Tidy Up Criminal Carnage in Serial Cleaner (2017)

In keeping with my slashertastic anticipation of the Scream 6 release, I thought I would take the time to review a video game that does not focus on slashers but instead on the dedicated, tireless folks who clean up after them: Serial Cleaner, a 2017 2D stealth title that was developed by iFun4all and published by Curve Games Limited.

Set in the 1970s, Serial Cleaner follows The Cleaner, a crime scene cleaner who works for local organized crime. As the game progresses, The Cleaner begins to suspect that his recent jobs are not for crime lords but instead to cover for a serial murderer called the Echo Killer. When local authorities begin to suspect The Cleaner is acting as the Echo Killer's accomplice, he has no choice but to untangle himself from the Echo Killer's spree without becoming his next victim.

In Serial Cleaner, each level has players cleaning blood stains, hiding evidence, and removing bodies from crime scenes while avoiding police officers. Players can use a few items hide from the police (e.g., shrubbery, dumpsters, closets, etc.) and some levels feature shortcuts players can take to move bodies faster. The police aren't very smart in this game; as long as players pay attention to their movement patterns, they will be able to finish their cleaning tasks and leave in the getaway car without getting arrested. 

Serial Cleaner bears a few similarities to another slasher-themed game, Party Hard. Both are 2D stealth games where each level focuses on a single location and players have to use their powers of observation and patience to complete the game. Neither game takes itself too seriously, with the right amounts of absurdity and dark humor counter-balancing the inherent ghastliness of the mass murders that happen on the screen. Of the two titles, I think Serial Cleaner is the better game: The story is much more interesting, and the Echo Killer arc builds to a satisfying conclusion. Furthermore, Serial Cleaner has style to spare, with a funky jazz soundtrack that sounds like it came straight from the '70s and a retro minimalist art style that fits the cartoonish feel of the game's humor and gameplay mechanics. Imagine if the artist Shag decided to contribute his style to a video game, and you have a good idea of what Serial Cleaner looks and feels like.

Finishing the main campaign is only part of the fun with Serial Cleaner--the bonus levels and unlockable costumes for The Cleaner are all rooted in '70s pop culture. The extra levels have players cleaning up crime scenes based on '70s films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Suspiria and Taxi Driver. If you want to dress up The Cleaner like Michael Meyers from Halloween or Dr. Frank N. Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, you can do that too.

Serial Cleaner did get a sequel in 2022, Serial Cleaners. The sequel takes place on New Year's Eve in 1999, with most of the game being told through flashbacks of events that happened throughout the '90s. The Cleaner finally gets a name--Bob--and he has a crew of three other cleaners to help him with his dirty work. The Echo Killer makes a brief return appearance in one level that's modeled after a scene in Silence of the Lambs, but that's it. Instead, the plot of Serial Cleaners focuses on the four cleaners confronting each other to find out who reported them to the police.

The main objectives from the first game remain the same in Serial Cleaners, but the sequel has more to offer. Its levels have an isometric layout, and this added dimensionality presents new challenges and lets players interact with the environments in ways that weren't possible in the first game. As the game progresses, players control each of the cleaners, and each has a different specialty that can be used to finish the cleaning job; on some levels, players can even alternate between two cleaners so their specialties can be used in tandem. 

For all of the new features that the sequel provides, I don't think it's as fun or as stylish as the first game. The sequel wants to tell a more serious story, so the humor from the first game is mostly gone. Nevertheless, if you like Serial Cleaner, you'll enjoy playing through the environments that are in its sequel. Horror fans will also probably like Psycho, one of the new characters. He's a large brute with a dubious sense of reality, and he brings a chainsaw with him to cut up bodies into smaller parts for easier removal. If police see him cutting up a body, they'll temporarily pass out; Psycho can also throw body parts at police to knock them out as well.

I think Serial Cleaner is the perfect game for slasher fans who enjoy stealth-based games. There is plenty of blood to clean up, bodies to move, and dark-humored jokes for horror buffs to enjoy, as well as a fairly decent sequel that has plenty of new challenges (and a power tool).