Cleaning up after a gruesome crime isn’t something most people would associate with fun, but Crime Scene Cleaner turns this macabre concept into an engaging and addictive simulation game. Whether you’re new to the world of simulation games or a seasoned player looking for a unique twist, this game promises an experience that blends dark humor, strategic thinking, and careful precision. In this detailed review, we will explore the key features, mechanics, and overall experience of Crime Scene Cleaner, while also highlighting its pros and cons to give you a well-rounded perspective.
Overview of Crime Scene Cleaner
Crime Scene Cleaner puts players in the role of a professional cleaner tasked with scrubbing away the aftermath of gruesome crimes. The job involves removing bloodstains, disposing of incriminating evidence, and ensuring that every location is spotless before authorities or bystanders can arrive. The game sets itself apart with a unique combination of puzzle-solving, time management, and environmental storytelling.
The setting of each level ranges from mundane suburban homes to chaotic crime scenes in diners, offices, and even laboratories. The environmental details immerse players in each scene, telling subtle stories about what might have happened while challenging them to restore order without leaving a trace.
Key Features and Mechanics
1. Level Design and Atmosphere
The level design in Crime Scene Cleaner is one of its strongest features. Each scene is meticulously crafted, providing players with both visual storytelling and logistical challenges. The variety of locations keeps the game fresh, with levels increasing in complexity as players progress.
Environmental Variety: Players will find themselves cleaning up messes in dimly lit basements, neon-lit nightclubs, abandoned factories, and remote cabins in the woods.
Interactive Objects: From blood-soaked carpets to shattered glass and suspicious weapons, every item must be dealt with properly to avoid penalties.
2. Cleaning Tools and Upgrades
At the core of the gameplay is an arsenal of cleaning tools that players unlock as they advance through the game.
Basic Tools: Players start with essential items such as mops, buckets, and trash bags.
Advanced Gadgets: As levels become more difficult, upgrades such as high-pressure hoses, forensic vacuums, and chemical sprays become available to handle stubborn messes.
Inventory Management: Keeping track of supplies is key, as running out of cleaning materials at critical moments can lead to failure.
The upgrade system also allows players to customize their cleaning loadout, adding a layer of strategy to the game.
3. Time Management Challenges
Each level in Crime Scene Cleaner is timed, and players must work efficiently to complete their tasks before the clock runs out. The pressure builds as more complex scenes require careful prioritization of tasks.
Quick Decisions: Should you mop the bloodstains first or dispose of the broken weapon?
Complications: Players must also deal with surprise interruptions, such as unexpected visitors or security patrols.
This mechanic adds a layer of suspense and forces players to stay on their toes.
4. Stealth Elements
Some levels introduce stealth gameplay, requiring players to avoid detection while they clean. Getting caught can result in penalties or mission failure.
Avoiding Detection: Players must hide from passersby, security cameras, and even pets that can alert others.
Noise Levels: Certain actions, such as dragging heavy objects, produce noise, forcing players to plan their moves carefully.
These stealth-based challenges add a thrilling element to the game, making each cleanup feel like a covert operation.
5. Dark Humor and Narrative
Crime Scene Cleaner balances its grim subject matter with a healthy dose of dark humor. The absurdity of cleaning up massive blood pools while whistling cheerful tunes creates a surreal and comedic atmosphere.
Narrative Clues: Each crime scene contains clues about what happened, which players can piece together for added immersion.
Humorous Interactions: The game includes quirky notes, hilarious mishaps, and unexpected Easter eggs that keep players entertained.
6. Scoring System and Leaderboards
At the end of each level, players receive a score based on their performance.
Efficiency Rating: Points are awarded for completing tasks quickly and thoroughly.
Cleanup Precision: Players who avoid leaving even the smallest trace behind earn higher ratings.
Leaderboards: Competitive players can aim for top spots on the global leaderboards, adding replayability.
Graphics and Sound Design
Visuals
The art style of Crime Scene Cleaner is detailed and slightly stylized, which helps balance the graphic nature of the content. Bloodstains and debris are rendered realistically, but the slight cartoonish touch keeps the tone lighthearted.
