Hiding bodies and cleaning up blood for the mob in ‘Serial Cleaner’, now on Linux

Well, that’s one title I didn’t imagine I would be writing! Serial Cleaner [GOG, Official Site, Steam] is an amusing stealth game about cleaning up crime scenes for the mob, it’s pretty good too.


Disclosure: Key provided by GOG.com directly.

The game released on July 14th with day-1 Linux support, so I’m admittedly a little late in covering it. I never aim to be first though of course, to ensure what I cover is accurate.

First thing to note, is that the game uses an IP location service to gather real-world data to influence the gameplay. It’s very forthcoming about that and it can be disabled. Great idea, but fantastic to see them so open about it and give you the option to disable it.

As far as stealth games go, it’s a little simplistic, but it’s quite hilarious and clever with the mechanics. You will be avoiding cops, jumping into boxes for cover, picking up fancy magazines to unlock new clothes and plenty more.

The game utterly oozes style out of every orifice! There’s a lot of retro styled games that’s for sure, but Serial Cleaner has some serious funk going for it. Inspired by the 1970s quite obviously, with some fantastic mellow tunes and the levels themselves are inspired by actual 1970s murder scenes.

A lot of the gameplay can end up being trial and error, but thanks to how simple the controls are to manage it stills remains a lot of fun after repeated failures. Things change a tiny bit each time you fail, too, so you’re not doing the exact same thing each time. Bodies might move around, for example, which helps keep it fresh.



I’ll be honest, I’ve rage quit a good couple of times. After spending a few minutes carefully planning out my route to each body and my escape, then instantly losing when I’m caught can certainly be frustrating.

Thankfully, being seen isn’t the end of a mission. Getting caught is, of course, but outrunning and outwitting the slightly dumb cop AI isn’t too hard. If you manage to turn a few corners quickly enough, or dive into something to hide, you should be good to go when they wander off.

There's not a lot of strategy involved here, which is a shame as there's not a lot of game mechanics. The majority of it is about timing and how quick you can think if you're spotted, but for me that's part of the charm. It's easily to learn, easy to pick up and play without the hassle of learning lots of little things.

It would have been fun if in a few missions you managed to arrive first. All missions start with the coppers already walking around, but to have them randomly pop in later could have made things even more interesting, especially if they were randomised.

I’ve been absolutely loving it. While it’s by no means perfect, it’s definitely a memorable experience for those looking for a smooth retro-inspired stealth experience. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.