Powerwash Simulator 2 has made me abandon my favorite nozzle and I don't know how to feel

Anyone who's close to me knows that I've had a long-standing love affair with Powerwash Simulator. It's my go-to game when I'm stressed out, saved my sanity when I was excessively pregnant in a heatwave, and because of that I've bought almost every DLC, and sprayed my way to over 50 hours of playtime. So now you know my credentials, you can understand why a) I have a favorite nozzle and b) why I'm devastated to find myself switching idols in Powerwash Simulator 2.

I've been a ride or die yellow nozzle simp for years. But there's a new yellow accessory taking my attention with Powerwash Simulator 2, and it's the catchily named Swirlforce Surf Ace. One of the new tools for the sequel, it's essentially a steam cleaner with a giant yellow head for cleaning floors. I'll admit, being faced with cleaning a huge floor space in Powerwash Sim wasn't always my favorite part, I'm much more about faffing around with the smaller more intricate bits, so to have this tool that adds a bit more joy to floor (and other flat surface) cleaning is a lot of fun.

Mellow yellow

On the, ahem, surface, a lot of Powerwash Simulator 2 is just more Powerwash Simulator. If it ain't broke, don't fix it etc and so on, but I was initially a bit underwhelmed by the fact that the sequel didn't feel all that different from the game I've already spent far too much time (and money) playing.

One of the bigger new additions is the map, where you can pick missions by looking at the locations. It's not exactly the most intuitive UX choice, especially as you can just skip from mission to mission from the menus as before, but it brings your home base to life a little more than the original game ever did.

The home base has been massively expanded. You can buy and unlock furniture that you can also opt to clean for even more zen water blasting to kit out your massive new office space. It's a much bigger and more impressive experience away from the jobs and the bizarre gem-based mystery that's unfolding in your DMs and job notes. I'll tell you now, power washing a piano shouldn't be this fun.

There are great quality of life tweaks, like having all the tool shortcuts easily accessible on the screen and no longer needing to buy different kinds of soap. There's no refilling or running out either, you can just foam away to your cleaning content. Soap's even better utilized now, too, with some stains being particularly stubborn and needing a little extra help to shift. Developer FuturLab even has some fun with hiding things in the more resilient dirt for you to discover.

It was actually a public toilet that made this feel like a sequel, which on paper sounds a bit bizarre, but bear with me. Initially, I had no idea what I was cleaning. It was an odd pill-shaped structure in the middle of a street, elevated about a foot from the ground. It was only when I finished cleaning what I could see that it rose up from the ground to reveal the exterior of a public toilet. Then, when I'd cleaned that, the door slid open to reveal the excessively grotty interior. The interactiveness and the element of surprise was brilliant, and since I've discovered more levels that take advantage of this more playful side.

What a blast

My current favorite has been a shooting gallery like the ones you'd find at a fairground. There are red and white circle targets everywhere, on a plane on the ceiling, on a volcano, a B-movie spaceship - and of course they're all filthy. As I start cleaning off the dirt, the shooting gallery comes to life, with moving elements, music, and sound effects all just adding to the hilarity. Suddenly, I'm chasing a moving yeti through a pop-up forest to get to his grubby parts and laughing.

There is something seriously satisfying about the new rigging too, as I powerwashed the grime from an overzealous billboard ad for a small town. Zooming around the gigantic artwork smeared with cute animals and hollers to come on down and visit, certainly adds an extra dynamic to just blasting away at a vast flat expanse.

It's part of the reason why I'm not yellow nozzling as much anymore (yes, that's a verb now). There's so many more ways to get up and personal with the dirt here in Powerwash Simulator 2. Beyond the new washers and accessories, there are more tools to help you traverse each job. Better ladders, bigger scaffolding, the aforementioned rigging, and even a mechanical platform lift to hoist you up to new heights that you can manually control. We've certainly upgraded our kit this time around.

The same goes for the graphics too. There's an utterly satisfying new water run-off effect, particularly visible when you're cleaning glass or any shiny surfaces, and overall, it's the best Powerwash Sim has ever looked. It's not exactly a complete overhaul mechanically, but that really doesn't matter here. The gameplay is as satisfying as it's always been, there's just more ways to get down and dirty now. And I'm exceptionally happy with that.

Powerwash Simulator 2 is out now on PC, Switch 2, Xbox Series X, and PS5. You can also check out our picks for the best simulator games to see where Powerwash 2 lands.