Video Game / The Cleaner (2006)

No, away! AWAY FROM THE CAT!

"You are: The Cleaner!"

— Game intro

The Cleaner is an Indie Game made in GameMaker 6.1 by Robert Lupinek (Darthlupi). Additional graphics were provided by Justin Leingang (Cosmind) and the musical scores were created by Chris Roper (Pug Fugly). The game was opened for beta testing on September 23, 2005 and the finalized version was made available on August 21, 2006. Recognizable for its austere graphics reminiscent of the untextured polygons of the early 1990s, the gameplay of The Cleaner is an homage to that of Street Fighter 2010.

The game centers around multiple worlds of magic, magitek and technology, in which dimensional travel is commonplace. There are a total of thirteen worlds to travel through in set order, though the total sum of dimensional travels amounts to many more. They are set in some unspecified distant future on earth, implying that magic is science, really. People found a way to open doors to other worlds and thrived in an era of new-found enlightenment, until they opened one door too many, as they opened the way for malignant aliens (or creatures from some other dimension on this planet, which should be alein enough to call them that) coming to invade, harvest whatever resource they wanted, eradicate most of humanity and enslaving what was left of them. Though the doors to those particular worlds were closed, dimensional travel stayed in operation to guard humanity by potent magicians, of which the protagonist is one.

During a routine check (and learning some basic game mechanics) he fights a human faction later revealed as coerced by the invaders. Upon returning home, there's an attempt on his life, in which his beloved is almost killed. He and a more mature guardian set out to resist the faction.

As the stoy progresses it becomes apparent that the ultimate goal of the invaders is to activate or revive some cultist god, found in statues and sigils during travel, and which turns out to be the final boss.

The Cleaner was available for download on Darthlupi's personal website until it went offline on February of 2019. At present, it is available on Archive.org and on Caiman.us. Because newer generation OS don't support the game format, a virtual machine might be needed.

A full playthrough is available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6YhWQGEYeY

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The Cleaner contains examples of:

• Artistic License – Physics: Chapters are divided by short interludes in empty voids where you endure enemy attacks until your travel energy is enough to warp out. If there is something to land on, however small, you will be able to stand on it, all the while without any reason why gravity would work at all.
• Badass Cape: The Cleaner wears a floor-length cape that looks particularly imposing whenever he flies through the sky, and which floats along with his movement. No one else has an attire like his except the alien invaders.
• Blinded by the Light: The turtle blinds you (with its tongue, no less) before rushing you in the dark. It's not a hard fight as long as you don't get hit directly. If you do, it's easily lethal.
• Breath Weapon: In the fifth world themed with heat and comet impacts, the twin bosses attack with fire blazing from their mouths.
• Cooperation Gambit: The human enemy faction is never really explained well. The story implies that it's aliens vs. humans, and that humans working for the aliens are slaves, but they seem to act out different intentions and goals and are quite autonomously honed against you. Fighting humans and aliens simultaneously or even within one chapter is rare.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Apart from having to redo everything from the last autosave forward, there's no penalty for death. This redo can be punishment enough near the end of the game though, especially in the long, frustrating section under water, lacking save points.
• Excuse Plot: Apart from some backstory near the end of the game, the plot is short and simple, and not mandatory to watch before playing. The game itself starts with your girlfriend being attacked and wounded, and you setting out to avenge her, quite apart from your stated duty to protect mankind . This is not a drawback, however, thanks to the game's affective style, sound and atmosphere, ranging from active to mysterious to haunting to blood-curdling.
• Eye Beams: the sinking eyeball shoots energy pellets, the oribiting eyeballs shoot strings of pellets, the mutated cat shoots lasers, and the final boss shoots a homing projectile, incidentally the most lethal force in the game apart from the wall lasers.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Just after the beginning of the game, there's an aquatic lab with future enemies swimming around, one of which is fought much latert in what is arguably the hardest part of the game, the underwater caverns.
  • The sigils and statue of the [[ spoiler: final boss]], found throughout the game. Until you finally meet it, they are meaningless, though portentous.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Most bosses are flavoured this way, but are preceded by some kind of Boss Corridor, mitigating the 'from nowhere' part. In one instance however, coming from a relatively calm chapter, you are transported to a hallway and instantly chased by a demonic mutated cat, filling the whole screen, shooting lasers at you and pushing you into the spiked walls.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Dead human bodies are just as effective to throw at enemies as giant blocks of concrete. You can also throw these bodies hard against the wall or dump them from great heights. It's never a needed skill but all too satisfying given their extreme agressiveness.
• Had to Be Sharp: The game is not Nintendo Hard, but demands utmost concentration and thinking on your toes, justified by the haunting setting. There's no interludes where you can just look away from the screen or play on autopilot.
• Hell Is That Noise: When your mana shield gets hit, it flashes with an awful noise, especially if you get pushed in an energy barrier, pet ping-ponged between enemies or pushed in a corner by enemies not bound by clipping and crushing you on the spot. Once you heard it, you will probably avoid it at all cost.
• Inscrutable Aliens: There's really no reason for the alien invasion of the human dimension other than to destroy and enslave... until you invade their base and find that they have some bigger plan in mind. Why, exactly how, and to what end is all guesswork.
• It's Personal: Although protecting mankind is his stated task, the attack on his girl is implied to be the hero's main incentive to hunt the invaders down.
• Laser Hallway: Quite a few passages feature One-Hit Kill lasers from either the walls or the ceiling.
  • In one hallway near the end, the lasers encompass the whole screen, making it impossible to dodge. There's a puzzle element to it, which is not too hard if you have a good enough memory or have a good enough musical capability, as four switches 'pressed' correctly will avoid them activating. One mistake, and you're toast.
• Organic Technology: In a cave inhabited by suposedly endogenous black creatures that change to still-pulsating spheres when you hurt them, you need to drop these into a machine to transform their Life Energy into enough travel energy to open a portal.
• Mana: Except for walking, every aspect of gameplay centers around magical abilities, most of which use mana energy.
• Mana Shield: While you have a life meter, your primary 'hit points' are implied to be the strength of a magic protective barrier.
• Men Act, Women Are: Played straight with the good guys, all male, but averted with human enemies, clearly of both genders and equally lethal, even though the three human bosses are men.
  • In one chapter, as a sort of interlude, you are 'requested' to save the offspring of an alien. The alien in question is a sort of tube with an eye and has no exterior features, but you cannot help feeling that it is its mommy. It doesn't and presumably can't act on its own.
• Mind over Matter: Other than directly shooting the machines holding in place energy barriers to bits, telekinesis your prime way of destroying them, using loose objects, debris, or even hurling dead enemies, making telekinesis the prime puzzle aspect of gameplay.
• Notice This: In the ice world, an arrow pattern of stars points to a secret entrance.
• Power Floats: Once airborne (and you won't spend a great amount of time walking), you are ostensibly unmoved by gravity. While human enemies need jetpacks to stay afloat and have erratic flight patterns to boot, you just... float. Justified In-Universe as you are implied to be a powerful magician, but there's no real explanation.
• Selective Gravity: When jumping, or walking off a ledge, you are affected by gravity, but once airborne you negate this effect by magic. Human enemies are affected by gravity and use jetpacks. Some other enemies are affected, but most of them are flying, floating or seemingly swimming through the air, regardless of shape, size or function. Magic would explain this, if they displayed any magical ability or affinity whatsoever.
• Title Drop: The end of the prologue, which you get to see before the game title, ends in "you are...". Cue the title screen with The Cleaner smack dab in the middle.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: Just before the final boss, you see your companion being lifted to it's mouth to be sacrificed to it. Once this happens, you die. Over. And. Over. Again. Until you realise that he is moved by telekinesis, and you can counter it with your own. The ensuing fight takes place while holding the telekinesis button down and fighting independently of it, the first and only time you need to. It requires some practice and clear-headedness which the game doesn't prepare you for in any way.