Lighting Effects: Dynamic lighting is used to enhance immersion, with dark corners and flickering lights adding tension.
Environmental Details: From cracked tiles to smeared fingerprints, the game’s visual storytelling is highly effective.
Audio Design
The sound design complements the gameplay with an eclectic soundtrack and immersive sound effects.
Ambient Sounds: Each location has unique ambient noises, such as distant sirens or creaking floorboards.
Comedic Touches: Whimsical sound effects, such as exaggerated mop swishes and cheerful background music, add humor.
Replayability and Difficulty
Crime Scene Cleaner offers high replay value due to its scoring system, hidden collectibles, and various difficulty modes.
Challenge Modes: Players can tackle additional challenges, such as “no tools” runs or timed speed-cleaning.
Unlockable Content: Completing levels with high scores unlocks bonus levels and cosmetic upgrades.
Hidden Secrets: Many levels contain hidden items and Easter eggs that encourage exploration.
The game also offers difficulty options, ranging from casual modes for relaxed play to hardcore modes for players seeking intense challenges.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Unique Concept: The crime scene cleanup theme is fresh and intriguing.
Engaging Gameplay: The combination of puzzle-solving, stealth, and time management keeps the experience dynamic.
Humorous Tone: The dark humor adds a layer of entertainment.
Detailed Level Design: Each location feels immersive and well-crafted.
Replayability: Leaderboards, collectibles, and unlockables add incentive for multiple playthroughs.
Cons
Repetitiveness: Some players may find the core gameplay loop repetitive over time.
Steep Learning Curve: The stealth mechanics and resource management can feel overwhelming for newcomers.
Limited Storyline: While the environmental storytelling is strong, players looking for a narrative-driven experience may feel underwhelmed.
Occasional Bugs: Some players have reported minor glitches, such as items not registering as cleaned.
Final Verdict
Crime Scene Cleaner is a standout simulation game that offers a refreshingly unique experience. With its combination of dark humor, strategic gameplay, and immersive level design, it captures the player’s attention from start to finish. The game’s blend of puzzle-solving, stealth, and time management creates a rewarding challenge that keeps players coming back for more.
While it may not appeal to everyone—particularly those who prefer narrative-driven games or lighter subject matter—it excels at what it sets out to do. If you enjoy unconventional simulation games that test your precision and problem-solving skills, Crime Scene Cleaner is well worth a try.
For fans of quirky, darkly comedic games, this simulation is a hidden gem that brings unexpected charm to the grim task of crime scene cleanup.
I wasn't to sure about the game when I first started playing but it surprised me. Story is good so far and I just made to the giant warehouse scene. Definitely recommend this game for an at your "own pace" experience. There's no health system nor any type of combat or face to face interactions with NPC's, it's all electronic communications. You can just take your time cleaning up, looting and puzzle solving the aftermath from serial killers and a mob boss.
Very enjoyable time passing game. While it does offer its own sort of gameplay with lots to discover and collect, my primary enjoyment was to put something else on to listen while cleaning crime scenes. My only complaint is that there isn't more of it and even then, the recent nightmare update just added a bunch of replayability.Actually I do have one real complaint - Part of the game is to put things back in place and sometimes you can accidentally nudge something a few cm/inches and you don't get 100%, because technically it's not in place. Some amount of tolerance should apply, not just because it's annoying to not get that perfect score, but because it's a little silly that a chair being pulled out a bit from the table it's at, is somehow suspicious. It's a weird disconnect from immersion sometimes.
I bought this because I saw a clip of nightmare mode on TikTok. I am addicted to this game now. I expected gameplay similar to the pressure washer simulator but this is in it's own league. Each level has it's own plot that adds to the main plot. I didn't expect plot at all so I am pleasantly surprised. 10/10.
