PowerWash Simulator VR review — The best kind of clean

The simulator genre has gotten a bit weird over the years, with parody games like Goat Simulator and more out there titles like PC Building Simulator, but PowerWash Simulator reminds me of why this kind of game is appealing in the first place. You take something normally tedious, strip out all the boring or tedious parts, and you have a relaxing, zen-like experience. The moment I saw PowerWash Simulator I knew it would be perfect for VR, and after playing it on the Quest 2 I can say that assumption was correct.

PowerWash SImulator has you cleaning the most dirty, grimy things possible to an almost comical degree. One mission in the campaign had me clean someone’s bike that looked like it hadn’t even seen water or soap in at least a decade. While things may start off gross, removing all that dirt is immensely satisfying. Using motion control to wipe away the ick never gets old, and there are a ton of levels and scenarios to keep you entertained with even more coming, like the Final Fantasy VII Remake or SpongeBob crossovers.

That basic feeling of establishing order and cleanliness is what makes this game so fun, and it’s a bit difficult to explain further on paper. What is easier to talk about is how easy PowerWash Simulator is to control. After choosing your dominant hand, picking teleport or traditional locomotion, and a few other settings, you’ll be washing with the pros. You can spray by holding the trigger or toggle the spray by pressing the grip button. From there, you simply point and shoot, but you can clean much more efficiently by swapping between nozzles and extensions. The default 0 degree nozzle has a ton of pressure for stubborn spots, while the 40 degree hits a wide range but lacks much force. Between those are the 25 and 14 nozzles which hit a bit more of a sweet spot. You can swap between these in three ways: toggling through them with a button press, grabbing one from your toolbelt, or opening up a radial menu by holding the button. The same goes for extensions and liquid cleaners, though you may have to spin your toolbelt a bit to reach those.

I really appreciate the redundancy here, as I would frequently use both the quick swap and radial menu to change nozzles. While I personally don’t like using the toolbelt, I can see how some would find it more immersive and tactile. The same goes for teleporting vs. traditional locomotion, the latter just makes me sick in this case. You begin the game with just the basic tools, but can purchase cosmetics for your gloves and helmet, better versions of some nozzles, extensions for those hard to reach places, and cleaning fluid. Cleaning fluid is incredibly useful, but does run out eventually and is specific to each surface. For example, spraying the wood cleaner at a wooden playground will remove a ton of slime, but none from the plastic slide attached. Weirdly, there’s a multi-purpose cleaner, but it only works on surfaces tagged… Multi-purpose.

I still get sick pretty easily in VR, but thankfully PowerWash Simulator is easy to pick up and play by simply putting the headset into sleep mode in the middle of a job. The game also autosaves fairly frequently, but if you really need to quit you can still manually save in the menu. There is still a bit of jank to the game though, for example text on the Quest 2 is super aliased and difficult to read, but I’m told this isn’t an issue on the newly released Quest 3. When moving around on a surface that isn’t level, your viewpoint may jerk around a bit, and I also occasionally experienced some frame dips. If you’re inclined to use the toolbelt, that particular feature has a lot of trouble staying around your waist. It’s inconvenient, but understandable since there’s no tracking device there. These issues don’t break the game, but do make it a less than perfect experience.

Even so, there’s nothing like putting on some tunes and slowly tackling a daunting job. You can easily play standing or seated, and although I do wish there was an easier way to swap hands while keeping movement controls on the same sticks, this is a great way to relax. If you just want to hang out with a friend, the game even supports co-op! Whether solo or paired, the vibes of PowerWash Simulator are immaculate. Much like this playground will be once I finish cleaning.

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