Goblin Cleanup Is Fun, but Don’t Play It Alone

Goblin Cleanup is a fun game with a clever premise. You and a band of goblins are tasked with cleaning up dungeons after heroes have passed through, preparing them for the next adventurers. That means scrubbing up guts, relighting torches, putting furniture back in place, and even feeding the mimic chest.

All these activities are engaging and varied, with plenty to like if you’re playing with a group, but it’s clear that Goblin Cleanup is designed with co-op in mind, and I can’t recommend playing it solo at the moment.

Too Much for One Goblin

To its credit, Goblin Cleanup offers a lot of bang for your buck, with each level packed full of things to do. Levels usually come with several predefined tasks, along with dynamic ones that appear as you progress. For example, if you die by setting off a trap, you’ll leave behind meat, which adds more organic material to dispose of, and blood stains to clean.

With so many rooms and varied tasks scattered across each level, it’s simply too much for one player, unless, like me, you don’t mind games where busywork is the main loop. The real issue isn’t the length of individual levels, but the lack of mid-level saving, which is a dealbreaker for me.

Picture this: you’ve completed 90% of a level, knocked out all the optional challenges for extra rewards, and then have to close the game, whether because of a crash, a power outage, or real-life needs. All that progress, which can take quite a while, is lost.

For a solo player, this is devastating, not because the work is hard, but because it’s time-consuming. Repeating everything alone means slogging through the same content again. What was once engaging quickly becomes tedious.

Easy Fix

The fix is simple: add a save feature. There’s no reason not to let players save mid-game, especially since similar titles like Powerwash Simulator already do. It’s less of an issue in co-op, but for solo play, it’s a major frustration. Levels only become more complex as you progress through the game, and the flaw with its solo design becomes more obvious.

Like I said, Goblin Cleanup is a really fun game, but it loses its charm if you’re cleaning the halls alone. Since it’s still in early access, the developers are open to feedback, and changes like this can be implemented as the game continues to develop.

It’s definitely on my watchlist, though, and we could have a really fun hit game on our hands here!

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