Promotional material By Meg Wallace, News Editor
“Crime Scene Cleaner” was released in June 2024 but has seen a growth in players in the past few weeks due to YouTube coverage. I started the game recently through Xbox Game Pass and found myself hooked after a few hours of gameplay.
“Crime Scene Cleaner” is a wonderful mix between “PowerWash Simulator” and “GTA.” The player is a widower with a sick daughter and a lack of cash. The daughter needs treatment and the player’s job as a school janitor is not paying the bills. In pure “Breaking Bad” fashion, the player character decides to start cleaning crime scenes for notorious mob criminals.
The cleaning aspect is crafted well. I find “PowerWash Simulator” to be frustratingly repetitive. Alternatively, “Crime Scene Cleaner” features power washing as just one of the cleaning mechanisms. Other features include scrubbing with a sponge, mopping and gathering trash. Trash bags will become full, and the player will have to carry the bags through the location and back to their truck. Of course, the most interesting feature of the cleaning process is gathering the dead bodies and disposing of them.
Players can search each location for evidence, valuable items to steal and even cassette tapes to build your cleaning playlist. I love games with a collecting element as it gives you a reason to look around the world and pick up everything you find. The crime scenes are creatively crafted and fun to explore.
Each location has a story, while some are written better than others. I find many of the story elements jarring, as they go back and forth from humorous and light-hearted to dark and upsetting. Some of the stories are so dark that I think the game would benefit from a trigger warning in the description or start menu. I think the developers should have chosen a lane instead of trying to fit too many genres into one game.
If someone prefers strong story elements in a game, I would not recommend “Crime Scene Cleaner.” If someone prefers gameplay aspects over a strong story, I think this game would be worth checking out.
Overall, “Crime Scene Cleaner” is perfect for people with a love of gore and a love of tidying up.
