Review – PowerWash Simulator 2 for Switch 2

The most surprising hit-game of 2022 was none other than PowerWash Simulator. As the name would imply, it’s a “simulation” game where players powerwash things. That’s the entire elevator pitch, and the game never did anything to stray from that design ethos. It was mixed with some convoluted lore regarding the town everything took place in, but the appeal was simple: players got to visibly watch the progress they made in completing a level by erasing dirt from everyday objects and buildings.

Personally, it was my “Game of the Year” for 2022 because of how off-kilter it was. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I was genuinely relaxed by the original PowerWash Simulator, and happened to play through it multiple times since. It was a blast with my friends, it was engaging solo, and it was a great way to decompress after playing more high-intensity games or simply dealing with the ills of life. After a heaping of DLC over the next two years, I was eager to see what developer Futurlab had in store for a potential sequel.

As it happens to have turned out, PowerWash Simulator 2 is… well, it’s PowerWash Simulator, but again. There was really only so much you could do to the first game to in order to create a sequel. Futurlab explored bizarre territory with all of its crossover DLC, and the main campaign had some supernatural and extraterrestrial elements, so what would the sequel be? Would players be powerwashing on the moon? Would Futurlab lean even more into the sci-fi turn that the original had? Maybe disappointingly, that isn’t the case here.

 

 

The best way to describe PowerWash Simulator 2 for those unaware is that it is, essentially, a refined version of the original. All of the tweaks and additions here seem to have been made in response to player feedback from the original game. Your progression in the campaign is more streamlined, the levels have a better escalation in difficulty, the pacing is more consistent, and the excess mechanics from the original have been replaced with more realized alternatives. This isn’t “PowerWash Simulator: Easy Mode” or anything, but there is now less friction between the player and spraying dirt that makes the campaign breeze by.

There is a plot here, but much like any good game, it is entirely optional. The idea is that following your success from the first game, the player character has sold all of their equipment to afford a brand-new powerwash business in the town of Muckingham. Known for preventing the eruption of Mount Rushless, your character has acquired enough fame to quickly propel this new business and take on even more jobs across Caldera County. I suppose there is something more to dig into, but I just ignored the lore and got to spraying.

The biggest addition with regards to the campaign this time is that co-op progression is shared between players. The original PowerWash Simulator featured two-player co-op for the main game, but only the first player would get any credit while the second player just earned cash. This meant that if you were being a good friend, you’d wind up doing the campaign twice to help one another. It was a strange barrier that almost reinforced solo play, especially since it was aggravating to clean something like the “Subway” level twice in a row. In Powerwash Simulator 2, not only can four players team up in the campaign, but progression is shared between the lot. You won’t need to repeat jobs unless you really want to, and if one player happens to get disconnected in the middle of a job, they can automatically finish it for their personal save file.

 

 

In terms of mechanics, gameplay in PowerWash Simulator 2 doesn’t rock the boat too much from the original. What it does refine is how soap works. In the first game, soap was an additional element you could use for cleaning that was limited in use, had specific bottles for certain types of grime, and often would run out far too quickly for it to be useful. Here, soap is now given to you from the jump and is technically unlimited. There is a limited amount you can spray at one time, but after you spray it, your soap replenishes. You can also remove all applied soap with a press of a button in case you can’t remember where you sprayed it. No more buying soap bottles, running through them, and getting stuck with just the washer.

Progression through the different washers is also a little easier thanks to an incredibly generous buy-back system. In the first game, anytime you bought a piece of equipment, you’d spend the money and then need to save for better stuff down the line. It generally wasn’t obtrusive, but it limited when you could get the “Heavy Duty” or “Professional Grade” washers based on the cash at hand. You could purposely save up for those, but then specific jobs would wind up taking way longer than they needed to. In 2, you can sell any piece of equipment at any time and get the full price back for it.

I’m two minds of this, but on the one hand, it does allow you to better experiment with the different sprayers and attachments. It’s wonderful that you can try out the “Urban X,” realize you don’t like it, then sell it to grab the “Prime Vista” instead. Same goes for attachments, with certain heads maybe not being to a specific players’ liking. It also means you don’t have to be coy with your funds, so you can grab the “Medium Duty” washer ASAP, then sell it once you get close to the “Heavy Duty” one. On the other hand, the magnificent triple-head attachment that is exclusive to the “Professional Duty” sprayer becomes much easier to obtain, and it practically destroys all of the difficulty balance the game has going for it.

 

 

For reference, in the original PowerWash Simulator, the triple-head sprayer was an unlock you got for starting the final job in the campaign. A nozzle with three zero-degree heads on it, it practically deletes dirt when you look at it and trivializes tougher spots since it’s such a concentrated blast of water. In Powerwash Simulator 2, my friend and I unlocked it around the 21st job and utterly blew through the last third of the game. PowerWash Simulator’s general premise is fun enough to overcome such a discrepancy, but things start to feel too simple with next to no decisions needed on the player’s behalf. I know the DLC in the main game suffered from this same issue, but I figured the sequel would better design around it.

