PowerWash Simulator 2 doesn't seem like much of a sequel, but it does clean up nicely with more tool

I've been told that I play like someone who hates themself. An entirely fair observation, as I have quite a meticulous approach to cleaning every map, working from the ground up and rotating around the objective until it's entirely clean.

"But Elie," I hear you say, "that's not efficient and it doesn't make any sense—the grime would just work its way down, messing up the parts which have already been cleaned."

That's right, but I don't care. I can do what I want, and what I want is to make the timelapse at the end look like I'm doing a fun twirl. I will admit that it means the first half of any PowerWash map sees my head glued to the floor as I sweep the ground clean of any murk before I can get started on the actual task at hand.

Predictably, it's not that different in PowerWash Simulator 2. I had a grand old time, but FutureLab hasn't reinvented the wheel here, creating something that's more of the same with a new coat of grime to blast off. The maps are largely structured in the same way: dirty objects atop a dirty floor. But this time, there are some new tools which make the job a hell of a lot smoother.

These include a new soap type that works like a dream on tough grime and stains, abseiling equipment, a scissor lift, and my favourite, the circular surface cleaner.

If you haven't seen one of these before, it resembles a vacuum cleaner or a buffer. You can glide it over flat surfaces like the floor or a wall, and it'll blast off the dirt in seconds. It'll be a great addition for maps that have a ton of open space, like the Skate Park in the original PowerWash Simulator, as it covers way more ground than the powerwasher, even with the widest nozzle.

I used it first on the new Art Deco House map, which is, you guessed it, a dirty Art Deco House. While it did take some getting used to, I quickly got the hang of the surface cleaner, and I had the ground ticked off in no time at all. It was so good that I even decided to use it on a large wall at one point. It may have completely ruined my beautifully precise cleaning montage, but it did get the grime off quicker than ever before.

This doesn't mean I'm ready to sunset my trusty powerwasher just yet. The surface cleaner is great for open spaces, but gets properly finicky around corners. At one point, it started to freak out when I took it too close to a window ledge, and began violently convulsing in my hands—I took that as a sign to put it down.

Scale new heights

Not all of the new maps are just your bog-standard dirty house or car—there are also some more puzzling and extreme locations available to work through—I guess word got around about my skills.

One of the best maps involved me cleaning a giant Billboard in the middle of a desert with nothing but a powerwasher and my new abseiling equipment. After climbing to the top of a giant poster for a Town of the Year award, I hooked my equipment up and jumped onto the little swing that was suspended in mid-air.

With this, I was able to move in any direction, albeit clumsily, cleaning the poster however I wanted to, without the hindrance of going back and forth with a ladder. It was fun, smooth, very efficient, and even a little dangerous, all aspects of a great PowerWash Simulator map.

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My favourite by far had to be the humble Public Toilet. This is part of a new level design coming to PowerWash Simulator 2: the multi-stage job. Instead of just getting a single object or place to clean, multi-stage jobs almost work like a puzzle, as you clean sections to then reveal the next stage.

The Public Toilet began with a small pedestal (no more than knee-height) which I polished up in no time, but to my surprise, after getting the final ding, I heard a loud unlocking noise, and the rest of the outhouse gradually rose from the ground. Then, after cleaning the outside of the Public Toilet restroom, I heard a door open and looked around to see the final stage, cleaning the inside, which housed a toilet, baby-changing station, sink, and mirror.

This is a great way to break up a job, making what can be small and mundane maps like a restroom more exciting. This was clearly just a small test of what a multi-stage job could look like, so I'm very excited to see how this new feature will be rolled out in the future, especially with bigger, more complex maps.

The little things

But it's not all about flashy new maps and fun tools, PowerWash Simulator 2 also makes some small quality-of-life improvements. Remember the original checklist where you could only pick one unfinished section to highlight? And even then, it was hard to pinpoint unless you were right in front of it, as it would just flash a little bit.

Well, this has been upgraded. Now you can pick multiple sections of the job which are yet to be finished, and if you're standing far away from them, a small orange checkbox will appear over the still-dirty part of the map, flashing when you get closer to it.

This makes finding unfinished parts so much easier, especially when you're dealing with a big map that has tons of finicky little areas to clean. It was always the most frustrating part of the job to get to what you thought was the end, only to be left on 99% complete, with no clue where that last spec of dust could be hiding.

There are also a couple of small additions in PowerWash Simulator 2, like particle effects, butterflies, and even some cats—which follow you around on jobs, and just sit there purring until you pet them. These aren't mindblowing, but seeing the dirt grit that you [[link]] blast off change colour to reflect what kind of grime you're cleaning doesn't go unnoticed, it's just a nice touch.

Amid [[link]] all the new tools, maps, and furry friends, PowerWash Simulator 2 didn't feel like a sequel in the traditional sense. It's more of the same, with just a few new flourishes and ways to improve the experience for players, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. There's only so much you can do with a powerwasher, and FutureLab does manage to push those boundaries.

I'm more excited about seeing where PowerWash Simulator 2 will be in half a year or so, as what I've seen so far seems like something that sets the foundations, rather than breaking new ground. I hope to see a payoff for what looks like a long-term investment in PowerWash Simulator [[link]] 2.

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