It is universally acknowledged (as is the case with single men who own a large fortune and want a wife) that moving is one of the worst things to do in adult life. And you have to do it over and over again! Packing, unpacking, stuffing old newspapers in the gaps between flimsy sheets: it’s all hell. And that comes with the terrifying realization that your life has as much meaning as if stuff were stuffed into a few cardboard boxes.
Add a special high-five, then, to Open the package, which not only makes this stressful event a fun puzzle, but also proves that your life and things really do have amazing meaning.
Unpacking takes you through some landmark moves for the same person, from their 90s childhood bedroom in their new family home, to their college dorm, a shared home. with several rooms, apartments of single couples, etc. Each of these levels shows you extracting assets from boxes, one by one, and placing them in an isostatic house. These things get more and more complicated – the first level is just a kid’s bedroom, but in the end you’re faced with a two-story house with separate kitchen, dining and living room, office, closet unlined clothing and more.
Rooms and widgets are beautiful, detailed and delicate things rendered in pixels, and the trivia challenge is that you have to put everything where, more or less, is supposed to. Go. You can’t just leave your clothes in a pile on the bed and think, “I’ll get those later.” You have to hang them up. Your plates and cutlery should be in a drawer in the kitchen. Cleaning products go under the sink. Hang up your towel in the shower. It’s extremely, extremely satisfying, finding a place for everything.
The great thing about Unpacking is that while it tells its own story, it also leaves you with the space to write a few lines of your own in it. Without any text, Unpacking tells you about someone growing up and figuring out who they are, sometimes painful. You notice that they love to travel and collect small pieces of souvenirs from the places they visit. They love to collect toys. When they leave home and study art, they start watching more movies and playing video games, and you see the things that are important to them stay with them through the years. They really like Ghost World. They get more art supplies, more expensive drawing tablets. They always have their cuddly toy pig. The pig is important.
There are some really complicated environmental stories in there about who you’re living with and how it feels to make space for someone in your life versus someone who doesn’t. What it feels like to return to your birth parents’ home and realize you’re no longer a part of it. Those are some absolutely amazing tools. But around that, I can start to imagine things about this person myself and put them in the game. “These are their favorite shoes, they’re the ones they wear the most, so they’re always at the end of the bed here.” Or: “They never actually use this pan, so that one is always in the back of the cabinet.” I feel like Unpacking is inviting me to have fun, and I love that.
After all, being able to participate is one of the reasons I love games, and a lot of games take themselves so seriously that I often forget about it. Unpacking is an incredibly thoughtful, lovable, empathetic, and relatable game. You recognize a lot of places and sensations you see in this game. And you become so attached to the person unpacking that you get excited when things are going well for them, happy when they move in with people who seem happy, want to break a glass when your friend Their new roommate is obviously going to be terrible. And you squeal with joy as you begin to unpack a particular room in the last house. You imagine how other people might see your life the same way.
There’s care in every detail of Unboxing, in the antique mug you know as the cup in which you always keep your toothbrush, the way this person’s fashion changes a bit over time. , the sound design makes the cutlery snag when you put it to disappear, or the paper rustle whenever you pick out something new. Every new box, every new item you pull out, is a little surprise, a delicate little treasure. Each room you complete in Unpacking is like tearing open the Kinder Egg and carefully constructing the toy inside.
