Is there a sound more beautiful than the of a squirt well-squirted and a job well done? A baby’s laugh, you might counter, or the chittering chorus of a brand-new day. But as someone who’s put a good 92.7 hours into the original PowerWash Simulator, I feel confident saying that , and the Pavlovian pleasure it instills, is indeed the most glorious sound of all. And with the advent of PowerWash Simulator 2, it’s time to do it – and it – once more.
PowerWash Simulator 2 reviewDeveloper: FuturLabPublisher: FuturLabPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out 23rd October on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC (Steam, Epic); Switch 2 this autumn.
Some months have passed between the events of the original PowerWash Simulator and its sequel, which is important for two reasons. Firstly, it gives developer FuturLab an excuse to reset the balance after dishing out pressure-washing paraphernalia of such supernatural excess at the end of the first game, it would have made the sequel completely trivial if it had returned (officially, you’ve sold all your equipment to set-up shop in a flashy new HQ this time around). And secondly, it means a narrative gap to fill with more of that brilliant lore.
If you’re new to the series, the idea of lore in a game about ceaseless hosing might sound absurd, but – as anyone who’s found themselves inescapably swept up in the first game’s preposterous tapestry of petty grudges, corrupt politicians, missing cats, time-travelling aliens, long-lost civilisations, and erupting volcanoes will tell you – it’s one of PowerWash Simulator’s biggest draws. Let’s wind back a bit, though.
At its simplest, PowerWash Simulator is a game about pointing your nozzle at something grubby and then furiously blasting it – bit by bit, or if my friends are any indication, crudely drawn dick by dick – to a spotless sheen with a high-pressure torrent of water. If it helps, you can almost think of it as anti-painting, but there’s more to pressure washing than mere first-person point-and-squirting. You’ll spend just as much of your time scrambling around each stage’s filthy environment – clambering up ladders, dashing up scaffolding, or simply relying on a good old-fashioned leap – to reach troublesome pockets of dirt secreted in awkward nooks or on ledges several storeys high. And as your pressure washing odyssey continues, you’ll confront ever-more challenging grime. Stages – which range from pop-up public toilets to art deco mansions – grow larger and more intricate as time goes on; stains get more stubborn, and key to your continuing success is your slowly expanding arsenal of equipment.