Serial Cleaners is an intriguing branch within the stealth tree. Instead of taking out targets and hiding the bodies. You instead are sent in after the dirty work has happened. Tasked with cleaning up the crime scene.

I loved the level design, and the art establishes the setting effectively. Mechanics like vacuuming up blood and getting rid of bodies/evidence is fun. And while the voice acting can be dodgy, the story worked for me as well.

This game feels like it is made for me in so many ways. However, it is a greatly janky game. A fair share of bugs and glitches. Intentionally dumb AI that was overtuned on the stupidity. And some levels are way too grindy with how much backtracking you have to do with slow moving characters.

Some of the levels here though, Rykers, the yacht, the office, the police station and more are so well designed. The game is its strongest when you can swap between characters or when you can get really creative to speed up the cleaning process.

Overall I'm impressed with the scope of the game, but that feels like it was at the cost of a tight and finely tuned experience. I really enjoyed my time, and will keep my eye on what this studio makes next, whether that's a sequel or something fresh.

I can't recommend this game to everyone, its setting and gameplay are targeted to a specific audience. I'm glad that I happened to fall within it.

Reviewed on Oct 08, 2022


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