PowerWash Simulator is back, bubbling with fresh locations, soap-erior equipment and splashy features. Effortlessly transform soiled surroundings into clean, serene scenes, solo or with pals. Satisfaction is a spray away!
Developed by: FuturLab
Played on: Steam
Length: ~39 hours
When FuturLab’s psychology-backed simulator about washing dirt first launched during the height of the pandemic, it quickly became one of my greatest gaming obsessions of all time. After clocking over 50 hours in the base game, I kept coming back for DLC after DLC, and even jumped into a few co-op rounds with some friends; until my final playtime on the game racked up to a worryingly impressive 245 hours.
You may be asking yourself, what could you possibly be doing in PowerWash Simulator to spend over 200 hours of your life in-game? Besides it being a fantastic companion for coworking and an even better backdrop for podcasting, FuturLab has managed to digitally recreate the therapeutic power of cleaning at a scale and quality that other games will find hard to beat. And sure enough, few have come close.
With such a beloved first release in their hands, it almost begs the question why a sequel was even necessary. After all, FuturLab was still releasing content updates for the first title all the way until the sequel’s launch date, and with the original title still holding its own three years later, is it really worth paying another RM61 for a brand new game? Well, it depends on who you ask.
As a fan of the series, PowerWash Simulator 2 falls into my favourite category of sequel, which is More of a Good Thing. FuturLab proves themselves as the rare kind of developer that understands what makes their game great, and aren’t about to mess with their winning formula. As such, the sequel feels like a soaped up version of the first game with bigger levels, better graphics, and some major quality of life upgrades.
The game UI and shop design is greatly simplified in PowerWash Simulator 2. Instead of having to purchase soap for different types of surfaces, soap can now be used on all surfaces and costs nothing to use. Power washers can now be easily equipped through a select wheel, including a couple of new nozzle options, and you can even sell back old equipment in the shop to afford new ones.
The biggest improvement is the addition of clearer dirt markers at the end of each level. Instead of squinting at your surroundings to find that pesky 1% of blinking dirt, the sequel adds waypoints that point you directly to the spots you missed. There’s also a greater variety of vertical movement besides our usual ladders and scaffolding, although some are definitely better (scissor lift) than others (abseiling).
Now let’s get to the new things. You have an office now which was one of the big marketing points of the sequel. Unfortunately, the decorating system leaves much to be desired. While I enjoyed the process of unlocking new furniture over time, purchasing them with special points, and even cleaning each item as you bring them out of storage, the actual process of decorating is extremely restrictive.
You can’t place carpets in corners, and you can’t place anything on top of carpets. You can’t freely rotate items or align them against walls. You can only decorate the bottom floor, so you can’t spruce up your actual office where you spend most of your time. While decorating may not have anything to do with the core gameplay of PowerWash Simulator 2, it is a shame to see what could have been a really cool feature end up being an easily ignorable addition.
Strangely, this sequel seems to struggle the most in the cosmetics department. There are a couple of simple recoloured skins for your character’s suit and van, but there aren’t any skins for your powerwasher which is the thing you see on screen the most. If we’re following the trend from the first game, we may see more cosmetics get added with free and paid DLCs, but it is strange that a game where you spend hours looking at your powerwasher doesn’t come with at least one alternate skin.
So is PowerWash Simulator 2 worth the money? I still think so. Despite its sparse cosmetics, the main gameplay of PowerWash Simulator has never been better. It makes for a great content expansion for long-time fans, while newcomers may want to jump straight to the second game for your first powerwashing experience.
The price is a little expensive for a simulator game, but part of PowerWash Simulator’s appeal has always been its fantastic post-launch content rollout. FuturLab fully intends to continue that trend with three free DLCs and three paid IP DLCs already teased in their 2025/2026 roadmap. Hopefully they’ll also take the opportunity to refine some of the rougher features and beef up their cosmetics catalogue as time goes on.
Verdict: Back To Washing
FuturLab proves themselves as the rare kind of developer that understands what makes their game great, and aren’t about to mess with their winning formula. PowerWash Simulator 2 feels like a soaped up version of the first game with bigger levels, better graphics, and much-needed quality of life upgrades — even if its new office decorating feature leaves much to be desired.
