Serial Cleaners [Xbox]
After seeing Serial Cleaners back when it was first announced, I was intrigued. I love games that have stealth as a core element to the gameplay; if a game provides two options to complete a mission and one is to go down the stealthy route, I will pick that option 99% of the time (and 100% of the time for a first run through!). After quickly familiarising myself with the previous title - and completing it - in preparation for this, I found myself instantly hooked on the story, the aesthetics and the gameplay, so I couldn’t wait to get stuck in here, too.
Serial Cleaners - plural this time - has four cleaners to play as, and follows their escapades over the years, both before they knew each other, and after they’d formed as a team. We’ve got Bob, protagonist of the original game, in the sort of ‘leading’ role and jack of all trades; Lita, a pro at clean-up, but who can also vault over objects and climb over fences; Vip3r, a self-taught hacker who saved the team’s arses with her skill; and lastly, Psycho, the big guy with an anger problem and a chainsaw he’s not afraid to use - even if it does lead to even more mess to clean up.
Playing as each of the cleaners feels great, and due to the way the story is presented, with each character getting their fair share of levels throughout the game, it doesn’t feel like you default to any of the characters over another. You do have the option in a handful of levels to switch out part-way through, to make use of a particular cleaners specialised set of skills, such as hacking with Vip3r before switching to Lita for easier cleanup; and this makes for an interesting playstyle too, since you get the best of both worlds between the characters available.
Enemies are slightly smarter this time, and will investigate hiding spots if they catch you slinking into them. This ups the ante from the previous game, as now you’ll need to be a tad more methodical in your planning. Thankfully, it’s not a case of an instant catch once they investigate - they’ll have a look, allowing you time to scoot out of another exit or catch them by surprise by hopping out in front of them, allowing you a quick reprieve. Whilst I say they’re smarter… they’re also kinda not. They seem to take longer to react to things, possibly due to the fact that they don’t have an obvious triangular field of view anymore, so you can quite often just run past them and out of the way before they can even process what’s just happened!
Whilst I really liked the graphical style of the original, things have definitely improved visually with more of a 3D approach - though still very much stylised. With a 90s/Y2K era vibe, locations reflect this with crime scenes ranging from arcades and scabby drug dens to a Quick-Stop styled grocery store à la Clerks (with Silent Bob seemingly appearing in the cop station later). The way that the story unfolds for you is really well done, with each chapter involving individual missions for each of our cleaners, and the way that these all tie in to each other really allows you to easily envision the relationships they’ve formed over the years. Cutscenes are well done too, and whilst character faces don’t move, this works surprisingly well as a stylistic choice.
Disappointingly, there doesn’t appear to be a level select option in any way, so you’ll need to do everything you’re looking to do whilst working your way through - otherwise you’ll need to do a second run to nab any missed achievements (something I discovered entirely too late). There’s also no unlockables this time around, such as bonus missions or costumes - which is a bit of a missed opportunity. Overall, whilst I really enjoyed it, I do still feel that the original won me over slightly more. It’s still worth a shot as a worthy successor to the original, particularly if you were a fan of the first game - but I do definitely have my gripes about it missing the aforementioned elements, though hopefully these things will be added in later if the developers continue to support the title. If you want to see how things wrap up, and clean up some crime in Serial Cleaners, you can find it for £19.99 on Xbox.
In the end, we decided to give Serial Cleaners the Collecting Asylum rating of 8/10.
Are you interested in Serial Cleaners? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Draw Distance for the Serial Cleaners Xbox review code!
