad. I love its charm and the obvious love and care the developers put into it, but the gameplay is really shallow and the levels get incredibly long.

As I stated at the beginning of this text, I'm not the target audience of this kind of zen game and probably made a big mistake by purchasing it in the first place, but if you enjoy this "genre", certainly give PowerWash Simulator a try: its charm and polish will probably win you over.

This game kinda surprised me.

I thought it would be fun for a few minutes and then get old (i mean, it's just powerwashing right), but they've done something with this game that makes it feel extremely satisfying to play. There's a bunch of different environments to clean up, and you can buy all sorts of extensions and soap for the powerwasher, each soap cleans a different type of surface.

The real fun in this game just comes from the relaxation and the satisfaction of see-ing the stuff you're working on steadily becoming all clean and shiny. The movement in the game feels super smooth (although the jumping on things sometimes... doesn't) and the graphics are also surprisingly decent for a game like this.

Big recommendation for this game!

PowerWash Simulator kuulosti käsittämättömältä konseptilta: miksi joku haluaisi tehdä pelissä jotain niin kuivaa ja tylsää kuin puhdistaa paikkoja. Niin vain minäkin kokeilin tätä kummallisuutta Game Passin kautta ja pojat, se oli menoa.

Siinä on jotain hämmentävän zenmäistä putsata painepesurilla autoja, taloja, leikkipuistoja yms. Painepesurin heiluessa prosenttimittari nousee pikkuhiljaa ja tyydyttävä zitzing kertoo objektin puhdistuneen sataprosenttisesti. Tämän lisäksi kun näet ihan omilla silmillä eron puhtaan ja likaisen välillä, niin sitä vaan jatkaa ja jatkaa mielellään.

Pelissä ei ole kovin kummoista päätarinaa jota läpäistä ja tietyn pisteen jälkeen uudet kentät eivät hirveästi uutta tuo perustekemiseen. Silti 14 tuntia vierähti pelin parissa ihan helposti ja ehkä joskus jatkan peliä, kun kaipaan jotain zenmäistä puuhastelua. Erityisesti Game Pass pelinä tämä on aivan täydellinen.

Hyvä 3/5

I love this game with every cell in my body. There's absolutely no reason for a game to be this good, yet the developers put so much love into making this dumb idea into a reality and you can't help but love it.

The gameplay is quite literally the simplest thing in the world: They present you with something dirty, you have to wash it. It is essentially the gaming equivalent of a coloring book. It's not meant to be complex or even engaging game, but rather just something fun and relaxing you can do if you're bored or waiting for something. And I think the game achieves that perfectly.

There is so much love and care put into this game. There are so many easter eggs in every map, like finding all the gnomes or the paw prints of Ulysses hidden in the level, or just looking at the graffiti the developers put on the walls of the game, hidden underneath the dirt. In every level you get text messages from your clients and all of them display so much personality, even for one-off characters.

The game tells what is probably the dumbest story ever made, and I love the hell out of it. Sure it might start with you cleaning a few houses and vans, but as the game progresses the stuff you have to wash gets progresively more and more ridiculous. The developers know the concept of the game is stupid, and it's obvious they're just having fun. Because, why not? why shouldn't the protagonist of this coloring book be the messianic figure of powerwashing?

It might not be the prettiest game at times, but the things you clean are still all so incredibly detailed. Even if you know the background is just a flat texture 10 meters away from the player, you'll still never notice them while you're doing your job. Also can I just say the ending credits have an absolutely beautiful song playing in the background and it's a god damn song about washing stuff until it shines.

In conclusion: I loved every second I played this game. This game is a great experience, either by yourself or with friends, to the point where watching the timelapses during the ending credits made me literally tear up. I just simply cannot think of any way the developers could've made this better. I cannot believe I'm saying this, but 10/10