This review contains spoilers
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.
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.