| Developer | Backpack Games |
| Publisher | Backpack Games |
| Genre | Sandbox |
| Release Date | Mar 27, 2024 |
| Price | $2.99 USD |
| Platforms | PC macOS |
| Where to Buy/Wishlist | Steam |
The following game, “Clean the Sea!” was provided to me for free by the developers and publishers. Therefore, I would like to thank the developer/publisher for providing a free copy of the game to play on my stream and for writing this review.
Clean the Sea is an exploration sandbox game, in which you control a boat and clean up an ocean area. Now, it should be known that the video above is from the Live Stream that occurred on April 6, 2024. I soft-locked myself during the live stream because I bought upgrades for the boat instead of opening the other area. So I had to end the game as I was getting into it. However, I waited a few days, and it looked like the developers had gone back and corrected the issue of the soft lock. I’m just going to go out here and say, that after reading the reviews for the game, it didn’t seem that anyone else had the issue that I had, so I’m just going to say it may have been an issue that occurred because of the way I choose to play.
However, I loved that the developers went back and fixed it, because then I was able to play more of the game, and I started to get into it more. The game offers up to four different areas that you can clean, the Gulf of Mexico, Antarctica, Amsterdam, and New York, with more to come soon. I will say that the game itself does feel like a mobile game that was ported to the PC.
This is fine, as I don’t have an issue with a mobile game coming to the PC, as most mobile games are full of ads. So if it’s a game I enjoy on mobile and it comes to PC, more often than not, I will follow it over to PC. The reason I say that the game has a mobile feel to it is because there are chests that you can open that will give you free items, which gives me the feeling that “if you watch this ad, then you can have what’s in this chest.” vibe. After researching, I did find out that this is indeed a mobile game ported to PC. However, in the PC version of the game, you can open the chest without viewing an ad. Once you open the chest, there is a timer that triggers until you can open the chest again.
Another thing that the game has is the ability to hire little helpers, such as little tug boats that will also help you clean the ocean. They don’t pick up a lot until you upgrade them but it does look like you can employ up to six tugboats to help you. My only problem is that it takes a lot of dollars to upgrade them. To purchase them, it is 500, and then the first upgrade is 1000. In addition to dollars, the game also gives out coins, I’m not sure how the coins are accumulated. I’ve seen them given out in the chest, but don’t see any way they populate besides the chest unless it’s a timed thing that they just give you coins for idling in the game. However, you can exchange the coins at the bank to get more dollars, which does help out a lot as 1 coin gives you 400 dollars, and you can also exchange 500 dollars for 1 coin.
So it’s good to say that as I write this, I open up the game frequently to make sure I am getting everything correct. I’d like to take the time to say that apparently there has been another update to the game, in which they have now added some lo-fi beats to the game for music. However, there is still no way to turn the music up or down, much like in the beginning there is an Audio and Music button that you can toggle off and on, but overall, adding the music to the game does help in making it a pretty chill experience.
Overall, Clean the Sea! started with a rocky start, but is starting to shape into a better game. As long as you don’t mind doing the same thing over and over, and you don’t mind that it is a mobile game ported to PC, then I would say go ahead and give Clean the Sea! a try. If you are interested in playing Clean the Sea! you can pick up the game for PC and macOS via Steam for $2.99 USD.
