Pull on your gloves and ready your hose: PowerWash Simulator 2 approaches, and so far it’s looking ultra-polished (in a gloriously unhygienic kind of way.) I had an absolute ball of a time revisiting Muckingham to correct the townsfolk’s filthy ways.
In the niche of “oddly satisfying” games, its predecessor PowerWash Simulator (and its oodles of DLC) already blasts away competitors. So what does the sequel offer, besides just “more dirty stuff”? To find out, I went hands-on with a single-player PC build of PowerWash Simulator 2, checking out five levels showcasing hot new technology like abseiling and floor washers.
PowerWash Simulator 2 starts off with the expansion of your business to a fully fledged office building. Your first job is to clean up the mud-caked removals van that transported your furniture and gear over. Couldn’t you have found a neater moving company to work with? It seems that the residents of Caldera County are still unable to clean up after themselves, which is great – more work for you!
And it’s entertaining work, too. None of your jobs are quite ordinary. For instance, you’re not going to clean any old generic car – yours will have a dog tail and headlights that weirdly seem to flit around like eyes. Don’t forget to wash inside the ears!
You’ll be travelling farther afield this time, to hilariously named neighboring towns like Lubri City and Pumpton. And this time, the true hero of PowerWash 1, Ulysses the cat, tags along to supervise you. You’ll be glad to know that yes, you can pet the cat.
Gearing up
PowerWash 2 stays very true to its predecessor, with gameplay actually remaining mostly untouched. That’s not a bad thing – you can’t fix what isn’t broken, y’know? It means that, if you’re a PowerWash veteran, you’ll jump right in and feel like you’re simply picking up where you left off. And don’t fret if you’re new: PowerWash 2 is first-timer friendly as well, with simple controls and “no talk, skip to the action” gameplay that barely warrants a tutorial.
Progression mechanics have stayed pretty much identical to PowerWash 1 – you’ve got a checklist of specific details to clean, a key to highlight stubborn remaining dirt, and equipment upgrades to buy in the shop with your earnings. And, of course, the “ding!” that lets you know you’re doing a bang-up job.
One major addition is a brand-new, delightful, and very satisfying washing tool: the “SwirlForce,” a washer which has a wide, circular head. I think it’s supposed to be used for cleaning floors, but I used it on basically every flat surface I came across, from ornamental windows to trucks. It was too fun not to!
The other notable addition to your loadout? Suds. The soap mechanic has been retooled a bit – it’s now specific to certain types of washer tools. It coats a surface with a thick layer of foam that can then be hosed off in one gratifying burst. I’m curious to learn just how much this precious commodity will cost, because I hope to use it as much as possible.
To Muckingham, and beyond
Some levels now have multiple stages, which adds a bit of fun. For instance, I was tasked with cleaning a vaguely described “public facility,” which at first appeared to be a sort of knee-high pedestal in the middle of Detergento’s eerily quiet town square. Once I had it sparkling, it began to rise out of the ground – it was actually a pop-up bathroom! Yes, it was absolutely filthy. And yes, I was pleasantly surprised to have even more scum to clean.
My favorite job was the billboard level – a great opportunity for my SwirlForce washer, but also a great example of the new abseiling equipment. Just slap that equipment on a tall, wide surface, and you’re ready to get in the swing and bounce all over the billboard to make sure every corner is gleaming. Looking down at the highway from my billboard actually felt dizzying, in an unexpectedly thrilling sort of way. If PowerWash Simulator 2 also makes it to VR, I think that’s where abseiling will really shine.
The other new piece of heavy equipment is the scissor lift. Its purpose is similar to the scaffolding you’ve already got in your lineup – the difference is that it’s adjustable. Press the button to go up. And down. Up. And down. It doesn’t meaningfully add much to the whole cleaning experience, but it’s a fun toy.
Making it sparkle
With all sequels come visual upgrades, and PowerWash Simulator 2 is no different in that department. Mud looks slimier, and grime looks even more convincingly like it’s harboring bacteria.
Additionally, your jobs simply feel bigger now thanks to more detailed level backgrounds. The art deco house I scrubbed felt like a real part of the suburban neighborhood around it, complete with lush trees and even distant, snow-capped mountains.
One of my most anticipated graphical upgrades was water behavior, so I’m sad to say that PowerWash 2 does not introduce any new water physics. I was hoping to see rivers of mucky brown water streaming down walls and puddling at my feet, resulting in another mess I’d have to deal with. Dirt still pretty much disappears once you hit it with your washer, though, making it look more like you’ve taken a giant eraser to the town rather than hosed it down with an ocean’s worth of water.
There is one minor upgrade, at least: a new, momentary rippling water texture on windows and other glassy surfaces. It’s a small step towards the dream of water physics. Maybe for PowerWash Simulator 3?
The minimal change to water is understandable (adding new, from-the-ground-up physics is hard for developers!). But remember, there’s still a lot of satisfaction to be had in a classic, eraser-style deep-clean. Plus: we’ll always have gnome physics.
An epic tale of cleanliness
One of the best things about PowerWash 1, in my opinion, was the absolutely bonkers single-player campaign. It’s one thing to spray stuff with water, but another entirely to slowly uncover deep lore beneath the dirt. Given that the first game featured everything from the mayor’s cat to egg-flinging monks and even time travellers, I needed to know if the madness would continue.
It’s hard to say for sure; with two hours of hands-on time, there was only so much story that I could experience beyond “power-washing business opens a new branch, cleans a couple of things.” But the clues were there.
I scrutinized what lay beneath the grime I scoured away. What are those weird rainbow lasers in the sky? Why does the art deco house have a giant trilobite on it? In the oddball universe of PowerWash Simulator, such details usually have a deeper, quirkier meaning, and I can’t wait to find out what it is.
