PowerWash Simulator 2 PS5 Review. As a die-hard fan of PowerWash Simulator, I want to preface this review by saying that this will be a verdict from a fan who achieved the Platinum Trophy in the first game twice. In that amount of time, you find things that you absolutely love, things you can easily ignore, and things that make you grumble every time you have to deal with them.
What’s great about PowerWash Simulator 2 is that it takes a concerted effort to eliminate all of the grumbling bits, leaving you with a more cohesive and even more enjoyable cleaning experience. It still feels like work, but it’s even more zen than before.
PowerWash Simulator 2 Review (PS5) – A Sparkling Clean
Enhancing An Already Good Experience
You are back in the powerwashing saddle, both as a player and as the main character. Not only are you back to work, you also get your own home base. With it comes some wonderful new equipment, like a rounded area scrubber, a spinning nozzle, and a soap dispenser. Apart from that, the gameplay formula remains essentially the same: Power wash things clean, get paid, and move to the next job.
You probably guessed it by now, but the new equipment helps to expand on your ability to clean more efficiently. It’s not just the fact that this additional equipment gives you more ways to clean, but they also help to make the cleaning feel more efficient as well as varied. In particular, soap makes a big difference here.
Yes, soap existed in the first game, but you first needed to buy an attachment and then constantly buy soap using the money you earned. Instead, I saved my money in the first game and purchased nozzle upgrades that provided more pressure and covered more space. It’s just easier to clean when you don’t need to juggle additional options when you use a high-powered, widespread water nozzle to do it all at once.
Suds Up
In PowerWash Simulator 2, FuturLabs put extra time into making the different cleaning tools more relevant to each other through small but effective design choices. For one, soap doesn’t cost money, and you already possess a soap sprayer from the jump. The only catch to this is the amount of soap you have available to use is a fixed amount for each level. So, you no longer need to buy soap, but you still only have so much to use. It’s a generous amount still, but you can’t necessarily be too liberal with your soap use.
With that said, you still can choose to clean everything using just water pressure. I would never promote taking that approach away from you simply because getting into the zen that comes from the steading sound of spray feels like such a sweet release from reality. If that’s your bag, certainly keep at it in PowerWash Simulator 2.
The biggest gripe I had in the first game is trying to find the little bits of dirt I missed. PowerWash Simulator 2 helps to alleviate that issue in a couple of ways. First, soap only stays on a surface if that area has grime on it. If the area is clean, the soap just disappears after a couple seconds. No need to guess at what needs to be cleaned there. Then, the game also allows you to mark different surfaces, which then get highlighted by a target icon when you get closer to it. Once you figure out what you actually missed, it becomes much easier to use the standard highlight function like in the first game to find what still needs cleaning.
Expanding Jobs
The other big addition comes in the form of multi-part jobs. You can easily tell that you are in a multi-part job when you finish cleaning everything you can see, but the percentage still isn’t even close to 100% done. Once you finish cleaning everything you can see, the map shifts, presenting you with someone else to clean. Since I don’t want to take away from the bigger experiences later, I’ll tell you about the first one. All you see is the top of some type of kiosk sitting flat on the ground. Once you clean that, the entire structure rises out of the ground to reveal a public bathroom. After cleaning the remaining dirty exterior, the door opens for you to clean the inside.
These act as nice breaks in the repetition without getting complicated with the gameplay loop. It’s not much, but adding some anticipation to a task you do for a long time helps keep you even more motivated to continue cleaning. If FuturLabs could find a way to make real houses as fun to clean as cleaning in PowerWash Simulator, the entire development team wouldn’t need to work another day in their lives.
The other cool part is being able to do these jobs with another person. You can play either split screen or online. Yes, you could play co-op with other people in the first game. This time around, though, your progress is shared across both single player and co-op sessions. So, you can just bring in a friend to help you with what you’re cleaning in the moment. It’s such a nice addition to be able to keep your progression while still being able to play with a friend without needing to start a new session specific to coop.
Always Missing Something
The biggest addition to the game in terms of newness is your home base. With the currency you earn from jobs, you can purchase furniture to deck out your base how you see fit. This is cool for a bit, but the level of customization is quite limited. For instance, you can’t put a desk on a throw rug. Everything takes up space that cannot be shared, no matter how impractical that looks.
It’s not a bad feature, but it doesn’t promote much purpose outside of something to customize. Customizing a hub can add a nice touch of fun and engagement. At the same time, when you buy the game for the cleaning, you don’t tend to stay at home base when everything stays clean there. Apart from acting as a central hub for going between jobs, the customization element of home base doesn’t add much to the formula. But what if your home base could get dirty…
Cleaning That’s Actually Enjoyable
A good sequel makes sure to keep all of its main components the same while enhancing what makes those components enjoyable. PowerWash Simulator 2 manages that in spades. Providing new equipment, changing how you use soap, and adding meaningful elements to the gameplay loop keep the formula fresh without dirtying up what makes the game a fan favorite. At $25, PowerWash Simulator 2 is a steal.
Review code kindly provided by publisher.