Lucca202
BACKER
Unpacking 2021
Log Status
Completed
Playing
Backlog
Wishlist
Rating
Time Played
4h 54m
Days in Journal
1 day
Last played
December 11, 2022
Platforms Played
Library Ownership
You cut the tape with my stanley knife and we unpack our life ♫
Moving is scary -- not only is it a lot of work, it's usually the sign of a big change taking place, and depending on the nature of that change, the move can come with feelings of anticipation and excitement just as much as bitterness or melancholy. In that midst, we pack up our things, an act that. as repetitive as it may be, carries with it a lot of introspection. As we take down shelves and empty out closets, we discover objects we might not even remember: pictures, lost belongings, keepsakes from important events, obsessions from other times... we see parts of ourselves expressed not only in the things we find, but in the ones we decide are important enough to keep with us on our new journey.
Unpacking turns all of this into a narrative framework. The game has you unpacking boxes of a woman, from her early childhood to well into her adult life, every time she moves houses. The goal is to place her things around the new house in appropriate places. In gameplay terms, these are observation-based puzzles where you try to figure what the purpose of an item probably is and where this person would reasonably place it within this new house. Sometimes, objects are packed in boxes for the wrong room, and sometimes, they come out of left field and need a bit more context from other stuff from the move.
It's an endearing gameplay loop that sets the relaxed pace in which the game takes place, the boxes slowly disappearing as the player makes the house more lively. It also serves as the perfect framing for the star of the show, which is the story being told with next to no text through the different locations and belongings. To go any deeper into this would be to spoil parts of the game, but it's a fascinating experience to know so much about the health problems, relationships, food preferences, all these details about the life of a person you don't know the name or face of.
It's why, for my part, Unpacking is just a blanket recommendation: A novel and approachable game that tells a story in a way no media other than gaming probably could manage, with a phenomenal amount of emotion to boot.
Moving is scary -- not only is it a lot of work, it's usually the sign of a big change taking place, and depending on the nature of that change, the move can come with feelings of anticipation and excitement just as much as bitterness or melancholy. In that midst, we pack up our things, an act that. as repetitive as it may be, carries with it a lot of introspection. As we take down shelves and empty out closets, we discover objects we might not even remember: pictures, lost belongings, keepsakes from important events, obsessions from other times... we see parts of ourselves expressed not only in the things we find, but in the ones we decide are important enough to keep with us on our new journey.
Unpacking turns all of this into a narrative framework. The game has you unpacking boxes of a woman, from her early childhood to well into her adult life, every time she moves houses. The goal is to place her things around the new house in appropriate places. In gameplay terms, these are observation-based puzzles where you try to figure what the purpose of an item probably is and where this person would reasonably place it within this new house. Sometimes, objects are packed in boxes for the wrong room, and sometimes, they come out of left field and need a bit more context from other stuff from the move.
It's an endearing gameplay loop that sets the relaxed pace in which the game takes place, the boxes slowly disappearing as the player makes the house more lively. It also serves as the perfect framing for the star of the show, which is the story being told with next to no text through the different locations and belongings. To go any deeper into this would be to spoil parts of the game, but it's a fascinating experience to know so much about the health problems, relationships, food preferences, all these details about the life of a person you don't know the name or face of.
It's why, for my part, Unpacking is just a blanket recommendation: A novel and approachable game that tells a story in a way no media other than gaming probably could manage, with a phenomenal amount of emotion to boot.