Game Review: Powerwash Simulator

I wouldn’t do this in real life; Why am I doing this?
game review
game design
simulation
Published

November 1, 2022

Powerwash Header Image

Wash away your worries with the soothing sounds of high-pressure water. Fire up your power washer and blast away every speck of dirt and grime you can find, all with the simple satisfaction of power-washing to a sparkling finish.

My friends have been playing this game and I finally picked it up. After doing some cooperative levels with them, I started into the Career Mode of the game. This is the Story Mode and does what you’d expect from a Single Player experience: slowly increasing difficulty through different tools, different surfaces and different buildings with different shapes. There is a story here which is silly; reach the end or spoil it with a Let’s Play if you’d like but I laughed.

The beginning is mostly slow to work through since the early tools are acceptable for the tasks you’re given. If you invest the stars and money into betters tools and nozzles then you can get ahead of the curve - at least in my experience. Discussing which tools are best is somewhat moot since you’ll beat the levels faster - but do you really want even want to?

This brings me to my final thoughs: I’m not sure if this game is fun. After reaching the end of everything, I can say it was relaxing and I definitely accomplished something of value. If nothing else, the game lends itself well to listening to podcasts while you mindlessly clean bathrooms and boats. The core loop works but I found myself somewhat resistant to completing levels around the middle of the game. It was putting on the podcasts to distract me that ended up making the game playable.