You really do get to understand the character’s whole selves just by moving with them and looking at what’s important to them.
And there’s a stuffed toy pig, (the one on the game’s logo!), that follows you to every new place, and during the final level, you’re unpacking your things for a nursery room in your new home, and you place the pig there alongside your wife’s stuffed toy. A great level is after your wife moves in with you and you go through the house you’d unpacked into previously and unpack your wife’s things alongside yours, learning to compromise and prioritise. You see their university degree proudly framed and displayed, only to be tucked away temporarily when they move back home. You watch as they go from a notebook and colouring pens in their childhood bedroom, to a home office with a bug fancy drawing tablet. It’s gentle and passive, but it really packs a punch if you notice an item is missing or something similar. What really stands out in Unpacking is the environmental storytelling and narrative design. It’s very human to misplace something, or maybe shove it in the first box you find amongst the stress of moving house. It’s not exactly a big challenge for the game to have this in, but it does reflect the humanity of the game really well. Sometimes an object will be in the wrong room at first, like a bra gets packed in the bathroom boxes, and you have to move it back to the wardrobe before you can move on. What’s a really nice touch is that the photo album you save your game in is actually an item you have to place at each level of the game, so you really do feel like you’re following this character throughout their life’s journey. The caption is something small, like ‘Finally, my own room!’, but from this we get a lot of information about who the main character is. The game will take a snapshot and place it in your photo album, which is actually your safe file for the game, and a caption will appear underneath. Once you’re satisfied with the way you’ve organised a room, and all the items have been placed, you can choose which room to press complete on. The mechanics and gameplay are incredibly simple, you drag and drop an item to place it and that’s really all you need. Each level represents a stage in the protagonist’s life, and the game ends up spanning a total of 21 years, from child to adult, and the story of their life, personality, values and milestones, is told through the items that do or don’t come along with them. Some items must be put in certain places, such as room-specific items, but you can change up the order and really give it that personal touch. There are 8 levels of the game, each of which is a room, or usually multiple rooms, where you’re given boxes of the protagonist’s things to unpack and organise how you like.
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