Do you have time to discuss PowerWash Simulator, my savior and lord? The unexpected cult hit’s calming, fulfilling premise—clean dirt off things—hooked weirdos like me back in 2022. Has the basic process of power washing been altered by the follow-up PowerWash Simulator 2? Has it given blasting graffiti off a wall a new purpose? Will it cause you to wonder what being dirty in 2025 really means? No. And I want to thank Mr. Clean for that because it’s quite rewarding since it’s so simple. Fans like me, who have over 400 hours logged on the original, truly needed what you get.
a lot of new items to wash and some improvements to quality of life. It would be easy for me to put in an additional 400 hours on this installment.
It’s really as simple as it sounds, in case you missed it the first time. You are provided with a vehicle or area to clean, soap, a variety of power washers (all of which work in the same way, albeit with different levels of power), and ladders if you feel like it.
Cleaning at your own leisure, sluicing down parts however you like, is up to you. You pick your washer and nozzle (I’m a green girl, yellow for detail work, anyone who uses white wasn’t loved enough by their mother). You can’t eff it up, which is one of PowerWash Simulator’s true charms. If you keep sprinkling water on the dirt, soon it will be cleaned. You would eventually arrive even if you never upgraded anything.
There are a lot of new cleaning tasks to complete in the sequel, which is the main headline, and they are not disappointing. Mobility scooters and dog-themed cars are examples of vehicles; bandstands, public restrooms, and big homes are examples of buildings; and there are even new multi-stage jobs that require you to clean a certain section of a map in order to disclose a new location. Smaller cars for a fast dopamine boost are perfectly balanced with big buildings and intricate constructions for when I wanted to spend a whole hour spraying.
The addition of some pet cats and a home base that you can decorate (with things you get to wash first) is less fascinating for purists like me. Everyone enjoys virtual pets, but when I’m jetwashing a billboard, I don’t care about them until I can hook mops to their feet.
The ratio of big structures to little cars that need to be cleaned is ideal.
When I tell you that one of the most intriguing developments in this game is that soap is now free and multipurpose, you’ll see the beauty in the banality. In addition to being a jab at capitalism, it also fixes one of the main problems with the original game. Each surface required a particular soap, which was restricted in quantity and had to be purchased. By simply switching to the soap attachment, you may use it to remove stubborn stains from any surface and on any task. I used to avoid soap, but now I’m a detergent dilettante.
There are new symbols to help you find items that still need polishing up when you’re cleaning. It may seem insignificant, but as someone who has spent hours searching for a 1% dirt spot on a large bathroom wall, I am incredibly appreciative of it.
Similar to this, the other new tips in your cleaning kit make tasks that were a bit difficult or tedious easier without allowing you to avoid doing them.
There’s a cherry picker lift to avoid balancing on ladders to reach hard-to-reach places, an abseiling rig for large structures like billboards, and a spinning surface cleaner—you know, like school janitors mysteriously push around after hours—to make polishing large flat surfaces a little less intimidating. Even small changes have been made, such as the towering scaffolding now having a ladder on the outside for those who just wish to reach the top rather than zigzagging up and down.
The main point of PowerWash Simulator 1 and 2 is the meditative flow state you achieve simply by working away at the grime and graffiti, back and forth, up and down, with the soft hiss of water accompanying your progress. This means that the improvements aren’t about making the jobs go faster or allowing you to skip parts. Despite the fact that you will have to urinate every ten minutes, it is an underappreciated ASMR experience.
There’s no lore to catch up on if you haven’t yet discovered the pleasures of jet washing random cars and buildings. You may easily skip all of the text messages that offer the loose story while you’re working. They frequently give you strange information about the location or explain why you’re cleaning, like a street sweeper smeared in huckleberry jelly. For fans of the original, there are also some pleasant additions. The famous merman statue or odd temple will be mentioned in the conversation, and a shooting gallery features small reproductions of the famous sites you will recognize. It’s gibberish, but I liked the nonsense.
Verdict
Line up ladies and gentlemen, and see the rare example of a sequel to a special game that knew just what to tweak, and what to leave well enough alone. The meditative motions of cleaning, the silly sense of humor, and the sense of satisfaction. There’s enough here to justify slapping a big old 2 on the end of the title, but the key mechanic and feeling of the first game lives on.
