Unpacking

The Unpacking tells a story not through dialogue, but through things. The player unpacks boxes after moving and puts items in their places: books on the shelf, dishes in the kitchen, toys in the closet. From this simple activity a portrait of a person and his life gradually emerges. Each new move is a separate chapter, and you can see from things what has changed: something has appeared, something has disappeared, something has moved to a distant shelf. By comparing the details, the player himself figures out what happened between the episodes, and this turns out to be more convincing than many long monologues. The mechanics are calm, without timers or ratings, but with one rule: each item has a logical place, and the game gently tells you if the item is placed in the wrong place. Individual items reveal short notes that add up to additional details. Separately, it is worth noting that there are no words or dialogues in the game: the entire story is told by objects and their location. You can arrange things in different ways, and the game only tells you if an item is placed where it clearly does not belong. In the finale you can see what the lived-in space of a person looks like, about whom more is known than it seems. Separately, it is worth noting that not only the house, but also the volume of things is gradually changing: at the first moves there are few boxes, then there are more and more of them, and this in itself tells about the changes in the hero’s life. The sounds of unpacking and folding things are done carefully, which adds coziness to what is happening. Visually, everything is done in a pixelated manner, the music is quiet. Unpacking is a rare case of a game without haste and competition, where the interest is based on curiosity: what was in this box and why exactly this.