Viscera Cleanup Detail
Viscera Cleanup Detail, in addition to being a fun game, is one of the best concepts for a game we’ve ever seen. As a bonafide janitor, it is your job to clean up the horrible mess of blood and alien guts that some homicidal maniac left behind in their trek through a space station (a not so subtle nod to shooter campaign protagonists). You have a mop, a bucket of water, trash dispensaries, and all the time in the world to leave the area spotless. That’s…quite literally all there is to it.
What’s great here is more than just the premise, though. The mechanics of Viscera Cleanup Detail work quite well, and the janitorial arsenal feels physical (similar to Papers, Please) and satisfying in action. But the real reason to play the game is the zen-like state one can enter when you really get into the groove of it all. Picking a corner to start with, strategically mopping “out,” so as to avoid tracking blood footprints everywhere, and leaving the room squeaky clean achieves a type of fun that seems ridiculous from the outside, but very much worth having. Relaxation is its own kind of fun, and Viscera Cleanup Detail nails that idea.
