Rarely has moving ever been anything other than stressful. Possessions go missing and others are damaged. Moving Out makes light of the chaos.
In Moving Out, would-be anxiety triggers only add to a raucous affair. You’ll be chased by ghosts. Avoiding crocodiles and hauling luggage from a moving plane is also an unlikely part of the job description. Somehow, though, I suspect the game’s removal company would still find a way to pay their staff minimum wage!
The game’s snappy tutorial teaches you the basics and sets the tone for the forthcoming furor. These skills are the foundation for completing each of the 30 levels on the lowest rank. The levels come with three ranks: gold, silver and bronze – gold being the shortest taken to complete it.
As you earn more medals and beat more challenges, you unlock bonus characters and an arcade area with ten unique challenges. Tackling tougher levels and faster times might require you to take shortcuts by hurling things over ponds to a partner or leaping through glass windows. But don’t worry if you end up getting something wet. The rules are as flimsy as the now sodden cardboard.
You’re encouraged to try new methods. Maps develop different intricacies as you progress. Once you complete a level you unlock objectives, which range from fun to fiendishly difficult. Some of them read like challenges co-workers might set to keep things interesting like scoring a basket. Others rely on you behaving more in line with a professional like smashing glass. It’s entertaining, whilst alleviating any apprehension over damages.
Play with a friend
With the addition of multiplayer, things become even more frenetic. Though having more hands on deck can increase your overall speed, you will need to make sure everyone is pulling in the same direction. Wiggling furniture through tight passages can quickly slip into a time-sapping farce. This is perhaps the game most deserving of the title couch co-op. Sadly, though, its multiplayer is restricted to offline only.
It’s hard not to couple the capitalist banter between your chosen character and the boss with the notion of rewarding faster times whatever the condition you might leave a house or its contents in. This reads like a critique of contemporary pressures placed on workers.
“Move fast or die trying! Smooth moves – we know where you live!” proclaims the narrator. These not-so-subtle satirical undertones add more depth to the game’s disarming aesthetic and breezy sense of humor. It’s a nice touch.
Developers SMG Studio and DEVM Games deserve praise for representation and accessibility, allowing you to wear a hijab and use a wheelchair with any character. The assist feature allows you to modify time limits, the overall difficulty, or just aspects of the difficulty such as objects disappearing from the van once stored. Also, you can scale the UI. Plus, there’s a dyslexia-friendly setting.
Owing to its impressive physics, each round of Moving Out feels different. The game encourages you to adapt your play style and react to different challenges. As a result, you’ll feel a compulsion to achieve the best rank and topple every challenge. So whether you’re playing solo or with friends, Moving Out turns the laborious task of moving home into a twitchy frenzy, packed full of stress-relieving hilarity.
Conclusion
Moving Out is a charming multiplayer experience where you provide as many thrills and spills as the game’s environment. It’s challenging without being overly frustrating, allowing you to mix recklessness with tactics.
Game Freaks 365 received a free review copy.