I've been bouncing between recommending and not recommending this game. I absolutely loved the early levels of it, but then I got to the museum. It is so massive that I absolutely cannot continue. For months, I've been loading into the game, cleaning one square foot, getting overwhelmed, and imploding.I don't like imploding.
i just adore everything about this game. i dunno. highly recommend. 10/10. my only thing is i wish there were more levels, but thats neither here nor there :)
Honestly just the perfect game for me. Like cleaning, organising, looting, and perfectionism -- and don't mind a little gore? This game is for you, too! So much fun and so much content to play through, I've played and perfected it all. It even has an incredible story! Massive thank you to everyone who made this game happen, I'm sure it took immeasurable amounts of effort. I love it! <3
CSC is a bit rough around the edges with some of the animations and dialogue being awkward, grammatical errors in the subtitles, and other minor nitpicks, but it makes up for all its flaws tenfold with its music, delivery, story bits, and honestly all-around great game design. The music is very pleasant with a lot of good songs definitely worth pausing Spotify for once you accrue a sizable collection of the Cassette/Vinyl collectibles throughout the game and establish a playlist.The game knows well what it is and its scope, it never feels like it tries to be something it isn't with its story or tries awkward mechanics. Everything feels fleshed out at a mechanical level, with only a little polishing left to be desired. I won't spoil the story but it's much more than you'd ever expect from a game of this length and tone, yet it never feels like it oversteps its own boundaries. The game is also very intuitive with its mechanics, you'll learn it quickly and find it satisfying immediately. It brings a lot more to the table than you'd initially expect from your average run-of-the-mill cleaning game. I enjoyed this a lot more than games like Viscera Cleanup and Pressure Washer sim because of its wider range of engaging mechanics. Well worth even full price which is significant coming from someone who almost never buys games off sale. 100% achievements is also fun.
are you an OCD freak?
do you want to be satisfied?honestly, just BUY THIS GAME xD
10/10 satisfactioooon~
i really like the puzzle aspect of the nightmare mode too btw..P.S we need JOHN WICK DLC please <3
what i liked about this game is that it is not a difficult game really it is nice and relaxing when i first saw someone play this game i was like sure i'll give it a try why not it is a very fun game with no issues at all was playing for 4 hours straight and enjoyed every bit of it
this game is pretty dope. definitely wish there was more stuff but i'm still very glad i purchased it. hope to see more stuff and i would 100% recommend it to anyone considering buying this!
Pretty fun game, i love the easter eggs and secrets. Especially the cats and mice <3 but lots of fun and a game you can get lost in. I would like to see a little more story
Not very much content, but well made content and absolutely a blast to play, aside from one bug that really annoyed me (one of the bodies despawned in the party cleanup mission, so I couldn't finish it and had to do it again from scratch). Get it on sale if you're in doubt, full price I think is worth it to support the developers.Power washer is the way to go. Buckets and having to do mops and sponges and all that is so annoying. Sponges are good secondary for spot cleaning and not breaking things but.... sometimes its nice to just break everything with the power washer and then just throw it away, ahaha.
I love this game! I may not have gotten far yet, but, I find the story intriguing so far. I also find the environments of the game very pleasing to work in, there are some really beautiful maps in this game that you have to clean, and I'm loving it so far! I also enjoy the way this game pushes you to be nosy, and to look around and prod the environment for secret areas, special items, and more. I've found it to be a lot of fun, and I look forward to, hopefully, many more hours of game play!
Used to be, every game had fun little secrets you could uncover. That's a big reason why I find this game so enjoyable. Great brain-off game sometimes but also rewards you for brain-on?? The Nightmare versions of the levels are really fun and the rewards for finishing them are well done - the black-hole garbage can is so satisfying to use.
One of the better sims out there. Kinda reminds me Viscera Cleanup Detail but with a linear story. Controls are easy to learn and rarely run into any bugs. The maps are interesting and keep you from feeling bored.
I could definitely recommend this game. There’s something oddly satisfying about scrubbing down a crime scene that looks like it came straight out of a horror movie. On top of that, it’s fun piecing together what actually happened—like trying to trace the killer’s movements while you’re mopping up their mess.The Nightmare update? Absolutely wild. Pro tip: don’t get too comfy with the music on while cleaning, because some of those Nightmare scenes will launch you out of your chair. I legit almost yeeted my mouse across the room—thanks for that, devs.Seriously though, just play through the first scene and you’ll be hooked. Next thing you know, you’ll be like me: 100% the game in two days and immediately starting a new save just to hunt for more clues about the real story.
