PowerWash Simulator 2

Powerwash Simulator succeeded in getting gamers to wash with rarely any pressure, the essence here being as brilliant as the dazzling end result after hard work. The whole idea is based on transforming something dirty into something shiny and beautiful while relaxing, logging out, and entering a trance. Joining the crowd that appreciates order and tidiness, cleanliness and beauty is, of course, not difficult. Many of us have been out on a summer's day on remote country roads, kicking up dust, driving on freshly laid asphalt, or mud with our cars only to come home and start cleaning, rinsing, shampooing, and waxing. A shiny, clean end result is satisfying and extremely pleasant and transforming that feeling into a game was the basis of FuturLab's sleeper hit from 2022.

The sequel three years later is basically the same game. You almost need a magnifying glass to find any differences from the studio's previous instalment in the series, and the focus seems to have been primarily on creating new objects, areas, and buildings to clean. Maybe that's enough, you might think? I don't really think it's enough to elevate this to new heights... Powerwash Simulator has been exemplary supported over the years with free content, DLC and add-ons, in addition to major collaborations and crossovers with well-known franchises such as Shrek, Tomb Raider, Back to the Future, Final Fantasy, and Warhammer. We've hosed down most things to date and taken a break along the way by postponing cleaning the stove IRL to instead polish SpongeBob SquarePants' pineapple house on a 1:1 scale.

Powerwash Simulator 2 follows in comfortable footsteps and on a well-trodden path. You start from your office and accept assignments around Muckingham that require care and polish. The levels here are built up in longer sequences and several steps that open up gradually with sub-goals for you to clean. You have various tools at your disposal, with the pressure washer being your primary weapon in the quest for sparkling cleanliness, along with a new and larger rotating cleaning brush. Applying a foamy layer of solvent helps with the toughest and most ingrained stains, as well as moss growth and various types of decay. The controls have been redesigned, making it easier than ever to switch between tools, including shorter and longer lances depending on where the dirt is located, where reach and distance are crucial for efficiency. You can also change the nozzle to concentrate the jet or run at a wide angle vertically or horizontally to be as productive as possible over larger areas. Likewise, it's now much easier to hunt down that last little spot that is hiding, but this is hardly a revolution, rather a logical and more thoughtful feature. Pallets, ladders, and electric scissor lifts also help you reach those more difficult-to-access places.

Much of this feels familiar three years after this unique simulator broke through, but it's not all fun and games in single-player, local co-op, and multiplayer. In fact, the game sometimes got on my nerves due to the many highly unmotivated bugs I encountered. This is somewhat surprising, as the overall experience seems like a modest upgrade from the first game, which largely overlooked ambitions to break new ground. After half an hour, I'm still in the tutorial and have restarted the game ten times, once because the game crashed and nine times because the sound stopped working. Is sound that important? When it comes to relaxation, I would argue that it's extremely important. Once again, there is no music, and the few sounds that are there - namely birds chirping in the background to accompany your purring cats as they follow you through the game's scenes, interspersed with pressurised and gurgling water and the hissing foam that dissolves and washes away all the world's worries - when this suddenly disappears, a large part of the strange feedback in the experience is also lost.

The game's mindfulness was sometimes lacking in the version presented on PlayStation 5. I eventually resigned myself to using tap-fire with the foam pad so as not to continuously disable the game, as prolonged use of the foam caused the problem, which, given my circumstances, created some stress as the areas to be cleaned became larger and larger the further I progressed in the game. Nor did it get any better when the once satisfying "Ka-Ching!" sound of my hard-earned money after cleaning surfaces began to be conspicuous by its absence. The clever jingle designed to trigger the reward centre and tick off completed tasks came and went as it pleased. The money earned continuously throughout the levels is used in the game's shop to buy new items and high-pressure accessories to make your cleaning routine more bearable and efficient, so imagine my surprise when the entire inventory of items to buy suddenly disappeared. Even the shop was affected by bugs, which meant I had to start from scratch.

I sat in total silence, cleaning dirty surfaces for hours and earning money I couldn't spend on anything. I asked myself aloud: "Martin, have you ended up in hell after all?" and I answered myself, loudly, as my own voice became more important the longer this went on. I ploughed on with my water sprayer as the objects covered in sediment were numerous and consisted of everything from toilets to large silos and giant billboards. The cats Ulysses, Squeaks, and Bubbles sat curiously in the background of the game, watching as I cleaned bricks and greasy windows, and began to lose touch with reality. It's an extremely time-consuming and relaxing game when it works as intended, with double the playing time when it requires restarts.

I am, of course, assuming that the bugs will be fixed in the not too distant future, and I may well have encountered a unique format-specific phenomenon, but it's also difficult to overlook this fact when playing the game ahead of its launch. I am aware of the bugs I have encountered, but as an experience, it's still perfectly fine when it works as intended. The idea behind the game is, as you have probably already understood, almost identical to its predecessor. It's a modest visual upgrade that doesn't take advantage of today's consoles, even if wet surfaces, dirt, and textures are slightly more defined, in addition to tighter game controls and a handful of new tools than last time around. If you liked the first game, you will feel at home here as it's more of the same, but if you didn't like it last time, it's unlikely to win your heart this time either. The price is in line with what you get, which is a marginally polished version of the first game with new levels rather than a full-fledged sequel.