DrainSim

About

DrainSim is a single player casual simulation game. It was developed by codePeas and was released on March 3, 2026. It received very positive reviews from players.

DrainSim: The City Won’t Dry Itself The floodwaters have taken over — streets turned to rivers, basements drowning, whole neighborhoods cut off. No one is coming to save the city… except you. Armed with pumps, shovels, rakes, and the trusty plunger on your belt, you’ll fight back against rising water one street at a time. What is DrainSim? DrainSim is a simulation and strategy game where …

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

+15

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91%

Audience ScoreBased on 665 reviews

story13 positive mentions

stability25 negative mentions

Exceptional and realistic water physics that provide a satisfying and immersive gameplay experience.
Relaxing and addictive simulation with engaging problem-solving and strategic elements.
Solid content for early access with multiple levels, varied environments, and steady developer updates promising new tools, levels, and improvements.

Limited content with only a few hours of gameplay currently available, leaving players wanting more levels and variety.
Performance and optimization issues including occasional frame rate drops, crashes, and high resource usage on some hardware.
Control and UI inconveniences such as clunky movement, awkward inventory management, buggy item connections, and tedious waiting periods for draining water.

story
88 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
82%
3%
The game features a basic but engaging storyline with about 8-9 missions, offering enjoyable challenges and unique scenarios; however, many players find the content limited and repetitive, with missions feeling too short and lacking variety. While the story and radio dialogues add charm, technical issues and mission design flaws hinder the overall experience, leading to calls for more missions, tools, and improved gameplay depth in future updates.
- “Great game, love the addition of dialogue / story as the main character goes around different levels.”
- “The radio banter between levels is a nice touch and I like that there's a bit of a story to the whole thing.”
- “Enough of a fun story to keep you interested but not too much where it feels like listening to dialogue for no reason.”
- “Its a fun game to play cause its something new and different than other sims and lets you think a bit about how you gonna approach the missions but after 5-6 hours of playing you basically beat the game and did every mission so thats kinda stupid just for 9 missions in total, and I could not even upgrade my truck or even buy the best equipment.”
- “As of now, I finished the story in 3.5 hours.”
- “You can definitely tell that its an early access game as there isn't a lot of in game content, I think at the time of my review there is a total of 7 actual missions.”
gameplay
58 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45%
50%
5%
The gameplay is centered around innovative and satisfying water physics mechanics that provide a relaxing and engaging experience, though some bugs and jankiness—especially with tools like raking and attaching components—detract from the smoothness. While the core mechanics are praised for being both simple and deep, the gameplay can become repetitive after several hours and lacks extensive content, making the current playtime feel short for the price. Players appreciate the open-ended problem-solving and fluid simulation but hope for more tools, levels, and quality-of-life improvements in future updates.
- “The gameplay isn't strictly regimented to 'this is the only solution' but rather it is open ended to allow you to take whatever tools you would like and approach each task as you see fit.”
- “Amazing water physics with fun and satisfying gameplay.”
- “The concept is fresh, the mechanics feel satisfying, and it’s one of those games where you tell yourself 'just one more round' again and again.”
- “While the gameplay is fun, the tools are super buggy.”
- “Lots of bugs, jank, and a general lack of quality-of-life features, but the core gameplay loop is solid and mostly free of game-breaking issues.”
- “However the gameplay does become repetitive after the 4th mission.”
graphics
41 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
59%
34%
7%
The game features impressive and realistic graphics, particularly lauded for its exceptional water physics and fluid motion, creating a visually stunning and immersive experience. However, some users report occasional graphic bugs, freezing, stuttering, and performance drops even on lower settings, indicating optimization issues that are expected to improve with future updates. Overall, the visuals are praised as a standout aspect, enhancing the game's addictive and calming gameplay.
- “The graphics look great (although some of the lights in the game are a bit too bright), the water simulation and visualization are excellent, and the gameplay is really satisfying.”
- “The visuals are stunning, and the water physics in the game are truly unique.”
- “The graphics and physics of the water being so real is to perfection.”
- “The effects of the water are very triggering, I found it a bit easier to play with graphics settings on low, but still had to take a lot of breaks. The fact I kept coming back despite it setting off nausea shows it's pretty fun.”
- “I bought this game; it took 50 minutes to load with every single graphics option on the lowest.”
- “Playing on Steam Deck, so graphics are a little laggy when I started the second mission, but I’m gonna wait for a patch which should help.”
stability
28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
89%
The game currently exhibits frequent bugs, glitches, and clunky controls, including random freezes, stutters, and problematic tool and movement mechanics, reflecting its early access status. While the simulation and core gameplay are enjoyable and generally stable, certain levels and features, like pumps and terrain interactions, remain buggy and unintuitive. Despite these issues, players recognize the game's potential and find the experience fun and relaxing overall.
- “The simulation works amazingly with little to no bugs and it runs great even with large volumes of water.”
- “No glitches, it's a nice chill simple game.”
- “Stupidly fun, runs great.”
- “It randomly freezes and stutters a lot, making the experience frustrating despite good graphics.”
