Serial Cleaner Review – Good Clean Unwholesome Fun

Serial Cleaner, Curve Digital

Serial Cleaner, Curve Digital

<p>I’ve got a lot of digital blood on my hands&period; I’ve run down crowds of Liberty City pedestrians&comma; tea-bagged noob corpses and squashed the life out of thousands of hapless&comma; unarmed goombas&period; In most games&comma; horrifically fun acts of violence are the solution to most problems&period; In iFun4All’s new title&comma; <em>Serial Cleaner<&sol;em>&comma; violence is only the beginning&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Set in a hyper-stylized&comma; geometrically askew version of the 1970s&comma; <em>Serial Cleaner<&sol;em> put you in the role of Bob Leaner&comma; a down on his luck gambler that lives with his mother and is just trying to make ends meet&period; Although Bob doesn’t exactly seem to be the murderous type&comma; his social connections&comma; discretion and knack for sneakiness has led him to a life of cleaning up murder scenes for well-paying clients&period; Unlike Pulp Fiction&&num;8217&semi;s <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;wWmRTjLRMfU">The Wolf<&sol;a>&comma; Bob must clean up these scenes well after they’ve been discovered by the cops&comma; forcing him to dispose of bodies&comma; vacuum up blood stains and steal evidence right out from under the cops’ comedically mustachioed noses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;127378" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-127378" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-127378" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;12202523&sol;Taxi-Cleaner-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Serial Cleaner&comma; Curve Digital" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-127378" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Serial Cleaner&comma; Curve Digital<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Other than <em>Serial Cleaner<&sol;em>’s unique &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;post-murder” concept&comma; the game doesn’t really break any new ground as far as stealth gameplay goes&period; For the most part&comma; near-sighted enemies&comma; complete with visible &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;vision cones&comma;” repeatedly patrol an area unless interrupted&period; The sound of Bob’s footsteps&comma; which alert the police to his presence even through walls&comma; is visually represented by a white diamond pulsating out from his feet&period; Bob’s relationship to violence is only tangential as he will not &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;take down” officers&period; Instead&comma; players must evade the cops by way of audible distractions or moving around certain pieces of the environment&period; The most notably unique mechanic of <em>Serial Cleaner<&sol;em> is the game’s claim that&comma; by reading your IP address &lpar;with your permission&rpar;&comma; it uses real time data and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;modifies levels accordingly&period;” This initially sounds like a nifty idea&comma; but other than levels being nighttime when it was actually nighttime in the real world&comma; I didn’t notice much of an influence on gameplay&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you’re looking for realistic stealth situations&comma; this is not the game for you&period; Enemies in <em>Serial Cleaner<&sol;em> instantly forget about your existence the moment you jump into one of many hiding spots scattered across each level&comma; no matter how many times they’ve spotted and chased after you&period; Silly as it seems to jump behind a potted plant and baffle pursuing enemies&comma; without the ability to exploit these safe hiding spaces&comma; <em>Serial Cleaner<&sol;em> would be impossibly difficult&comma; so this sacrifice of realism for gameplay was the right choice by the developers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;127379" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-127379" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-127379" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;12202533&sol;Cleaneria-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Serial Cleaner&comma; Curve Digital" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-127379" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Serial Cleaner&comma; Curve Digital<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Serial Cleaner<&sol;em> balances out it’s macabre subject matter with self-aware&comma; dark humor and its delightful art-style ripped from the pages of 1970s pulp comics&period; In combination with the game’s top down&comma; classic <em>Zelda<&sol;em> perspective&comma; the angular artwork does occasionally make it tough to tell where you can and can’t walk&period; Like the setting&comma; the soundtrack spans the majority of the 1970s&comma; including original disco&comma; pop&comma; and early hair metal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Scattered throughout <em>Serial Cleaner<&sol;em>’s campaign are collectibles that unlock 70s-inspired character skins and bonus movie-based contracts&comma; which are pretty neat&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for more of a challenge after completing the 20 contracts of the campaign&comma; any contract can be replayed with a number of &&num;8220&semi;challenges&&num;8221&semi; that dramatically crank up the difficulty&comma; such as no hiding spaces&comma; no vision cones&comma; time trial and drunk mode&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While <em>Serial Cleaner<&sol;em>’s stealth mechanics aren’t anything new&comma; their familiarity and the game’s learning curve is accessible and instantly entertaining&period; Disposing of bodies&comma; stealing evidence and cleaning up blood are the same goals of every contract&comma; but the increasingly complex stages keep things from feeling too repetitive&period; With its bite-sized missions&comma; unique look&comma; dark sense of humor and uncommonly grizzly subject matter&comma; <em>Serial Cleaner<&sol;em> is well worth a look&comma; especially for those who enjoy classic stealth mechanics and puzzle games&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><iframe src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;embed&sol;BXghFtddsQo" width&equals;"560" height&equals;"315" frameborder&equals;"0" allowfullscreen&equals;"allowfullscreen"><&sol;iframe><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;Website&colon; http&colon;&sol;&sol;ifun4all&period;com&sol;index&period;php&sol;serial-cleaner&sol;"><em>Serial Cleaner<&sol;em><&sol;a> is available now for digital download now on PlayStation 4 for &dollar;14&period;99 and launches on Xbox One and Steam &lpar;PC&comma; Mac and Linux&rpar; on July 14th&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PS4 review copy of <em>Serial Cleaner <&sol;em>was provided by Curve Digital for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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