Goblin Cleanup Review: A Delightful Dungeon Detergent (PC)

I am a sucker for “behind the scenes” games. For relaxing games. For delightful romps with friends. Goblin Cleanup is all three wrapped lovingly into one. It’s calming, but somehow still exciting. It scratches an itch I didn’t know I had. Who actually resets the dungeons after a band of D&D adventurers kicks in the door and leaves chaos behind?

With a charming art style, intuitive mechanics, and plenty of clever little surprises, Goblin Cleanup is the kind of game that’s easy to sink into and hard to rush through. It’s even better with up to three friends along for the ride, splitting the workload and the blame. And make no mistake, Goblin Cleanup gives you work to do, sending you from dungeon to dungeon, each with its own hazards, layout quirks, and very sharp opinions about where your body should not be standing.

It’s impossible not to draw comparisons to something like Viscera Cleanup Detail, but Goblin Cleanup trades pure mess management for a stronger focus on puzzle-solving, traversal, and not getting violently impaled by your own workplace. The result is a game that feels familiar, but distinctly playful. Less about scrubbing blood forever, and more about surviving another shift in a dungeon that absolutely does not care about OSHA compliance.

Goblin Cleanup is available on Steam for $19.99

Story – Dirty Dungeons

There’s really not much to say here: you’re a goblin, and you have a job to do. Goblin Cleanup is refreshingly straightforward, offering only faint hints of story scattered through the dungeons for players curious enough to piece them together. The core loop is simple and unapologetic: adventurers barrel through, trigger every trap imaginable, spill blood on the treasure, and leave. Your task is to clean, reset, and prep the dungeon for the next unlucky group.

Along the way, Goblin Cleanup introduces you to a surprising variety of dungeon residents that make each job feel distinct. One dungeon might have a wizard napping in the corner who absolutely does not appreciate being disturbed, while another asks you to appease a carnivorous tree just to reach the far side of the room. These small interactions give Goblin Cleanup its personality, ensuring that even without a traditional narrative, there’s always something new demanding your attention—or your caution.

If you’re coming into the game looking for a deep, character-driven story, you may leave a little disappointed. Much like Power Wash Simulator, what story exists is subtle, environmental, and entirely missable. Goblin Cleanup is far more interested in its systems, its spaces, and the quiet world-building that emerges through play. The story is there if you want it, but it’s just as happy to let you focus on doing your job and surviving another shift.

A slime for your mop, a mimic for your trash. Very D&D!

Gameplay – Another Day, Another Gold Piece

Much like Power Wash Simulator, the game follows a simple, satisfying formula. You arrive in a dungeon, get your slime mop set up, locate your mimic disposal bin, and start cleaning. Goblin Cleanup swaps out traditional cleaning supplies for their D&D equivalents: living slimes that suck up blood and guts, mimics that eat said mops along with errant legs and torsos, and a mana-channeling lizard used to activate and alter dungeon artifacts.

Your first task in any dungeon is taking stock of the situation. You’ll scout dangerous areas, locate trap components, and identify which treasures need replacing. Goblin Cleanup gives you a checklist of everything that needs to be reset, but unlike Power Wash Simulator, carelessness has consequences. Artifacts can incinerate you. Traps will impale you. Even your own mimic disposal bin will happily eat you if you stand too close for too long.

If you manage to avoid upsetting the wizard, get the spinning blades back in place, and return the treasure to its chest without the laser eye giving you a structurally superfluous new orifice, you’ll earn cash to improve your kit. Better tools, better clothes, and a better goblin. Goblin Cleanup is endlessly replayable and even better with friends—but remember, if you die, they still have to clean up your entrails to finish the job.

Just because the trap isn’t for you, doesn’t mean it won’t turn you into giblets.

Graphics and Audio – Goblin-Grade Graphics

The title is a little teasing. There’s nothing wrong with the visuals or sound, but they aren’t trying to melt your graphics card. Much like Power Wash Simulator, the priority is clarity; you need to see the mess you’re cleaning. The goblin models are charming and expressive – even cute – the environments are cleanly readable, and everything runs smoothly without unnecessary spectacle. That restraint works, because bombast was never the point of Goblin Cleanup.

Where Goblin Cleanup truly shines is atmosphere. Every dungeon feels like something a Dungeon Master would describe, right down to the logic of how traps are laid out. Once you start noticing how the mechanisms are meant to catch careless adventurers, the levels become funny. Most importantly, it’s immersive. This feels like your job. Clock in, do the work, don’t get skewered.

The music is functional rather than memorable, but it does exactly what it needs to do. Goblin Cleanup establishes a clear mood and sticks to it, letting the sound effects do the heavy lifting. The wet squelch of a slime mop, the clatter of bones, the crunch of body parts caught in traps. It all reinforces the world without ever demanding attention. It’s subtle, effective, and perfectly on-theme.

Goblin Cleanup was reviewed on PC.