TL;DR - PowerWash Simulator is a relaxing, “head-empty”, simulator with good progression, well designed controls, and a surprisingly deep campaign. Unfortunately, frequent crashes were frustrating and hampered my enjoyment of its satisfying loop.
Review:
I’m not exactly an avid job simulator player. A few have caught my eye, but a lot of them seem poorly designed, with bare-bones systems and minimal effort put into their creation. Still, there is a certain lizard brain itch that these types of games scratch for me. Simulators that take menial labor and the sweet satisfaction of a job well done and gameify them tickle my most basic instincts. Hardspace: Shipbreaker is one of those games; an excellent twist on the genre where you play as a spaceship salvager meticulously carving and separating the valuable and invaluable parts of old spacecraft in service of the megacorporation that owns you. It kind of reminded me of working at car dealerships as a detailer and shopkeep during college. There’s just something about throwing some headphones on, flipping to your favorite podcast, putting your head down to get to work, and then turning around and admiring all you accomplished.
PowerWash Simulator, thankfully, has more in common with the quality of Hardspace than some of the other job simulators. As a nameless power washer, you’ll work your way through about 40 levels offering a diverse number of different environments and vehicles to clean with your water gun, and all of it is enjoyable. I was genuinely surprised by how deep and varied the campaign is. I found myself cleaning all sorts of things, from bicycles and vans, to haunted houses and ancient statues. The absurdity of some of the jobs you’re tasked with completing are amusing and keep the game from feeling too repetitive. A rewarding but simple progression system helps keep you moving as well. The money you earn from your washes can be used to buy more powerful guns, nozzles with different ranges, fast-cleaning soap, and even some snazzy new suits and skins. The quest to become a more efficient cleaner passes directly through these upgrades, and the improvements feel well worth their in-game price.
The loop is quite simple. You’ll select a level, be dropped in, and must clean off every speck of dirt in sight. It requires patience and precision control if you want to be effective, and I could see some people getting frustrated at the pace of the game. But, if you are willing to let yourself be absorbed into the task, I think you’ll find the experience to be relaxing and meditative. If you’d like to speed up the process or the task seems too daunting, you can spend a modest amount of your hard-earned dollars on soaps which can be used to dissolve the grime before your eyes, and decrease the amount of time you have to spend on any individual section. Speaking of sections, the game smartly divides its levels and vehicles into smaller pieces that make the tasks much easier to tackle. Whenever you complete a section, a very satisfying chime will let you know, and I found myself chasing that sound like a puppy learning a new trick in exchange for a tasty treat. I do wish that the progress tracking on individual segments was more uniform across the game though. I encountered some walls or sinks that appeared completely spotless after a thorough searching, but still weren’t marked complete, and it took me spraying randomly across their surfaces to finally trigger the completion. On other objects, plenty of dirt could still be seen before the chime would sound, and this inconsistency grew increasingly tiring as I spent more time with the game.
As a whole, PowerWash Simulator is a beautifully mind-numbing experience. This isn’t a game you have to try very hard at. There aren’t complex puzzles to solve or difficult boss encounters to defeat. You just clean, and clean, and clean. It’s the kind of game I’d consider when I want to play something, but would rather not deal with the overstimulation or complex systems of a more traditional video game experience. But there is one specific problem that compromised my whole experience: crashes. I’m not sure if it’s an issue specific to my console, or if PowerWash Simulator is poorly optimized for PS5, but I experienced a dozen or so crashes throughout my 35 hours of playtime, and my patience ran so thin that I put the game down for days at a time. I’m not sure if FuturLab has any more updates planned for the game, but a few performance patches for PS5 wouldn’t do them any harm.
If you need a relaxing game to pass the time, but get turned off by the slower-paced and poorly designed job simulators that are currently out there, I think PowerWash Simulator is the one you should try. It’s simple, it’s charming, and it’s fun. There’s enough of a game here to keep your brain engaged but not so much that requires a lot of effort or attention from you. A deep campaign and rewarding progression system are welcome features that invite you to play more. Before I end, I also have to shout out PowerWash Simulator’s ending cutscene and credits. The montage is accompanied by a bright and catchy tune and the credits include short videos of every cleaning job performed throughout your campaign. A beautiful reminder that looking back at a job well done is a reward in and of itself. The PS5 version’s performance is an unfortunate stain on an otherwise squeaky clean experience, but a little dirt isn’t enough to keep me from inviting everyone to give this addictive simulator a go.
