Dec 11, 2016

Viscera Cleanup Detail - Santa's Rampage


Viscera Cleanup Detail (VCD) is a simulation video game currently available on Steam.

In Viscera Cleanup Detail, you step into the boots of a space-station janitor tasked with cleaning up after various horrific sci-fi horror events. Instead of machine guns and plasma-rifles, your tools are a mop and bucket. That hero left a mess, and it's up to you to deal with the aftermath.

Doesn't sound very Christmas-y does it? That's where the DLC comes in! In the Santa's Rampage DLC, you're sent to clean up a big mess at the North Pole. I will throw out a caution that the following images contain plenty of video game blood.

Being a simulation game, there's not much action...okay, no action. You've got your trusty mop and a few other tools to sanitize Santa's Workshop and dispose of elf and reindeer bits.


That weird spider-looking thing is your mop. I played around with the game for a bit and found it frustrating. I'm sure if I sat down to play it seriously (as much as you can where you do nothing but clean) I'd get the hang of it. See all that pretty blood? You get rid of it by mopping it up. After awhile, the mop gets saturated so you can guess what happens when you try to "clean" at that point. There's a machine that produces buckets of water to rinse the mop in but if you know over a bucket of dirty water...more mess. Also making more mess, if you're not careful, are your own feet. Stepping in anything gooey gets it on your shoes and you will track it around.


In addition to cleaning up all the red stuff, you have to dispose of any body parts, liquor bottles, or other unsavory things in the workshop.


As you'd expect in a janitorial game, the creators have quite a sense of humor. Click on the bookshelf to get a better view! Some of the titles include DIY Dentistry, Alimony Horror Stories, Reindeer Hoof & Antler Care, and Weight Loss Secrets of the Super Rich.


While walking around, you'll start to wonder just what the heck happened that caused Ol Saint Nick to go postal. There are a few letters on his desk providing clues. One from the elves warning of their wrath if work conditions don't improve, a lawsuit notice for damages caused by reindeer defecating on homes, and one from Santa's brother Krampus who's writing from jail asking for bail money!

It was fun to poke around the workshop for a bit but I found this is not my type of game. I enjoy the humor of the environments, If you check out the sci-fi ones you'll see some familiar looking things. There's plenty to clean in the levels but it just doesn't scratch the gaming itch for me. I could see some people, maybe even myself, enjoying this in an almost Zen way of chilling out. I just prefer to be the one causing the damage rather than cleaning it up.

I'm a CREEP for The 13 Days of CREEPMAS

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