Image via Futurlab
Earlier this month, I was invited to London’s home of celebrity waxworks models, Madame Tussauds, by Dead Good PR in order to check out PowerWash Simulator 2‘s upcoming Star Wars pack. The news of this pack’s announcement earlier in the year already had me excited about a new way to explore the universe, but doing so in person is something else entirely.
After being greeted on a red carpet on our way in, a handful of creators and journalists were shown fantastic footage of a few of the six levels in the pack before diving in and getting grubby with some hands-on sessions.
The Grime Of Star Wars Has Never Been More Exciting
The section of Madame Tussauds we were in had been curated with the best Star Wars waxworks available, including iconic battle scenes from the original trilogy, as well as a few faces from newer entries. I got to sit with Chewie and yell at him about which way we were going before the hyperdrive in the Millennium Falcon kicked into gear, chill out with Han Solo in his iconic Greedo-shooting scene, and even get some wisdom from Yoda before heading in to clean up a ship or two. My favourite part might be my lightsaber fight with a young Anakin Skywalker.
The whole place was set up to immerse us in the Star Wars universe, meaning I felt right at home when I loaded up each of the three Star Wars levels in PowerWash Simulator 2 that I was allowed to hop into ahead of the pack’s launch on July 16.
The first level I tried out is set in the docking bay of a huge Rebellion ship. The dirty quest? An X-Wing. This ship is not only incredibly detailed, but it’s also absolutely covered in dirt and grime. As with everything in this series, it’s incredibly satisfying to clean off every inch of disgusting dark matter and see each one highlight and ping as it’s deemed perfectly clean. The ship has some truly devious nooks and crannies to get into that I can see myself spending hours trying to get so spotless I can drink strange blue milk out of them.
The second level I got to try out was the iconic canteena. This is where I got so stuck that I didn’t even get a chance to move onto the third level because there’s just so much to take in. The dirt tells a tale of chaos that you can follow from the movies through to whatever has happened since. Familiar music plays in the background as you clean, and each little piece of the bar and its surroundings has been carefully placed to tell a story that all Star Wars fans will be excited to live and breathe.
As I walked around, very much in awe of the waxworks around me, particularly the R2-D2 who screamed at the most opportune moments, I was struck by how many little touches there are in PowerWash Simulator 2‘s new pack that bring Star Wars to life. For example, each time you spray a surface in-game, you’ll hear a Stormtrooper’s blaster.
Even the character you play is built to fit into Star Wars’ rich lore. Indeed, the team at Disney was deeply involved in the pack and approved or worked with Futurlab on everything to ensure that it could fit within the overarching timeline of the universe. I briefly spoke with the person responsible for licensing for Futurlab, a self-confessed Star Wars nerd whose lightsabers I was using all evening, and he said that the level of scrutiny to which this pack had been subject to pretty much made it canon, though that’s not an official confirmation.
Every single member of the development team I met expressed their immense passion not only for game development, but for Star Wars as well. One of the X-Wing’s designers got into game development and set to work on a Star Wars project as their ultimate goal, which they’ve now achieved. The CEO of Futurlab also told us how this pack had been the blue sky project since the start of PowerWash Simulator‘s development, and bringing it to life has been a real dream come true.
For me, this pack brings to life every moment we see the Millennium Falcon in the movies. It always looks like it needs a good clean, and now we finally get to give it one as part of this pack’s many levels. Between it and an absolutely colossal AT-AT that you’ve got to scale up and down, this pack pushes PowerWash Simulator 2 to its technical limits. The AT-AT level in particular couldn’t have been possible in the previous game, showing just how far Futurlab is pushing its boundaries.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Star Wars pack for PowerWash Simulator 2 is going to be a hit that fans and newcomers alike will play for tens of hours. At a time when we’re seeing the price of games increase without, necessarily, the promise of added gameplay to back that price up, and the potential ceasing of physical disc production, a DLC for an indie game that I reckon you can get at least 30 hours out of, more if you replay the levels with friends, is a far better thing to spend your money on.
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