Summary

• The WereCleaner is a free indie stealth game with a unique premise, combining gory werewolf antics with office cleaning.
• The game's artstyle and dark humor create a charming experience, making it one of my favorite games of 2024.
• The WereCleaner is replayable, with achievements and collectibles encouraging multiple playthroughs, and it runs smoothly on the Steam Deck.

Over the past weekend, I found myself scrolling through Steam, browsing its impressive Summer sale, and looking for a new title to play. Yes, I know Elden Ring: Rise of the Erdtree just came out, and I've heard nothing but great things about it, but I sucked at the base game and therefore locked myself out of the expansion. One day I'm sure I'll revisit it and "git gud," but for now, I was just looking for something fun and relatively stress-free to jump into. Fortunately, Steam answered this with a surprising free recommendation: The WereCleaner, and its charm and dark humor made it one of my favorite games of 2024 so far.

I've written in the past about how I love the stealth genre, with AAA series such as Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid, and Hitman often appearing in my favorites. While the AAA scene has seemingly shifted from stealth heavy titles, offering stealth approaches as an option in a game that gives you a variety of ways to play instead, the indie scene has produced some of the best stealth titles in recent years, and The WereCleaner falls into this category for me.

The WereCleaner takes the concept of other stealth cleaners (is that a genre now?) such as Serial Cleaners and combines it with a casual, cartoony and playful artstyle that would be more akin to a cozy game like Animal Crossing, rather than one that involves becoming a werewolf and devouring an office full of people. While I don't tend to play many cozy games, that juxtaposition with some of the bloodier moments of the game is part of The WereCleaner's charm, and the moment that the protagonist, Kyle Milton wagged his tail like a happy puppy after transforming into a furry monster was the moment I knew I was sold.

What Is The WereCleaner About?

The WereCleaner Shows How Night Shifts Can Take A Toll... Especially If You're Working With A Werewolf

The WereCleaner follows Kyle Milton, a Janitor at Howlin' Hugs, who finds himself in a predicament when the CEO of the company forces all staff to work unpaid overtime through the night for a week; otherwise, they won't get their paycheck for the month. Is that legal? Probably not, but it certainly makes for a fun set-up for the main premise of the game, as Kyle has to deal with the fact that he transforms into a bloodthirsty werewolf at night, and while he would normally stay at home, he is now forced into a situation where he is stuck in a building with plenty of potential victims and must try to do his job without running into anyone to get his paycheck.

This situation is worsened by the fact that the Head of Security, Daryl, who seems like a friendly person at first, becomes obsessed with capturing an animal that seems to have made its way into the office, making it his own personal Moby Dick. The problem is that the animal in question is the werewolf Kyle, and as the game goes on, Daryl's suspicions make matters far more tense between the two characters.

The WereCleaner Plays On Stealth In A Different Way

I've Never Felt So Guilty About Getting Spotted In A Stealth Game Before

Normally, in stealth games, you tend to be weaker than those you're hiding from, building up the tension of getting caught and instantly killed. In The WereCleaner it's quite the opposite, as - barring the final level, which I won't spoil here - your only weakness is your lack of self-control as a werewolf, which can result in the instant death of your co-workers. Before I go any further, I'd like to state that, fortunately, my colleagues at Screen Rant are a lovely bunch who I have never once thought of murdering. Having said that, for many, the idea of roaming an office chowing down on their co-workers, as depicted in The WereCleaner, could be quite appealing.

However, while it is possible to go around consuming everyone in the vicinity, I couldn't help but feel a bit guilty for doing so, especially when I later found collectibles such as a peanut butter cookie made especially for Kyle by his co-worker Janina, who mistook Kyle avoiding her chocolate chip cookies - due to his canine side as dogs are allergic - for him simply not liking chocolate, and made him a peanut butter variant each time to make sure he was included. Aside from the CEO, the other colleagues seemed to be a nice group of people - with hints of Satanic rituals and murderous rebellions aside - who are stuck in a difficult situation to get a paycheck, just like Kyle, and it was at that point I really hoped Janina's name never appeared on the screen as one of my victims.

Ultimately, it's highly likely I ate Janina at some point in the game, as I went for the "In the Red" achievement that involved killing all co-workers in Level 6. Sorry, Janina, but an achievement is an achievement.

It's also worth noting that each time Kyle kills and eats a co-worker, it leaves an awfully bloody mess that also has to be cleaned up. With each level being on a timer, this adds another deterrent unless you particularly want to see how much of the office you can cover in crimson before it runs out.

The WereCleaner Is Short, But I Have Replayed It Several Times

There's Plenty To See When Cleaning The Howlin' Hugs Office

The WereCleaner may be extremely short, being made up of 7 levels - one for each day of the week in-game - and I got through these in under half an hour. However, I have jumped back into the game several times since, finding all of the collectibles and trying to get extra achievements, such as "Just A Little Guy" for playing every level without killing anyone, or and currently, the only achievement that alludes me after 4 hours is "World's Best Werewolf Janitor," which involves getting 5 stars in every level for completing them in a certain time. Currently, speed cleaning is not a skill I have mastered.

In these extra playthroughs, I experimented more with different techniques, using the vacuum to fire paper balls to distract far more colleagues than on my initial run in my attempt to get no kills, or going on a rampage to see just how much of a mess I could make. I also saw a few more details tying into the brewing employee rebellion that I'd had to clean up after in the main game - something that Daryl comically seemed oblivious to as he grew more obsessed with hunting the werewolf instead - adding to its overall replayability.

I also played the game on my Steam Deck, as it's not an overly large game and runs completely smoothly on the handheld with a Verified status. This made it even easier to pick up, dip into a new level to try a new approach or scour for a new collectible and then put it down again.

The WereCleaner currently has an "Overwhelmingly Positive" review score from over 3000 players on Steam, and deservedly so, with some of the top reviews even asking if there's some way to give the developers money, arguing that a game this fun shouldn't be completely free, and honestly, while I am glad I stumbled across the game and picked it up for free, I agree that it would be nice to give the developers some money as this is a solid game in its own right and one that a lot of care and attention was put into. The title came from the University of Southern California's USC Games program, meaning that those involved in its creation were students. If these developers are releasing a title like The WereCleaner this early in their careers, I look forward to seeing what they think of next, as it's certainly been one of my highlights of the year so far.

The WereCleaner is currently available on PC and Mac via. Steam.

Source: The WereCleaner/Steam, USC Games