Serial Cleaner is a 2017 stealth/action game developed by iFun4all and published by Curve Digital.
The game is set in the '70s and follows The Cleaner (real name Bob C. Leaner), a gambling addict in debt who gets money by cleaning up crime scenes after murders. After his debt with the mob starts racking up, he takes a new, mysterious client.
The game is available on Steam
and GOG.
A sequel, titled Serial Cleaners, was released on September 22, 2022. It was developed again by iFun4all (by then rebranded as Draw Distance) and published by 505 Games. Taking place in 1999, it follows the further adventures of Bob, now the head of his own cleanup crew, as they recount their various jobs throughout the last decade. In addition, the original game's 2D perspective is replaced with an isometric 3D one.
Serial Cleaner and Serial Cleaners contain examples of the following tropes:
- The '70s: The game is set in the decade of the 1970s, focusing on a certain period of time starting on '72.
- Cleanup Crew: Your job is to clean up crime scenes by disposing of bodies and evidence as well as vacuuming up blood, all the while avoiding the cops.
- Engineered Public Confession: The final confrontation with the Echo Killer involves you baiting him into chasing you in front of live cameras, upon which he'll blurt out various incriminating things.
- Everyone Has Standards: Bob is desperate for money, so he takes the jobs from the mysterious client, but is greatly upset by the state of things, especially the fact he seems to brutally murder young women.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: Once you hide in things like bushes or boxes, cops will quickly lose attention, even if they see you doing so.
- Momma's Boy: Bob loves his mom dearly and is very sweet to her whenever they talk. They are shown to have a very close relationship, with him even accompanying her on her bridge game nights.
- Only in It for the Money: Bob is not interested in joining the Mafia or takes pleasure in his work, all he wants is to make enough money to pay his debts and then move on.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Bob does work for the mob and a serial killer in order to clean up after murders. He, however, takes no pleasure from it and is only doing it for the money and to keep himself and his mom safe.
- The Reveal: At one point, listening to the radio, Bob realizes he's been cleaning up the murders of the Echo Killer.
- Serial Killer: The Echo Killer is a serial killer racking up a large body count and that The Cleaner has been cleaning up for.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts: A primary reason for why Bob keeps taking dangerous jobs for criminals is due to various gambling debts.
- The '90s: The game takes place during various periods of the 1990s.
- Air-Vent Passageway: Vip3r is able to unscrew air vents in order to crawl through them.
- Ax-Crazy: Psycho is the most mentally disturbed of the protagonists, being a former mob hitman prone to losing control.
- Chainsaw Good: Psycho carries a chainsaw that he uses to eviscerate corpses into bits of limbs as well as to cut down barriers.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: The new protagonists have different abilities that allow for different playstyles:
- Psycho carries a chainsaw to dismember bodies and can toss things such as body parts at cops to knock them out, effectively making him the only character capable of what counts as combat.
- Vip3r is a hacker who is capable of interfacing with the local network to either cause distractions or to open up new opportunities.
- Lati is the most agile of the group and can jump and climb around the environment that other characters can't. She can also use her natural agility to knock enemies down by either tackling them or sliding into them.
- Framing Device: The story takes the form of the characters reminiscing about their careers during New Year's Eve of 1999.
- Video Game 3D Leap: While the previous game was 2D, this game is now in a 3D isometric perspective.
