DrainSim Review (PC)

I never thought that unclogging a drain would feel so satisfying. The gunk; the matted twigs; the grease-smitten clumps of mud and ominous extracts; and the clusters of sewage and what I could only imagine is fecal matter. I’m all for it, even if “it” means having to remain grounded at a post from dusk till dawn, with as little as a floodlight to illuminate the darkness and a rake to untangle the origami bile. I can’t quite put my finger on it. On the one hand, I feel as if I should be doing something, anything else. But on the other hand, I feel that there’s nowhere I’d rather be than at the foot of a flood as it cloaks the suburbs and weaves through the charcoal streets. I’m lost, yet, at the same time, I have never felt more at home. Am I growing old, or is DrainSim really that enticing? You tell me.

DrainSim is exactly what you think it is. Remove the veil from the title, and what you have is a transparent chore core simulation game in which you—a fanatic of waste and blockages, weirdly—scour the streets and, well, remove the clumps and strands that cause the drains and water extraction mechanisms to fail. It’s as easy as that, truly. It is, quite simply, a game about catering to flood waters and removing hazardous waste and other blockages from various areas. And if you think this sounds like a bit of an awful idea for a game, then hey — just take a gander at Woodcutter Simulator for the worse case scenario. Compare the two, and you might just find that DrainSim has the upper hand here.

For a game that is quite literally an unclogging sim with an objective that’s as clear as day, you actually have a lot of things to work with here. Alongside a campaign that flaunts a sizable collection of areas and challenges, you also have a surprisingly rich strategy-based gameplay experience that requires you to trial a wide variety of tools and extraction techniques. Case in point, the game often tasks you with catering to specific times of the day and challenges that either require a certain tool or method. If you’re venturing out at night, for instance, then you must bring along a floodlight and extra provisions to ensure that your generator remains within a workable distance. To add, if you have multiple drains to unclog across a fairly large area, then you might need to consider adding several generators and forging an interwoven system that can handle the load simultaneously. And the list goes on here, with dozens of unique challenges and a whole bunch of different options available to help you tackle them.

I’ll admit, during the initial portion of DrainSim, I figured that the entire process would be like watching paint dry. But then, a couple of floods later, I realized that there was more to the experience. It wasn’t just about mopping up spills and unclogging drains; it was about building an infrastructure that could withstand dozens of rolling jobs at once. I could establish myself as an efficient curator of flood control, and with just enough experience and funds, I could unlock more tools, more generators, and more avenues to help me solve trickier problems in tougher environments. That feeling carried over for hours, weirdly, until it felt that I had nothing left to fret about other than where the next job would come from. Against all odds, I found myself enjoying it, even when I probably shouldn’t have been. It was simple, albeit dirty work — but it gave me a sense of satisfaction that barely any other chore core sims could ever offer me. Again, maybe that was just old age creeping up on me. Or maybe, just maybe, I simply enjoyed the guilty pleasures.

While some of the challenges in DrainSim require you to think outside the box in order to successfully drain the water and progress to the next level, at no point would I say that it’s a difficult game to wrap your head around. If anything, it’s a laid-back voyage that feels more like gratifying work with a steady flow of acts to sift through than a strenuous sprint to the finish line with wall-to-wall roadblocks and constant curveballs. It might not be as calm and as simple as PowerWash Simulator — but you get the point. It’s unclogging drains. How tough can it be? Honestly, not at all, so long as you know where to place your pipes and your generators and what have you. All in all, though, it’s satisfying work that doesn’t require a lot of effort to complete.

From a visual standpoint, DrainSim isn’t in receipt of anything truly spectacular. With a lack of immersive water physics and graphical complexity, it doesn’t always look like a stunning work of art with all of the usual watercolors to boot. Instead, DrainSim settles for the clean and simple aesthetic that doesn’t do much to the eyes. Yet, while it isn’t exactly a feast for the senses, it is a game that knows how to make you feel good and forever wanting to carve deeper into its ripples. And at the end of the day, isn’t that what you look for when it comes to sourcing chore core games?

Verdict

DrainSim provides a quick and satisfying solution for unclogging your internal system with a simple yet oh-so-more-ish waste management simulation tool that can keep you heavily engrossed and mulling over the waterworks for hours, maybe even more, depending on how you choose to tackle the tasks at hand and navigate the world and all of its flood-fueled biomes. It might be a simple game that doesn’t sound all that glamorous on paper, but to be completely honest, it is a fun experience that provides a lot of great material to work through, with a quality variety of components and pieces of equipment to keep you second guessing each and every obstacle as you progress through its fairly sizable campaign.