This game is another entry into the genre of simulation games that revolve around cleaning. If you enjoy these kinds of games, you are probably someone who plays these to mindlessly relax by doing something a bit mundane and then revel in the dopamine high you get when you complete your assigned tasks. Games like PowerWash Simulator, House Flipper (1 & 2), and Crime Scene Cleanup are competitors in this genre and have been wildly successful. This is because the sort of standard for these types of games seem to include the following pillars:

1) Intuitive controls that aid the game play rather than hinder it
2) Simplistic but beautiful graphics that convey what is happening in a meaningful and supportive way
3) Various tools that are operated easily and act differently to ensure a well-rounded gaming experience
4) Levels that are varied with tasks that are interesting and engaging enough to hold player attention and to keep interest high

To me, it seems like it’s not hard to be successful in this space if your game follows, mostly, these commonalities. You might be wondering how Quackdzilla: Pool Cleaning Simulator adds up. Let’s take a closer look.

- Intuitive controls that aid the gameplay rather than hinder it

In simulator games, you want to have a control scheme that creates an ease of play for the player. This is especially true in casual simulator games where the object is to relax and vibe. The control scheme for this specific simulator game, however, is about as intuitive as trying to play Elite Dangerous on a Resident Evil 4 chainsaw controller. Now it does have some of the basics you would expect. W, A, S, D movement, CTRL crouching, Shift Sprinting, SPACE jumping, etc. But everything seems off. The movement seems strange, the hitboxes seem strange… I can’t put my finger on exactly why, but it does. Nothing feels right regardless of how I change my settings.

One of the things that grinded my gears, however, was interact. To interact with an object (pick up/use) you press “E”. You would normally assume that to drop an object you would press E again or to stop interacting with a thing you could just walk away from it. No. To drop an object is the “G” key. If you are interacting with something like a pump, you must stop interacting with it by pushing “E” again.

You also have two “cleaner senses” a Dirt Detector which is utilized by pressing “F” and a trash detector which is utilized by pressing “T”.

On top of that, you will find yourself having to pick up and maneuver objects a lot in this game. If you thought, like me, that you could just empty your hands and pick up two things, you are wrong. You cannot. You can only pick up and move one item at a time. If you have a tool in your hand at the time you try to do this, you will drop that tool as well. For levels where you must climb around scaffoldings and find a ridiculous number of tools, then drag them all back ONE AT A TIME, to the toolbox they go into… this is torture. Cruel and unusual punishment that is designed to waste your time.

- Simplistic but beautiful graphics that convey what is happening in a meaningful and supportive way

The game graphics are fine. They look a little muted to me… and like the controls, they feel a little off. Nothing looks especially beautiful… and nothing looks especially awful. They occupy the strange adequacy that does the game no real favors. The biggest gripe I have about the graphics is that it is hard to see the dirt you need to scrub on the surface. You do have a dirt finder… but it has a ten second cooldown and you only see the dirt for about 2 seconds, so you need to look quick. This slowed the game progress down significantly and was another time waster.

- Various tools that are operated easily and act differently to ensure a well-rounded gaming experience

The game is stuffed FULL of tools. Fourteen different tools to be exact. Then there are 7 different cleaning products, two modifiers for your power washer’s wand, various sizes of power wash reservoir, and a tablet with WAY too many applications. I believe there are too many tools here and utilizing them is much too burdensome for a casual gamer to enjoy. However, I fully admit that some may enjoy having a bunch of tools available to them… so this may be a personal preference thing. In my mind, there is no self-editing going on in the development of the game and so every aspect of pool cleaning must be done, meticulously… one at a time, while you can only hold two tools at any given time. Seems to be another time waster.

- Levels that are varied with tasks that are interesting and engaging enough to hold player attention and to keep interest high

This game focuses on the most mundane and least interesting aspects of the genre. The first level will task you with cleaning a small pool. You need to drain the pool with a lever, scrub the pool with either a power washer or a sponge, and then add the water back. Once that has been completed you need to grab the floating chlorine dispenser and fill it. Then you need to drop it in the pool. Mine stayed in the pool for a few minutes before it ended up floating above it in the air, but it still worked. This is all kinda standard, but then… THEN… you must go on an easter egg hunt to find like 9-10 rubber ducks hidden around the yard and put them into a toy box. Why? Who knows. This was not only ridiculous but was a tedious task that ruined the vibe. The next level I played had you servicing a hotel pool or something. There was a hidden control for the heater, filter, and water pumps. That hidden control required a numeric code to open… EVERY TIME YOU HAD TO INTERACT WITH IT. So, instead of keeping the equipment open and accessible you had to provide the code at a separate number pad several times throughout the level, and as soon as you walked away from it, it would close again. This was mundane and uninteresting… and kind of frustrating to be honest. After you scoop the fish out of the water, drain the water, replace the filter, clean the pool, fill the pool, adjust the temperature, check the ph and chlorine levels, add chlorine and ph up, you then get tasked with finding buttons that just appear on the walls. They look like red rubik’s cubes and there are a ton of them. Why do you have to do this? Well… because if you do it will open a section of the wall where you can see a chest of pirates’ gold and a paper lantern of course. Do you get to interact with either of these things in any way at all? No… no you don’t. It’s just meaningless padding in the game that is designed to waste your time. It is clear that the developers do not respect your time, nor could they think of any other way to pad their content.

CONCLUSION:
My rating for this game is a solid 2 out of 5. There are much better simulator games out there that can scratch the itch. However, if you have played all of those and are just looking for your next fix, I would go ahead and download this (as it’s free to play). Use it as a barometer to whether or not you want to buy the actual game. I have not played the actual paid game (which at the writing of this costs $15.99) and I probably won’t. To be completely honest, I am a huge fan of this genre and could not make it past the third mission in the game because I was too bored and frustrated with the mechanics to continue. All in all, this is a mediocre addition to the simulation family from a developer who seems more than happy to waste your time. Most people should take a hard pass.