- “Restoring a mission mid-way from a save still glitches things out to the point where you might as well not bother saving and start over.”
- “The church level really highlights how buggy the terrain is while also giving a great example of how annoyingly unintuitive the barriers, pumps, and power cord system is.”
optimization
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
65%
15%
Optimization in the game shows mixed feedback, with frequent hotfixes improving stability but persistent performance issues, especially on high-end systems. While some users experience smooth gameplay even on older hardware, others note sluggishness, high GPU usage, and a need for significant optimization passes. Overall, the game benefits from ongoing updates but still requires further refinement to fully address performance concerns.
- “Hotfixes and quality of life updates happen frequently to ensure the game runs smoothly for all players.”
- “I'm sure things will get optimized eventually and even now it plays pretty well even on my old "potato" of a system.”
- “Visually the game looks great with each level's environments looking clean, and the effects (especially the water) run smoothly without any noticeable performance issues throughout my playthrough.”
- “Heavy optimization needed: as you can see from my attached specs, I am running a very high-end system.”
- “Refunded, horrible performance, needs a lot more work.”
- “Overpriced, incredibly poor optimization, severe lack of tools, heck, the plunger you're seeing in the art and the intro is not even a tool.”
grinding
17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is often described as tedious and time-consuming, especially due to repetitive tasks like waiting for water to fully drain and managing slow, frustrating tools. While the core mechanics and mission variety show promise, many players feel more engaging content, improved tools, and better rewards for replaying levels are needed to reduce monotony and enhance long-term enjoyment.
- “The farm is a prime example of this, I cleared the entire rest of the map of water before the barn was even half empty and I would have had to spend another 30 minutes to an hour running back and forth emptying buckets to empty the rest of it; that's not fun, that's just tedious.”
- “Also, some levels become a tedious waiting game, as you wait for the last little bit of water to drain in an area.”
- “Some places even seem to magically refill with water even after you've cleared them and you have to tediously vacuum until it disappears again.”
replayability
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
54%
23%
Replayability is mixed in the game, with some players appreciating multiple ways to approach levels and time challenges, while others find limited value due to few levels, lack of rewards for replaying, and minimal difficulty variation. Suggestions for improvement include adding new challenges, environmental variety, and user-generated content to enhance long-term engagement. Overall, replayability is seen as its weakest point but has potential for growth with future updates.
- “I have played the demo before the early release drop and the replayability is just that good.”
- “It's a very fun and chill game. There are many ways to play this game already and it has massive replay value for each of the levels.”
- “It has a fair amount of replayability as well because there's often multiple ways to clear an area, and I found myself completing levels for the first time thinking 'I could've done that a lot better,' which made me want to go through again.”
- “The scenarios are very specific, so I don't really see any replay value aside from grinding for better vehicles and more gear.”
- “Can't wait for updates and to see where it goes.. my biggest wish is for level replayability with some form of payment (even if it was reduced pay) as it seems that currently replaying any level is useless since you will not obtain any rewards for completion more than once.”
- “It is a good game with its fair share of issues. The church mission is almost impossible, and it needs work, especially considering it cost over $10. It's a good time waster but lacks any replayability.”
humor
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game features consistently funny and clever humor, particularly highlighted by the radio announcer's witty comments and a humorous premise. Its playful and silly tone, reinforced by amusing touches like the tutorial, creates an enjoyable and lighthearted experience.
- “Would recommend to almost anyone who desires a quick, funny, and brain-itching game.”
- “The tutorial making you drain your garden into the neighbor’s was a really funny touch and immediately set the tone of the game.”
- “This game has a fun and silly premise executed with humor and great mechanics.”
music
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game's music is minimal, primarily limited to the menu, with no in-game tracks, prompting some players to use their own playlists for atmosphere. While the soft, unobtrusive music that exists is appreciated, many users suggest adding more in-game soundtrack to enhance the experience. Some also note that AI-generated audio elements feel like placeholders awaiting improvement.
- “The graphics are fantastic, the water motion is realistic, the music is soft and not intrusive, and the small amount of narrative there is is amusing.”
- “Solid game, and highly satisfying, great for throwing up some music or a YouTube video and getting to work.”
- “Throw on some music and just empty out the place.”
- “Could use a music track while playing the game instead of just in the menu.”
- “Yes, I get the whole use of AI-generated voices and music in games, but I am glad to hear that at least the AI-generated voice acting is just a placeholder until a voice actor can be acquired.”
- “I would say my only feedback would be to work on the raking mechanics; sometimes there is a smaller build-up of junk on the drains that doesn’t seem to budge. Also, some music would be nice, though that can be fixed by playing your own playlist or podcast in the background.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere is praised for its detailed and immersive environments, with each map showcasing a strong and consistent thematic design that enhances the overall game experience.
- “Atmospheric environments: each map is incredibly detailed.”
- “I really like the overall atmosphere and the theme of the game.”