Review:
I’m not exactly an avid job simulator player. A few have caught my eye, but a lot of them seem poorly designed, with bare-bones systems and minimal effort put into their creation. Still, there is a certain lizard brain itch that these types of games scratch for me. Simulators that take menial labor and the sweet satisfaction of a job well done and gameify them tickle my most basic instincts. Hardspace: Shipbreaker is one of those games; an excellent twist on the genre where you play as a spaceship salvager meticulously carving and separating the valuable and invaluable parts of old spacecraft in service of the megacorporation that owns you. It kind of reminded me of working at car dealerships as a detailer and shopkeep during college. There’s just something about throwing some headphones on, flipping to your favorite podcast, putting your head down to get to work, and then turning around and admiring all you accomplished.
PowerWash Simulator, thankfully, has more in common with the quality of Hardspace than some of the other job simulators. As a nameless power washer, you’ll work your way through about 40 levels offering a diverse number of different environments and vehicles to clean with your water gun, and all of it is enjoyable. I was genuinely surprised by how deep and varied the campaign is. I found myself cleaning all sorts of things, from bicycles and vans, to haunted houses and ancient statues. The absurdity of some of the jobs you’re tasked with completing are amusing and keep the game from feeling too repetitive. A rewarding but simple progression system helps keep you moving as well. The money you earn from your washes can be used to buy more powerful guns, nozzles with different ranges, fast-cleaning soap, and even some snazzy new suits and skins. The quest to become a more efficient cleaner passes directly through these upgrades, and the improvements feel well worth their in-game price.
The loop is quite simple. You’ll select a level, be dropped in, and must clean off every speck of dirt in sight. It requires patience and precision control if you want to be effective, and I could see some people getting frustrated at the pace of the game. But, if you are willing to let yourself be absorbed into the task, I think you’ll find the experience to be relaxing and meditative. If you’d like to speed up the process or the task seems too daunting, you can spend a modest amount of your hard-earned dollars on soaps which can be used to dissolve the grime before your eyes, and decrease the amount of time you have to spend on any individual section. Speaking of sections, the game smartly divides its levels and vehicles into smaller pieces that make the tasks much easier to tackle. Whenever you complete a section, a very satisfying chime will let you know, and I found myself chasing that sound like a puppy learning a new trick in exchange for a tasty treat. I do wish that the progress tracking on individual segments was more uniform across the game though. I encountered some walls or sinks that appeared completely spotless after a thorough searching, but still weren’t marked complete, and it took me spraying randomly across their surfaces to finally trigger the completion. On other objects, plenty of dirt could still be seen before the chime would sound, and this inconsistency grew increasingly tiring as I spent more time with the game.
As a whole, PowerWash Simulator is a beautifully mind-numbing experience. This isn’t a game you have to try very hard at. There aren’t complex puzzles to solve or difficult boss encounters to defeat. You just clean, and clean, and clean. It’s the kind of game I’d consider when I want to play something, but would rather not deal with the overstimulation or complex systems of a more traditional video game experience. But there is one specific problem that compromised my whole experience: crashes. I’m not sure if it’s an issue specific to my console, or if PowerWash Simulator is poorly optimized for PS5, but I experienced a dozen or so crashes throughout my 35 hours of playtime, and my patience ran so thin that I put the game down for days at a time. I’m not sure if FuturLab has any more updates planned for the game, but a few performance patches for PS5 wouldn’t do them any harm.
If you need a relaxing game to pass the time, but get turned off by the slower-paced and poorly designed job simulators that are currently out there, I think PowerWash Simulator is the one you should try. It’s simple, it’s charming, and it’s fun. There’s enough of a game here to keep your brain engaged but not so much that requires a lot of effort or attention from you. A deep campaign and rewarding progression system are welcome features that invite you to play more. Before I end, I also have to shout out PowerWash Simulator’s ending cutscene and credits. The montage is accompanied by a bright and catchy tune and the credits include short videos of every cleaning job performed throughout your campaign. A beautiful reminder that looking back at a job well done is a reward in and of itself. The PS5 version’s performance is an unfortunate stain on an otherwise squeaky clean experience, but a little dirt isn’t enough to keep me from inviting everyone to give this addictive simulator a go.