Crime Scene Cleaner

Developer: President Studio

Release Date: 2024

Once you get tangled with the mob, you will forever be a part of the mob. At least they pay a decent salary and all you have to do is clean up after their dirty work, but you know what you’re doing. So clean crime scenes, outsmart the police, and get ready for the next mission.

I am unsure whether I should be ashamed to admit that out of the 35 demos I currently have to try, Crime Scene Cleaner is the one that I absolutely had to try first. But crimes, fixing crime scenes, virtual cleaning, secret handouts… there is no shame there, that is a winning recipe if I ever saw one. The real shame lies when I skip my own chores to conscientiously scrub the splattered viscera of the former owners from every surface of their enviable mansion, and would do it again in a heartbeat.

This demo exceeded my expectations in just about every way. As a PowerWash Simulator appreciator and someone that is eagerly awaiting House Flipper 2, my curiosity was piqued but I could not have imagined that this would – in my opinion – live up to both of those titles. Sure, you don’t have the design options that you have in House Flipper and you don’t have the unlimited water that you have in PowerWash Sim, but this game brings other mechanics to the table.

In Crime Scene Cleaner we are playing as a character with a personality and a life. His one liners are consistantly fun, almost feeling like an homage to a horror protagonist. School janitor by day, alternative janitor by night, we are trying to earn money to be able to pay for the treatment of our seriously ill daughter. Not only do we need to clean up the horrendous crime scenes but we have to manage our suspicion levels as we decide how much of the crime scene we can get away with quietly taking for ourselves.

I never realised I wanted a gory cozy game but so far, that is exactly what this game feels like for me and I eagerly await the full experience.

Demo Length – 2 hours. Certainly won’t take that long for everyone but I wanted the place to be spotless and kept finding secrets upon secrets rather than the dining chair that I was looking for.

At a glance
+ Level design
+ Satisfaction
+ Felt like a great tutorial
+ Potential for depth to the game beyond only cleaning
+ A charming amount of jank
+ Secrets
+ Humour
+ The character we are playing as has a personality
+/- This is not going to appeal to everyone
– I had a couple of UI/visual bugs, I have reported them to the devs!