PowerWash Simulator is a game that is highly regarded on flatscreen, and one that left me scratching me head at what was so popular about it. However, Futurlab have now brought it to Virtual Reality, so it was time to suit up and do some power washing.
Release Date: November 2nd 2023
Developer: Futurlab
Publisher: nDreams
Price: US $24.99 / £19.99
Reviewed On: Meta Quest 3
* Code Provided For Review *
STRANGE TALE OF MUCKINGHAM
To my surprise the game did include some sort of story/world building element, but it was a strange inclusion. Mainly because the town of Muckingham seemed to be in big danger of a volcano that is about to erupt, but the residents all seem oblivious to this, although it is very clear to you. The tale of Muckingham is built up through text messages you will get while completing the jobs, but there is no sense of urgency or worry in these.
LETS TALK ABOUT SUDS BABY
The team at Futurlabs has brought the whole base experience from the flatscreen version over to Virtual Reality, which is great to see. With the main meat of the game coming in the form of the campaign, which will see you cleaning around the town of Muckingham and some other areas.
You will only have basic equipment as you start on your journey to power washing greatness. Then as you complete jobs you will start to earn money to buy better hardware to help you on your way. This will see you unlocking extra trigger guns at higher grades, nozzles, extenders and soaps as you level up through your cleaning campaign. Then as mentioned, these will be purchased with the money earned for your hard work, and in turn might make a part of the next job easier to complete.
Outside of walking around, crouching and going prone, you are given steps and a ladder that can help you get to some of the higher vantage points to complete your job. However, in some levels these aren’t present and you still need to get higher than you can actually reach. Where the flatscreen version offered jump this is not mapped to a button in VR, meaning if you do not use teleport movement you will need to pause and switch to this mode. Which is a shame, as someone who uses smooth locomotion it gets annoying quickly on those jobs.
I would advise starting with the campaign, but as well as the campaign it offers a some additional jobs, free-clean and challenge modes. Meaning it does give you options when completing the campaign to continue suiting up and cleaning. It also offers a multiplayer mode, so you can join up with friends to complete a job. But, they have not included one main feature you want in this mode and that is VOIP, which means using the Quest party system or another means to actually make it the social experience it should be.
HARD TO CLEAN UP
One element that let me down with the game were the visuals and audio. Where the text messages builds up the world of Muckingham the overall design of this curious town falls flat. It just looks and feels lifeless, with no sign of residents or general day to day life mixed with jaggy and sometimes low resolution textures, it just doesn’t help a game with such a simple gameplay premise. With the dirt looking pretty flat, even in parts of the texture you can see they should be clear pop-out to the dirt, no shadowing in the world and random pop-in in the distance on things like trees it struggles. Although, the clean textures under the dirt and grime look nice and sparkly when cleaned, it’s just most of the game is spent looking at the filth as you remove it.
Adding to the lifeless feel of the visuals its matched with just as lifeless sound design, which is a major part of the VR experience. With the main sound you are going to hear being the sound of your high-pressure washer and the squelching of the dirt you are removing. Other than this it all seems a little eerily quiet in Muckingham, with few environmental sounds. I just feel it would have benefited massively from a radio, even if it was unlicensed music – as when I put on my own music to accompany me in my cleaning exploits it improved the experience.
COMFORT
THE VERDICT
Summary
PowerWash Simulator and VR feels like it goes hand-in-hand and it was designed to be played this way. Despite the issues I had with the overall visuals and audio, the gameplay is that addictive its easy to overlook these - especially if you just introduce your own music to aide in your cleaning efforts and you will soon be cleaning away to the beat. I have spent probably thirty to thirty-five hours in PowerWash Simulator VR since it released, and enjoyed doing every job along the way. For the price point you are getting plenty of hard to explain cleaning fun, and this should be one game that is in everyone's Quest library.
