Powerwashing Simulator's Final Fantasy VII Expansion: A Deep Dive Review - Satisfaction, Confusion, and Dirt-Sense Goggles 9,000
Discovering the Pros and Cons of Powerwashing Simulator - A Detailed Review of the Final Fantasy VII Expansion and Gameplay Experience
Power Washing My Woes Away
In yesterday’s post I mentioned that I would try out power washing simulators new Final Fantasy VII expansion. So I kept to my very impulsive word, bought the game, and skipped immediately to the special expansion. The expansion has no tutorial, and thrusts you into what I assume is the full late-game experience. It was definitely a little confusing at first, but the game is very self explanatory so I really had no issue figuring out what to do. I scrubbed, soaked, and cleaned my way through the Final Fantastically crafted final fantasy cars and a large robot which I assume is a boss at some point. To which I say, yep. It was very satisfying and a lot of fun. It also supports co-op so I can only assume it would be a blast to power wash your troubles away with some friends.
So first some interesting praise of the game that I noticed. In the level I am currently on there is a square grating in a room that is absolutely filthy. I thought I would give the games physics a little bit of a test and blast the grating to see if it had any affect on the wall behind it. The wall behind is so covered and caked with filth that it is basically black, but the material underneath is white. If the simulation is accurate when I spray the grating from a stand still it should clean wall behind and make a pseudo shadow of the grate from the perspective of the power washer. To my absolute delight the game actually did it.
I do, however have some gripes with the game. In yesterday’s article linked here I talked about a rejection of naturalism in gaming. I won’t spend a lot of time repeating myself, but this game got me thinking about that again. The game is very true to its core conceit and offers the players a ton of information that normal power washers wouldn’t have. That being a percentage of completion, a list of things needing to be cleaned, how clean they are, and you get paid after you clean every item. It is indeed very videogamey. However the one thing that the developers seemed to miss is the actual grunge and dirt itself. The dirt especially in the “late game” can be very difficult to spot, and it can be tough to tell if the thing you are cleaning is %100 clean. So they added a button you can mash to make all the dirt glow a bright neon orange. I find myself mashing this button effectively the entire time I’m playing which got me to thinking. If we already have all this video-gamey stuff, why not give the player “DIRT SENSE GOGGLES 9,000” which can be toggled on like night vision and give you the ability to see all the dirt constantly in this very obvious neon orange. Similar to Zim in that episode where he becomes OCD about cleanliness.
The last little bit of criticism I have for the game really comes down to the properties of the 80/20 rule. If you’ve never heard of it it basically means that the first 80% of the task takes 20% of the time, and that the last 20% of a task takes 80% of the time. Basically meaning that you have to work harder and harder the closer to %100 percent done you are. That rule holds true for Powerwashing Simulator and similar to my last issue the games progress bar moves to a crawl near the end. If you are power washing by yourself you can probably get from zero to 90 percent in 10 minutes, and spend 15 to 20 minutes at an agonizing 99%. As a player I wish the devs would zoom in the progress bar at that final percent and really show me making progress towards completion much sooner. A window pops up with the names of the final items you need to clean, but only when you have like three things left. I wish that would show up sooner, and that the progress bar would change to something more zoomed in so I can still feel like I’m progressing.
In other news a new Gorillaz album dropped at some point. “Cracker Island”. I’ve been listening to the singles released early as a teaser for this album for the last couple of months now and am happy to say that the rest of the album matches the vibe of the singles. It’s very good. If you haven’t heard it I definitely recommend you give it a listen.