Deployed throughout each level are janitorial machines in which the player must make use of to complete the cleaning operation: An incinerator for disposal of debris, a bucket dispenser which is the only source of clean water, a dispenser for bins that can be used to carry multiple smaller items such as cans, casings and even body parts, a welding device for repairing bullet holes in the walls, and an item vending machine where the player can get additional items such as lanterns, first aid kit restocking supplies, "wet floor" signs and flares. Occasionally, bucket and bin dispensers may malfunction and instead dispense one or more pieces of bloody debris, resulting in additional debris and blood stains to be cleaned up.
It is also possible to spread blood by dropping debris, spilling used buckets, or by the player tracking blood on the bottom of their boots, so some amount of care and planning is necessary to avoid re-cleaning the same area multiple times.
After punching out of a level, players are taken to a small collection of rooms known as "The Office". The Office acts as an interactive way for players to see how well they may have performed on the previously completed level. As well as a large report screen displaying the player's score in the form of a percentile, several news articles can also be found scattered around The Office's main room. These detail events caused by the player's oversights, such as employees consuming viscera, tripping over buckets, or choking on discarded bullet shells, and show the player what they may have missed upon completing a level. The Office also serves as a place to collect items, which can be brought from successfully completed levels via the "Janitor's Trunk".
Players may "punch out" at any time to end the level. There is no set time limit, but there are penalties for not fully completing the level. If the player has not sufficiently cleaned a level and scored less than 75%, they will be "fired", causing The Office to reset and any items or changes made within will be lost.
Stand-alone expansions
During the development of Viscera Cleanup Detail, RuneStorm created two stand-alone expansions of their own game, which featured the same mechanics but different settings.
Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior is set in the first chapter of Flying Wild Hog's Shadow Warrior, cleaning up the mess Lo Wang left in the original game. It was released on 11 October 2013 and published by Devolver Digital.
Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa's Rampage takes place on the North Pole, inside Santa's workshop. The players find themselves in the aftermath of Santa gone crazy, murdering his elves and reindeer. It was released on 13 December 2013.
Downloadable content
On 17 July 2015, during the game's Early Access phase, RuneStorm released a DLC for Viscera Cleanup Detail, which includes the complete soundtrack that is played by the in-game radio in the main game and both stand-alone expansions.
On 29 October 2015—just six days after the game's full release—a Halloween DLC pack entitled Viscera Cleanup Detail: House of Horror was put up on Steam, featuring a crime scene of a house, where an unsolved mass murder has happened, while the player gets to uncover it during the gameplay.
On 10 December 2018, a new DLC entitled Viscera Cleanup Detail: The Vulcan Affair was released, where players must clean up the secret island lair of a supervillain whose plans for world domination had just been foiled.
Reception
The early access version of the game received several previews. At Eurogamer, Dan Whitehead wrote that while many video games revolve around the concept of clearing a screen, such as killing all the enemies or collecting all the tokens, Viscera Cleanup Detail literalises the metaphor. Writing for The A.V. Club, Chaz Evans called it a commentary on first-person shooters that focuses on the consequences of violence. After the game's commercial release, Philippa Warr of Rock, Paper, Shotgun included it on her list of the top games of 201 and later described the game's multiplayer as not only a way to keep in touch with people but also to learn about them through how they approach the game's seemingly mundane tasks.
