Written by Litton Raysoul
Title: Serial Cleaner
Developer: iFun4All S.A.
Publisher: Curve Digital
Price: $14.99
Genre: Stealth, Action
Also Available On: Steam, PS4, XB1
Set in the 70s, you work as a member of a crime syndicate. Weird thing is, they don’t provide you weapons, and you are not a killer either. Enter the life of the Serial Cleaner, where your job is to clean up the crime scene. Literally.
Serial Cleaner is a stealth game, where you play as The Cleaner, a professional crime scene cleaner for the mob. Your objective is to clean up the crime scene by removing dead bodies, stealing any evidence, and cleaning up all those dirty blood, while avoiding getting caught up by the police. The game borrows some elements on other stealth games like vision cones (the vision indicator for the police) and hiding spots. You can also move some objects to open up new paths, or just obstruct the vision of the police. The game is very simple enough that it can be picked and play on the go, which is perfect for the handheld mode of the Switch.
The game is quite punishing as you don’t have much option when you are detected by enemies, except for hiding. Once caught, you will be forced to restart the level, undoing all your progress. This is quite frustrating but luckily, the game provides you with infinite retries, which will just randomly mix up the locations of the bodies and evidences on the map. With a little patience, it is easy to learn the patrol patterns of the police. They are also quite dumb as you can easily hide in a hiding spot while being chased, and they will be confused and go back to patrolling like nothing happened. The game also has an option called Real-world data, which is used to modify levels accordingly with the current time of day. That means that if you are playing at night, then the levels would be set at night, which would affect several in-game systems like visibility.
Different elements adds to the atmosphere of the game. The cool 70s mafia style story is a plus, even if it is not that deep. After each mission, you will be exploring the daily life of the Cleaner on his house, together with his mom. You will be then receive calls about your next job, explaining what happened, and what you need to do. Most of the conversations are funny enough, thanks to its sharp humor. The music in this game is no slouch either, as the 70s styled rock-jazz tracks compliments the game’s overall theme.
All said, Serial Cleaner is a good game that you can play in small burst. For a small indie game, it makes good use of existing stealth gameplay mechanics to create a unique overall package. It also features several unlockable costumes and movies, which would help in its replayability. So if you are itching for a unique stealth game, then this game is right for you.
The Good
- Graphics, music, and premise compliments each other
- Clean graphics and smooth performance
- High replayability
The Bad
- Gameplay might be too simple for some
- AI is dumb
Review Score: 7/10
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