Serial Cleaner Review
The act of illegally cleaning up crime scenes in
media is commonly seen more in crime movies and television shows than games. One of my favourite parts from Pulp Fiction is Harvey Keitel showing up as the proficient Winston Wolfe, a mob cleaner who disposes of evidence from such incidences. I liked the humour and sense of professionalism that Keitel brought to the role, and it would go on to serve as a basis for these types of characters in crime films and other media that would succeed it.
The opening level of David
Cage’s Fahrenheit has the protagonist
murder a man in the restroom of a New York diner and the player must proceed to
cover his tracks before the police catch on to him. Due to the total number of
possibilities that situation could play out, it was arguably one of my
favourite moments of Fahrenheit and I wish that more games would have tried this pseudo-stealth, puzzle approach to gameplay. Years later, Viscera Cleanup Detail was released which presented larger open-ended options of cleaning up after violent fights. It
was tedious if you played it seriously, but fun – to a degree – when
treating it as a multiplayer sandbox. It didn’t, however, scratch that same
itch as the prologue of Fahrenheit did.
From Polish developer iFun4all comes Serial Cleaner, a stealth game where you are put into the boots of the Cleaner – real
name Bobby – who lives with his mother in a quiet American suburban town in the
1970s. Unbeknownst to his mother, the Cleaner receives mysterious phone calls
from a client asking him to go to a recent crime scene and recover the
evidence. At first the Cleaner assumes these are unrelated mob killings,
however over the course of the decade he begins to catch on to a more dangerous
scheme.
The gameplay is designed as a
top-down Hotline Miami style adventure
using a visual flair inspired by art of the decade. Upon
arriving at the crime scene, the Cleaner must dodge cop patrols as he retrieves
evidence, disposes of bodies and mops up pools of blood. Enemy cops will patrol
between certain points of the map and you can avoid them by hiding inside
cupboards, playing music to distract them and, if they weren’t already foolish
enough, trapping them inside rooms by moving furniture around. If they notice a missing item, they will investigate, and should you infiltrate on
their cone-of-vision, they will chase you. Having them patrol on set paths
gives an edge of predictability, but being able to manipulate their
routines adds an additional element of strategy and will require quick wits to face them. Although
some of the AI behaviour seems odd – maybe even too much to fully suspend your
disbelief – I interpreted it as a homage to the campy detective shows from that
same era.
There are twenty missions in the
main story, with an additional ten bonus contracts based on classic ‘70s movies
such as Taxi Driver, Enter the Dragon and Rocky Horror Picture Show. For the most
part, these missions are complex and offer a well-paced challenge. There are
even randomised elements on each map where certain items and objectives are
placed in alternate spots, so you’re guaranteed a different experience each
time you play. Overall, it feels like Serial
Cleaner is designed to be a trial-and-error experience that encourages you
to learn the levels and patterns of the enemies before improving at it.
Despite this excellent design, the
consistency drops off within the last few levels – which some may feel put off
by – but the difficulty always remains. I felt that the final two contracts
were the weakest part of the game, both in tone and structure, and would have much
rather preferred to play more of the earlier missions. After finishing, I discovered a
dozen different challenge modes were also available to try, which modify or
disable certain features for a tougher experience, so there is plenty of
content to sink your teeth into.
Altogether, Serial Cleaner approaches the action-stealth genre in the same way
that Hotline Miami touched on action-shooters. Its mechanics work flawlessly and are heavily complemented by
its rich sense of humour, funky soundtrack and all-around fabulous ‘70s
aesthetic. It’s one of my favourite releases this year and I’m secretly hoping iFun4all will release some kind of sequel set in the 1980s.
No comments: