A cute little game, which only gets 3 stars because it costing 20€ on the eshop when not on sale is a bit on the expenseive side. The vibes are immaculate though, with great music and relaxing gameplay, though the latter isn't anything special and this isn't really a puzzle game more than a relaxing one.

The strong suites of the game are the sound design (which is really neat as every object makes a different sound depending on what surface you put it down on but doesn't really make the game great) and the quiet nature of the narrative, which is exclusively gameplay based. You deduce things about the protagonist's life by what you unpack, and sometimes even where you place certain objects. Having to put a photo of a woman and a man into a drawer to make you understand that the protagonist is going through heartbreak is very neat and the example most people will remember, but my favourite actually comes in the level prior.
In this one, you move into an appartment which you guess is the protagonist's new partner's, and you can feel that the vibes are off: the dude is clearly a finance bro, living in a grey appartment, completely constrasting with your vibrant, colorful stuff and the artistic activities of the protagonist. Furthermore, you struggle throughout the level to find room to fit your stuff in, making you feel unwelcome. The final nail in the coffin comes when you unpack your framed diploma, and you notice that there is no room on any of the walls for it because they're covered with unmovable posters, forcing you to store the diploma under the bed, which is really sad and let me just say that if your partner doesn't move their stupid posters to make room for your biggest academic achievement, just dump them.

Overall, the game is relaxing and enjoyable, but it isn't anything absolutely amazing, it's a bit short and is at a steep price for what is is when not on sale.

So much said with very little words

Unpacking is a very short, very cozy, and yet somehow heart-wrenching title. The premise is exceptionally simple, you play a character who is unpacking into their new home at various stages of their life, from childhood to adolescence. Open the boxes, grab the things out the boxes, place them appropriately in the space provided, and you win!

To me, the gameplay loop could get a little tedious at times, especially in some of the larger levels. That’s not to say that getting everything in it’s right place wasn’t satisfying, it very much was, it’s just getting there could feel a bit of a slog sometimes, much like the actual act of unpacking.

But really that’s not even where Unpacking’s magic lies, this game does such an incredible job of telling a coherent story with the only dialogue being the footnotes your character annotates each “new home” picture with, which culminates to maybe a couple dozen words by the end of the game. The protagonist goes through the aching pains of growing up, making new friends, falling in and out of love, and exciting career opportunities, and you gleam all of this through the simple act of getting things out of boxes and putting them in places.

I was enraged when I was forced to put the diploma under the bed, I was concerned when it was revealed my character needed a cane to get around, I was giddy when I saw their table-top miniature had finally been painted, I nearly cried when I got the stuffed pig out for the very last time.

Make no mistake, this is a narrative game, one that trusts the player to understand what it’s trying to say, but Witch Beam have done such an immaculate job of telling the story that you really don’t need to do a lot of legwork.