PowerWash Simulator 2 review for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X

It is time to grab your face shields, space suits, and rubber boots! You took that dirty old van and made your start-up business run from your garage a success! Not only did you wash away all the grime of the county, but you also saved the town from natural disasters and unwanted visitors. Now is the time to expand your business and open a store front. Calls from all over the county are once again coming in and it is time to get down to some power washing. Go out and explore the map of Caldera County with your three new feline friends, Ulysses, Bubbles, and Squeak. Also, yes, you can pet them all!

The central homebase is your brand-new sprawling empty storefront. Here you can show off your creativity and decorate the space to your liking. As you finish jobs, more furniture will be unlocked to use amongst the space. However, these items were found during the jobs so they will need to be cleaned up before use. The patterns range in styles inspired by modern, art deco, luxury, and many more. You can also use this area to act as a meeting space for you and up to three of your friends in multiplayer mode.

Overall, PowerWash Simulator 2 was a good graphical improvement. The effects of the water are much more fleshed out than the original game, giving a rinsing effect on most surfaces. The textures themselves are vastly improved in PowerWash Simulator 2, showcasing less blurry details. Additionally, the environments have taken on a much more alive feeling than the previous game. Gentle effects of falling leaves, butterflies, and all kinds of small details have been added for immersion. The jobs this time around are less static, some having sections of grime to wash away, only being revealed after completing a certain number of tasks. My only complaint graphics wise was the artifacts left on the job completion replay, I hope to see an update to improve the quality upon launch.

The sound design in PowerWash Simulator 2 did leave me wanting something…else? Using the default settings, I felt the sounds of the water were just too harsh. Of course, this can be easily fixed and fine-tuned in the audio settings menu. It did take me a while to tweak it to my liking as I needed to pause and resume to listen to the difference. If you play like I do though, and have a YouTube video or something else to relax with, this is a minor issue.

A few improvements have been made to the existing game mechanics, and few new interesting ones have been added. Soap is now longer lasting with a sticking effect that will help you find those hard to see grime spots. The formulation has also undergone an upgrade and is now bubblier and more noticeable than previously. New shiny attachments also make their debut, a spinning attachment which twirls in a circle and is seemingly focused on the floor jobs.

In the store you can sell and buy guns and attachments, this can also be utilized to get stronger guns quickly if you are not aiming at collecting them all. Personalization has expanded. Not only do guns and suits have skins, now your van does as well! I am excited to spread my creativeness into these new spaces and hope to see some future additions to these categories with the future DLC themes.

Personally, with PowerWash Simulator 2, I am excited about the future of the PowerWash franchise. If you look at their freshly released 2025/2026 roadmap you can be excited to see 3 paid IP DLC, 3 free Caldera Chronicle Jobs, and what they claim will be a bucket full of other planned additions coming. They are really giving us more of the game we all fell in love with, and I hope they continue to listen to their community. I highly recommend purchasing this installment if you enjoyed the first game, it will be well worth the investment. Go on, let’s go gnome hunting in PowerWash Simulator 2. If you like cozy, comforting games, it’s one of the best.

Note: FuturLab provided us with a PowerWash Simulator 2 code for review purposes.