Ludography
68/100
Metacritic23 critic reviews
More scores
Metacritic usersuser score
64/100
Player reviews
76% positive359 reviews
Steam Deck
Verified
Runs on
Windows
Price
US$24.99

Where to get it

Serial Cleaners cover

2022 · Draw Distance · Adventure · Indie

Serial Cleaners

Serial Cleaners is a single-player stealth action crime story in which you alternate between playing four eccentric mob cleaners taking on the bloodiest jobs the carefree 1990s had to offer. If you remember the nineties differently, their dirty work is the reason why.

Released
22 September 2022
Platforms
Nintendo SwitchPlayStation 4PlayStation 5WindowsXbox OneXbox Series X/S
Genres
AdventureIndieSimulationStealthStrategy
Developers
Draw Distance
Publishers
505 Games
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Bird view / Isometric
Themes
ActionStealthEducational
Country
Poland
Age ratings
CLASS_IND 16PEGI 16ESRB MCERO DACB MGRAC 19+USK 12
Languages
Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Spanish (Spain)
Time to beat
9hmain story12hcompletionist

About

Serial Cleaners is a stealth game developed by Draw Distance and published by 505 Games. It is the sequel to Serial Cleaner and continues the theme of removing evidence from crime scenes.

›Story

New York City, New Year's Eve 1999. An unlikely team of four professional cleaners for the mob gathers to drink and reminisce about their careers at the turn of the millenium. As the details of their stories stop matching up, the ugly truth behind their cooperation begins to reveal itself. What starts as a celebration of a decade of shared history slowly turns into a tense and dangerous standoff.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Serial Cleaners is a stealth game played in real-time from an isometric perspective. Players control contractors working for organized crime and are tasked with removing evidence from crime scenes. Each playable character has a special ability: Bob, the protagonist from the first game, can bag bodies so dragging them does not leave blood trails; Psycho can dismember corpses and use the limbs as weapons; Lati uses parkour to escape from the police; and Vip3r is a hacker who can control electronic surveillance devices. The levels include references to 1990s pop culture and have police patrolling the scene.

Players must guide their character to the evidence, clean or remove it, and escape detection by the police. There are places where their character can hide, but if players are caught, they must replay the level. Between missions, the cleaners relate stories to each other as they reminisce about their jobs on New Year's Eve in 1999.

Development

505 Games released Serial Cleaners on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Windows, and Xbox One and Series X/S on September 22, 2022.

Reception

On Metacritic, the Windows and Xbox Series X/S versions of Serial Cleaners received mixed reviews, and the PlayStation 5 version received positive reviews. Although they said the missions can become a bit repetitive, Rock Paper Shotgun said it "makes murder-cleaning a fun task that rewards patience or chaos". GamesRadar disliked how little skill was required to win on each level and said all that was needed was to patiently exploit the limited intelligence of the police as they obliviously made their rounds. However, they praised the stylish graphics and said stealth game fans may still enjoy the late game, which is more challenging. NME called it "a game full of fascinating ideas" but criticized the lack of tension and the bugs.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Xbox One22 September 2022Worldwide · Japan 23 September 2022
Xbox Series X/S22 September 2022Worldwide · Japan 23 September 2022
PlayStation 422 September 2022Worldwide · Japan 23 September 2022
Windows22 September 2022Worldwide · Japan 23 September 2022
Nintendo Switch22 September 2022Worldwide · Japan 23 September 2022
PlayStation 522 September 2022Worldwide · Japan 23 September 2022

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Years

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.