Serial Cleaners Reviews
As a straight, old-school stealth experience Serial Cleaners certainly delivers. There's very little fluff or filler, with compact mission areas, clear objectives and little reason to deviate from the plan.
The second go-round for this franchise adds new characters and abilities, but also loses some of its weirdo flair
Serieal Cleaners is ultimately an inspired independent production. With an engaging and convincing plot, it offers narrative branches that wink at noir, a genre not always treated with care and respect. The stories of the four protagonists are intense and detailed, though not very original. The gameplay expands on what has been done in the past with the predecessor, but the artificial intelligence has not been properly implemented.
Review in Italian | Read full review
You won’t be killing anyone in Serial Cleaners, only cleaning up crime scenes and making evidence disappear. Crazy how big the difference is between the first and this, visually it is a completely different game with nice-looking graphics. A nice story, fun characters and stealth-gameplay make this game a great purchase.
Draw Distance took everything that made Serial Cleaner good and raised the bar. Not only did they bring a title with personality and an addictive gameplay loop, but they established them new possibilities for branching out the story. We can only hope for more!
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
I loved my time with Serial Cleaners, which clocked in at around 10 hours. It was everything you could expect from a sequel of a game that showed some real promise. The greater lean on narrative and the gritty aesthetic carried the game much further than the original Serial Cleaner, but sadly the core gameplay loop remains mostly unchanged. This is fine initially but wears thin toward the end. If you're a fan of Stealth games and movies such as Pulp Fiction, you'll lap up everything Serial Cleaners has to offer. While it outstayed its welcome, I'd have no qualms about hiring this motley crew for another clean-up.
Serial Cleaners whilst unique, holds on to its premise well and should keep players entertained for the duration. You can live out your Harvey Keitel (Pulp Fiction) fantasies here and then some, with its range of characters and diverse scenarios. The game will appeal more to those who like slower paced gameplay and stealth. Given its relative cheap pricing at £20, it’s a steal.
A glorious pulp style mixed with engaging stealth gameplay makes Serial Cleaners a compelling 90s narcotic to sink your time into. The trip may be a little bumpy on account of the bugs and inconsistent AI, but you’ll be left feeling fulfilled and ultimately satisfied, which is more than Scarface or Vincent from Pulp Fiction can attest.
Serial Cleaners will clock-in on average around eight to ten hours for a single playthrough, and for a narrative-led game around stealth, is just the right amount of time. I do wish you could replay levels you’ve beaten, a feature from the first game not present here, but it didn’t hamper my enjoyment. Having the story being told only in flashbacks seemed like a trope at first, but there’s a reason for it that pays off. Serial Cleaners is a stylish game that plays like a reverse Hotline Miami, coupled with a variety of characters with unique gameplay mechanics that keeps things fresh.
Serial Cleaners is a fun stealth action game that pairs varied gameplay with excellent art direction. It doesn’t have the best enemy AI in the world but makes up for it with its smart level design, great pacing, and engaging narrative. It manages to do a lot with its premise and makes cleaning crime scenes a cleansing experience.
Serial Cleaners offers up an incredibly unique premise, some fun characters, and a lot of great levels with a surprising level of interactivity to tell us stories that aren't really told too often. Couple that with a great sense of style to evoke the 90s and Serial Cleaners becomes a surprisingly interesting game.
Serial Cleaners has a very solid core idea and adds just enough variety with its four characters to make each level feel engaging and unique. I like solving the puzzle of how to get all the bodies while attracting as little attention as possible. The strength of the gameplay makes it easier to ignore the more undercooked elements of the narrative.
Serial Cleaners is a unique entry into the stealth genre, featuring fun gameplay mechanics, a quirky cast of characters, and increasingly complex missions. Sneaking past guards, disposing of evidence, tackling innocent bystanders, and coming up with increasingly chaotic ways of dealing with tough situations never became dull, rather I was constantly excited for what came next. While there were a few sound issues and the on-screen text can be a bit small, I still found myself greatly enjoying my time as a cleaner for a mob boss.
A stealth-action 'em up that makes murder-cleaning a fun task that rewards patience or chaos.
Serial Cleaners improves a lot of components from the original, especially when it pivots towards a more story-driven interface. The voice acting and the overall creative choices make it an indie game worth trying out for the story and also for its unique way of telling a crime story from a different perspective. The best part of the game is interacting with the unique cleaners that give Serial Cleaners so much character by utilizing creative ways to tell the story through different eyes. Above all, there’s the enjoyable stealth action that takes you from start to finish, allowing you to tackle each level at your own pace.