Unpacking

Similar to Animal Crossing, roughly 100% of people’s initial reactions to the gameplay of Unpacking will include the word “chore,” and just like with Animal Crossing, it’s very hard to explain why it doesn’t entirely deserve that label. Even harder, in fact, because Unpacking is an incredibly pure experience. To wit, you unpack household items and put them in the correct places. That’s it. Animal Crossing’s engagement came from charm, progression, and personalization, and while Unpacking has those to some degree, its true specialty is something the other franchise lacks: story. The story itself is mundane as it gets – normal millennial lives a normal millennial life, basically – but the way it’s told is a masterclass of environmental narrative and characterization. Its protagonist is more realistic and well-rounded than most others despite being unseen and unheard.

The game’s microscopic focus allows it to do this – you’d never notice the little details if you had something more important to do – but that’s a double-edged sword. The “chore” spectre is always looming, particularly behind repeated tasks that don’t really change or communicate much. And the more you get into the actual act of unpacking, the more you’ll get annoyed when every book won’t fit on a single shelf or when you can’t stack and arrange things the way you want. You kind of have to get into the act of unpacking, too, because everything else is designed to be as broadly appealing and unremarkable as possible to minimize distraction. With all that in mind, I don’t feel right giving Unpacking a universal recommendation, but it’s a unique product that will be completely engrossing to a specific type of person.