Unpacking (Xbox Series X)

Considering I named this website The Game Hoard, you probably won’t be too surprised to learn I’m a bit of a pack rat. One reason I would be reticent to share a photo of my game collection is because I struggle to nicely place everything I own in a neat presentable manner. Funnily enough though, Unpacking is a game all about placing your belongings in nice tidy arrangements around your limited living space, and while it might not spur me to rethink the way I’ve packed everything onto my shelves, it has at least got me to finally unpack the last box I had laying around from my last move so that I can’t say I spent more time unpacking in a video game than I did in real life.

 

Unpacking is not my story though, but that of an unnamed female protagonist whose life you follow through the major changes in residence she undergoes. Rather than seeing her at work though, you are instead presented the latest living space she finds herself in, a diagonal view of the space showing empty shelves but large cardboard boxes you need to get to work opening and emptying. Thankfully the furniture is already in place and there is nothing as fiddly as hooking up electronics or utilities, the focus instead on the many small objects that still need to go somewhere. Be it something important like the art supplies this character works with, their amenities used in the restroom, something more sentimental like a plush from their childhood, or memorabilia from vacations or their favorite works of fiction, you gradually find a place for everything, there being no timer to pressure you and the relaxing music allows you to calmly figure out how you want to decorate the rooms.

There are some limits in place so you can’t just dump everything on the floor. Toss everything out on the floor and once every item has been removed from a box, those misplaced objects will be outlined in red. Finding where they belong might involve reshuffling previously placed items and certain objects can be stacked in different ways like bowls sliding into each other to take up less space, but you have to actually consider how someone would want their belongings placed rather than focusing on merely removing them from the moving boxes. The game uses a gentle and cozy art style that suits the relaxed activity, but admittedly a few items don’t show up the best in it, making you wonder what you might be looking at even if you zoom in close. Thankfully, most objects are at least fairly common objects found in a middle class urban household, but the game isn’t really trying to be difficult with the items it provides for placement. While it could be said that every item has its place, there is a good bit of leniency so you are free to personalize the space some, it satisfying to sit back once the area is fully decorated to take in the fruits of your labor. Even better, once a level concludes, you can watch a fast-forwarded version of your process, watching the items fly onto the shelves and shift around in a reproduction of the actions you took getting to that final design.

There is an underlying story to be found in Unpacking though. While you get a few words in a journal from the main character with her thoughts on the new living situation, mostly you’ll get to know her through the items you’re unpacking and placing. The game doesn’t come right out and say much about her romantic life or her budding career, but you can notice which possessions she has to give up or acquire between moves and how her life has changed in the years since the last check-in. You begin on a child’s bedroom and progress to different spaces like shared living and even a full household eventually, the game going from only needing to unpack in one bedroom to needing to unpack an entire residence, and sure enough some items get mixed up in the move so a box meant for the kitchen might have ended up in the living room or you find one shoe long before you unpack the other. These little relatable jokes are a cute touch, but with the environmental storytelling you begin to feel for this woman you only know through her belongings as you can see the rises and falls in her life’s course. These also can introduce unique unpacking situations too though, like how moving in with a group of roommates means you can’t just move objects that don’t belong to you around and some of their belongings might not gel with how you want the living space to look.

 

Despite mimicking a sometimes laborious real life activity, Unpacking is a fairly short experience not even likely to hit five hours of play time, although some of the later levels do feel a bit long since there is a good bit of work to do and you have to remove objects from boxes one by one, unaware of what might be deeper in the packaging so you can’t exactly plan ahead. You can use previous levels as a clue on what might be coming though, and since you can always shuffle things around and find temporary homes for items it’s not like there’s any issue with reconsidering where something was placed previously. The game is certainly angling for a zen-like experience where the satisfaction is a job well done rather than any difficult obstacle to overcome and it’s well built for that idea, and if you are looking for a little more there are secret interactions to be found where you’ll be rewarded with commemorative stickers for activating devices or thinking of interesting placements for possessions.

THE VERDICT: With the interaction as simple as clicking a cursor on what you want to move and dragging it to its destination, Unpacking is very accessible even if sometimes figuring out how to put a hefty book collection on the available shelves is a minor puzzle. It’s a charming and gentle game more about its atmosphere and scratching an itch of wanting everything tidy and looking nice, but it still places a few limits on you so that you actually consider your work rather than making a mess of things. The story told underneath Unpacking’s item organization is where it rises up beyond the room design element, the items carried with the unnamed woman you’re unpacking for telling subtle tales where you feel you can sympathize with her as each new move comes with a new shift in her life story.

 

And so, I give Unpacking for Xbox Series X…

A GOOD rating. A short length and its minimal focus on guided and challenge-focused play should be considered before someone picks up Unpacking, but if the premise of finding room for someone’s belongings across a set of households while being told an understated but still perceptible story sounds appealing, you probably will get exactly what you’re hoping for out of this game. If it had lacked the important restrictions on where items could be placed though it could perhaps feel a bit empty, and it is perhaps too accommodating in having a feature you can enable that lets you work on rooms without the red outline appearing to tell you something is flagrantly out of place. In fact, that outline sometimes has an important story purpose as sometimes a new living situation involves the lady moving in having to accept some aspects of her new home and perhaps put away things she’d rather not. The story is mostly one of positive change despite it having very few concrete details it comes right out and says, but seeing the changes in the possessions the woman brings with her throughout life and figuring out why certain changes to her home happen make for a nice accompanying tale that makes the game feel more substantial than what could essentially be a chore if not for this underlying purpose to all the work. It is nice to see the cozy rooms come together and know each part of it was the result of your work, and little touches like the speedy replay feature or cute special interactions make it feel a bit more important than just cramming objects wherever they could fit. Admittedly more time spent in the game would be nice even if later levels do start to feel their size, but also it might not bode well for the protagonist if she had to move constantly so perhaps other stories could have been told or bonus rooms just for fun could have been provided.

 

Unpacking is a cleanly designed and comfortable game that is focused on the liminal feeling of going from one home to a new one, these key moments in a woman’s life able to tell a story because where we live is at least somewhat a reflection of our personality and history. Moving residences can be a frustrating or tedious process though, and luckily Unpacking left the more annoying aspects of it out and removed much of the nagging considerations such an act might entail in real life. This isn’t some video game twist on arranging a new household nor does it match the realities of the hard work moving can involve, Unpacking instead a calming sorting activity with an inviting heart.