I am very new to these “cleanup” games. Contamination Cleanup Crew being the first one I sat down to play. The genre as a whole is an anomaly to me. Like that older episode of The Simpsons where Marge cannot get Homer or Bart to mow the yard but they attend an electronics expo of some sort and there is a virtual lawn mower game there. Bart plays it without hesitation. That feeling Marge has here is probably close to what I was thinking when I first saw Power Wash Simulator hit the Internet years ago. Contamination Cleanup Crew re-enforces that feeling in good ways.
As the name suggests, Contamination Cleanup Crew hints at danger. Danger in the environment but also in what you are cleaning up. Contaminants cause injury so you must make a path around the level to complete the objectives. Then the fact you have a gun. Well, there are creatures that thrive in the contamination, and they don’t want you cleaning up their “home”.
You are also limited on how much contaminated material you can remove at a time and how many times your weapon can fire. Run out of space or energy for your gun and you must return to base.
Did I mention the door to the base is on a timer? That just adds more tension or artificially lengthens the game depending on your point of view.
As with most games like this, everything is not perfect, the developer never promised perfection either. Just fun.
I did find the enemies’ path finding to be a little rough. They get stuck in doors between rooms as they try to pursue you for instance. Vacuuming up contamination is harder than it probably is meant to be around barrels and other obstacles as well. The hit detection seems off a bit.
All in all, Contamination Cleanup Crew was a fun 15-minute diversion for me. It satisfied a curiosity I had for the genre, re-enforced thoughts I already had, and was generally a good experience. I can easily see how fans of this genre will enjoy their time cleaning up the mess.
You can play Contamination Cleanup Crew in your browser over on Itch.io right now. It is free to play.
