What happens after your favorite video games are over? Who cleans up the blood, the aliens, the bodies, and the rest of the mess? Viscera Cleanup Detail attempts to answer that question.
You play as a sci-fi janitor and it’s your job to clean up after whatever space battle/evil experiment/bloody massacre just happened. The game is really simple – you switch between a mop and your hands. You have an infinite amount of refuse bins and water buckets to clean with and an incinerator to burn your trash when you’re done. So far in development there are ten maps to choose from as well as two bonus maps for buying the game before release – Santa’s Rampage and Shadow Warrior. At full release, there will be multiplayer co-op and speed trials. Currently you can try out this feature, but I wouldn’t suggest it since it’s still very buggy.
As someone who has random bouts of OCD cleaning, I felt like VCD was the perfect game for me. I was surprised at how many hours at a time I would obsess over getting a map into pristine condition. The bigger and more impossible map, the better. Evil Science was my favorite because it takes place in a futuristic science lab where humans and aliens are being experimented on. I never thought I could spend hours upon end playing such a short game that is still in development, but I found myself being reluctant to stop cleaning. It got so bad that I started obsessively cleaning my own apartment!
In a way, the game reminds me of my day job (I’m a registered nurse), so I would clean with extreme focus and actually think that I was a real janitor. Viscera Cleanup Detail delivers a convincing simulation of janitorial work in that the game is repetitive and tedious. However, I loved the freedom of being able to come up with my own back story of what happened on the space station and how I got there.
Here are some handy tips to help when you play the game:
1. Go for picking up the “bits” first before you reach for the mop and bucket. You’ll notice various appendages – human and otherwise – as well as intestines, trash, bullet casings, and equipment. If you try to mop up around severed limbs, you’ll just spread more blood and make a worse mess.
2. When it’s time to mop, start with the ceiling and work your way down to the floor. When you’re ready to mop the floor, remember the old saying “don’t pant yourself into a corner?” Well, don’t mop yourself into a corner. If you walk over blood and sludge, you’ll track footprints everywhere, so be sure to map out a path that you won’t backtrack.
3. Don’t get to happy with the arc welder. If you use it too long, you’ll burn scorch marks that will travel all throughout the walls or floors that take even longer to clean up. It is hard to throw away a body bag all at one time, but once you figure it out, it’s not that bad.
4. Make sure you have some awesome music playing while you clean. I recommend listening to the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack – Awesome Mix Volume 1. After all, what do you think Peter Quill did before he became the Legendary Starlord?
Viscera Cleanup Detail is available on PC and you can buy it through Steam Early Access for $7.99.