PowerWash Simulator 2 Review – Overtime

Zen monk and one of my heroes Thich Nhat Hanh has spent much of his life writing about mindfulness. He emphasized that when we do anything, whether it's eating, walking or anything else, we should be fully committed, concentrate and immerse ourselves in it. “Drink your tea slowly and religiously,” he said, “as if it were the axis on which the Earth spins—slowly, evenly, without rushing into the future.”

Like its predecessor, PowerWash Emulator 2 It is a stage where Thich Nhat Hanh’s thoughts can be promoted. The simple pleasure of washing dirt off dozens of walls, floors, cars and couches is like a gateway to a flow state. For a while, I let the sequel overwhelm me, immersing myself in it and thoroughly enjoying it. But long before I sprayed away the last bit of mold, I was back to my old ways of multitasking in a game that demanded more of my patience and attention than I'd like.

PowerWash Simulator 2 is exactly what it sounds like, but if you haven't played the first game, it might not be clear from its title alone why it's so much fun. In this first-person job sim from FuturLab, you take on the career of a power cleaner, taking on nearly 40 jobs in single-player, split-screen, or online multiplayer with other soap experts. You'll start with some simple tools – a hose with different nozzles that offer a range of spray strengths and patterns, almost like an arsenal of guns in a traditional shooter. Essentially, this yes A shooter, but instead of zombies or Nazis, your targets are buildings, furniture and vehicles that are completely covered in dirt, and each mission ends when you completely clear the dirt area.

The joy of the game emerges when you start squirting water onto grimy surfaces; like a master painter, you bring a vibrant world to life with the strokes of a hose, removing mossy, dark layers to reveal something beautiful and deeply satisfying that time had forgotten. In the same way you might find yourself fascinated by the grass-cutting prowess of a baseball field or the rejuvenating effect of a Zamboni during a hockey game, the before-and-after differences that make up PowerWash Simulator 2's gameplay loop are also visually stimulating.

Every time you rush through a level, it's broken into micro-segments and helpfully tracked in the game menu, so you never forget it last bit of dirt That is, under the guard rails of a playground slide or a billboard. For example, instead of having a tracker that tells you when your bathroom is completely clean, you'll have individual cleanliness meters for sink bases, faucets, hot and cold levers, toilet seats, toilet bases, light switches, each floor tile, ceiling, walls, and more. You can also only see the gauges for the segment you're targeting, which makes this approach both visually unintrusive and very helpful and satisfying. It feels like progress is constantly happening, with Pavlovian jingles triggering sparks of joy every time any piece is polished.

The simple joy of squirting water to clean up messes was present in the first game and contributed to its success in the same way, and while this core mechanic is still a joy to watch in the sequel, it hasn't been enhanced in many major ways, making PowerWash Sim 2 feel more like something you've probably already experienced – though it has some smaller, definitely welcome touches.

One of the best new features is a new tool, the SwirlForce Surf Ace: a floor and wide-surface cleaner that can quickly spin a disc scrubber on surfaces large enough to accommodate it. It works faster than traditional tools in some situations, and although it can be a little unstable when moved between floors and other surfaces, it can be very handy if used as the first step in a multi-step process to effectively remove large areas of dirt.

Levels are also more dynamic. Some levels now hide their own secret sections, rather than immediately getting to work and immediately seeing everything you have to clear. In an early example, I was cleaning a surface on the sidewalk. Once I finished the raw treatment of the surface, it revealed itself as a public toilet with sinks above and below the pedestrian area. This means that my next task is to clean the newly discovered walls, and once I'm done with that, the last part of the floor opens: the bathroom door, allowing me to finish working inside the bathroom. As before, each level ends with a fun time-lapse video, allowing you to quickly review your run even if you save midway and come back to finish the job later.

There's also a new customizable hub space that acts almost like a firehouse – it's where you go to take a break between jobs, and can be customized with new furniture items that can be unlocked and placed the way you want them, just like The Sims – provided you clear them out first, of course. At launch, the offerings in this area, like those available for your character and their tools, were pretty bland. Considering how many exciting DLC ​​packs and licensed crossovers the original game had, I expected this feature to eventually become more interesting, but today it's underwhelming.

Perhaps the best new feature, though, is shared progression in online multiplayer. In the original PowerWash Sim, you could jump into other players' missions, but you didn't get credit for completing other players' work in your own game. Now, fortunately, this is no longer the case. If you complete a job with a friend and then jump into single-player career mode, your progress will be tracked. Considering how long it can take to play the game alone, this is a major quality of life fix.

Broadly speaking, PowerWash Sim 2 does feel like a major quality-of-life update, for better or worse. The visuals, while still cartoony and not even attempting anything particularly detailed, are brighter and prettier. The game wisely leans towards using a lot of bright colors like orange, yellow, and light blue. These literally pop off the screen as the slime is squirted away, further enhancing the constant sense of progress. Likewise, when you rinse off the sticky top layer, the glass will sparkle more truly and beautifully. The new default control scheme is also much improved, reassigning some of the game's core functions to more logical buttons – although for the purist at heart, you can easily revert them to classic controls in the options menu. If anyone has never played the original PowerWash Sim, this is clearly a better game, and it's arguably best to jump right into this one.

However, for gamers who have spent a lot of time removing mold from their grills, the sequel’s staying power—Spraying power?– Supply shortage. Thirty-eight new levels make up a massive campaign, especially in single-player mode, with several of them taking over an hour to complete each. PowerWash Sim 2 is more fun and easier to manage in co-op mode. As with any physical endeavor, the process goes more smoothly when a team can work together to solve it. While PowerWash Sim 2 takes full advantage of the gamification capabilities of simulated labor, the lines between play and work end up blurring. Offering over three dozen levels equals dozens of hours of new work, but it'll feel like overly familiar work before you get off work.

It was during those times that I let my idols down and filled my brain with excitement. From an audio perspective, the game really has nothing to offer – unless you find the jet noise soothing in an ASMR way that I don't identify with – there's nothing in the game's audio design that requires you to listen. Helpful hints for completing a segment are accompanied by visual cues of the meter disappearing completely, so PowerWash Sim 2 ends up playing like one of the best multitasking games out there. While I'm reviewing this game, I can catch up on my podcast queue, put on an audiobook to double up on the month's content, and listen to some new music that I'm loving.

This is ultimately a benefit for the game. I'm generally happy to play this way, at least sometimes. But given that the game adds to the series' quirky lore of mermaids and stolen gems, with the story delivered via in-game text messages and announcements taking on all sorts of unexpected angles, it's surprising that the developers didn't try to incorporate this into the game's audio. You can play PowerWash Sim 2 on mute without losing anything crucial to the experience.

To its credit, though, I also think this is one way in which PowerWash Simulator 2 is versatile. this is a platform Another thing you want to do with your timewhether it’s listening to a podcast, chatting with some friends in Discord or the console voice channel, or — put on your earmuffs, Thich Nhat Hanh — watching a movie on a second screen.

Much of PowerWash Sim’s initial success can be attributed to the pandemic. This is a great party game when everyone is just…hanging out. PowerWash Sim 2 arrives in a different world than its predecessor, though the core gameplay of the series is timeless in nature; it's still fun even without a pandemic forcing us to do fake jobs for fake money. I was looking for a career change until the end of the game, but there will definitely be times in the future when I also long to get back into it. Perhaps PowerWash Simulator 2 works best as a game where you are your own boss and work on your own schedule. It's a good job if you can avoid burnout and work as a team with a few friends.