Where this new campaign does get extra points is for including some new mechanics entirely. In the original game, players would need to make use of sprayer extensions, stools, ladders, and scaffolding to reach certain areas for cleaning. All of that returns here, but is expanded with a new scissor lift elevator, and an abseiling swing. A completely different sprayer in the form of a surface cleaner also rounds out the sprayer roster and genuinely gives you a reason to not rely solely on the triple-head sprayer.

The scissor lift is a granular elevator that allows you to pick which height you want your platform at. It’s easy to use and means taller walls don’t become such a chore by having to jump off ladders to hit certain spots. It’s kind of busted in co-op in that player two cannot properly adjust the height, but it’s a fun addition. Abseiling is another term for rappelling, and while you strangely never use this on mountainsides, the abseiler attaches to certain parts of the level to let you seamlessly swing from left to right and up and down to clean larger obstacles. The surface cleaner is like a floor buffer and it makes quick work of massive floors since it can cover so much at once. Each mechanic isn’t free from some jankiness (much like the first game), but they are natural extensions of what PowerWash Simulator is about.

 

 

Another small, but massive, change is how objectives are highlighted for the player. You can still press a button to show all remaining dirt at once, but unlike in the first game, getting down to just a few remaining objectives will see the HUD highlight them for you. The first game would simply pop-up an objective list with a name, but no indication of where it was. Now, that guesswork is gone and a reticle will hover over just what you need to spray. Again, I’m of two minds here, but I can’t deny it’s nice to not be spraying in random spots for 10-15 minutes hoping you find the piece of dirt you missed.

With all that laid out, PowerWash Simulator 2 should be a slam dunk and my “Game of the Year” for 2025, right? Well, strangely enough, I feel some of the refinement here has lessened the impact that the original game had. Maybe all of that extra DLC scratched my powerwashing itch so well that nothing would stack up, but I do feel that this sequel is missing some element. It doesn’t help that the more out-there elements have been reduced, making the game feel more average as a result. I haven’t explained the customization of your home base because it doesn’t really add much of anything. It’s fun to be able to buy furniture, spray it, and then place it around your business, but you don’t unlock any new sprayers, clothing options, or even cash from it. You also can’t engage with it in co-op as the second, third, or fourth player, so it feels superfluous.

It’s also strange to see the “Bonus Jobs” segment entirely missing here. The first PowerWash Simulator had some extra content waiting for players that finished the campaign which limited you to specific sprayers and attachments to clean different locations. There was also a challenge mode that featured stipulations such as “Clean this Job in XXXX time” or “Clean this Job with XXXX of water,” but I’ve always felt that went against the spirit of PowerWash Simulator. Regardless, the absence of both makes the final game feel a little lite.

 

 

There’s then the issue of the Nintendo Switch 2 port being incredibly basic. Having experience with the original game on PC, primarily, I was hoping this Switch 2 port would feature either gyroscope aiming or mouse controls. Neither is present. The visuals are fine enough, though the game seems to be rendering at either 1080p or 1440p, and is a little blurry. DLSS is not utilized, though that isn’t even present on the PC version. Performance is generally good, with 60 fps being the target, but it can drop when you’re spraying soap and standing a bit too close.

It’s not as if the Switch 2 version is the most problematic of the bunch. Each version of PowerWash Simulator 2 has oddities about it. On PC, enabling vsync makes the game stutter. Getting multiplayer started on any platform often results in failed connections, which is exacerbated on Xbox consoles when attempting crossplay (which is not available on Switch 2 or PlayStation 5). PS5 players are reporting laggy gameplay in larger levels. Sometimes grabbing a gnome in co-op breaks the other player, necessitating a restart.

That’s certainly disappointing, but considering how well Futurlab supported the first game, I have no reason to believe these problems will still exist in a few months. You also have the price of the game, which is a relatively cheap $24.99 on every platform. Price shouldn’t really factor into whether something is good or not, but it does allow you to understand why I’m not harsher to this game. The expectation was never triple-A quality or flawless execution. I really just wanted more of the first with some new additions thrown in.

 

 

I definitely received that, but with certain changes to the gameplay here, I feel the campaign loses its engagement too early. I’m still interested in what DLC Futurlab has planned, but I can only hope that the developers rethink how the difficulty curve works in any expansions. PowerWash Simulator was never meant to be a taxing or frustrating game, but giving players the ultimate tool roughly 55% of the way through the campaign does diminish what could have been another great game. At the same time, I did get to spend nearly 20 hours with my friend talking about life, which is priceless by comparison.

 

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