Just completed the story, and as much as I love the ending, my only complaint is there isn't more levels. Slowly uncovering the full extent of the crimes and drama while cleaning the scene is so entertaining. I love this game!
Overall I enjoyed this quite a bit.
The levels are really well built, they all tell a story and you get to figure out what happened while also cleaning up.
The voice acting is whatever but it doesn't ruin the game. The main guy has the best voice and I could listen to him all day.
I think towards the end the chores got a little out of hand in the base game, there's just so much furniture to put back. I didn't try the extra modes for each level, maybe I'll come back at some point.
I think this is a simulator done very well, not a cheap asset flip at all. Some real heart put into this.
It's Viscera Cleanup Detail and Powerwash Simulator combined with a LOT of QOL compared to either. (But also, if you're sensitive to criminal-underworld-type-stuff / sad murder scenes, don't play this.)Against Viscera, there are more water dispensers around all the maps (so you don't ALWAYS have to backtrack to a far-off part of the map, it's at worst a medium distance from wherever you're cleaning) and no glitchy trash bin, instead you've got a small trash selector/grabber (that's even better after you upgrade it) and directly carrying bodies (though I personally think the slowdown is a bit much, especially when they're on the opposite side of the map to the car/bin) - and bodies and breakables don't spread blood or mess. Unfortunately, one of the negatives from VCD did make it here, that being the crate-stacking type of thing, though it's really just in Friendly Fire Nightmare (was forcing stacking 160+ tiny crates and making sure none of them got bumped/thrown out the window and needing to clean certain ones REALLY necessary?), Party's Over (scattered chairs and beer kegs all over a sizeable campground with cabins and back routes), both versions of Modern Art (which is where the game's at its worst, having you run back and forth through a huge museum map with tiny little things scattered everywhere <and occasionally cheekily hidden, to the point where discussion posts are the only way you're going to find certain things if you're not looking *literally* everywhere, there's also exactly 1 item on Italian Job that negatively impacts that job> that you HAVE to find all of and replace correctly or you're not getting that 100%.), and Call in Dead (huge warehouse where you're running back and forth up and down levels to not only gain access to certain areas like it's a metroidvania, but also to port bodies and carry your bucket to wherever you need it at).Against Powerwash, the cleaning isn't tedious at all, not even with the Powerwasher- in fact, if you put skillpoints into it specifically and get the one that lets you put detergents into it, it will quite literally hard carry you through 90% of nightmare mode with the Strength/area detergents, since it's not being dirtied like the mop/sponge/bucket and clears mass swathes with ease... and Nightmare is tons of big swathes of mess most of the time, with the other 10% going to the sponge(s) if you choose to be careful. Standard mode might be a liiiitle different, but I wasn't aware of the Powerwasher's power when I did that and it still averaged out to the same amount of time either way ( using mop/sponges vs Powerwasher/sponge(s) ). Also, the amount of blood/mess you need to clean is a LOT more gracious instead of being picky about the three pixels you can't see that are still somehow dirty- here it's if you clean the genuine most of the mess, the little leftovers will be instantly poofed.The only tiny bugs I encountered were a couple of spots where you can get stuck on objects (there's a respawn button in the esc menu and you'll be teleported out of it automatically after a bit if you don't press it) and the music occasionally just deciding to not play. I only make a point of this because this game is bundled with Haunted House Rennovator, which is so, SO MUCH BUGGIER and broken compared to this.Overall though, yes, if you can tolerate the underworld/depressing stuff, it's a far superior cleaning sim than either Viscera or Powerwash, aside from those tedious parts of those specific missions (and Affair with Death Nightmare, which is an easy but annoying escape room with the usual cleaning rather than just straight cleaning sim). True Cleaner mode is completely optional outside of if you want an achievement for doing ONE map in it, by the way.(PS: The dev is a cat/pet lover, the mission where it seems like one's a ghost actually seems to be a demon rather than a cat ghost, based on how it behaves in-level/the theme of the level and what we generally learn from the Nightmare levels. Don't worry, no cats are harmed. This also goes for Friendly Fire, where the cats 100% escaped what happened, which is backed up by what the MC says on the loading screen for the nightmare version.)