If you have moved (or helped people move) at any time in the past few decades, you have heard someone make a joke about their paying Tetris skills. There is something satisfying about finding the right place for a box or arranging things to fit into what seems like a small, intangible place. That feeling is part of what Moving Out sells; as a member of a furniture delivery company, you and three other co-operators have been tasked with completing the truck as quickly as possible. Motivation becomes difficult and messy over time, but ghosts, firefighters, and rising pools of guava juice prove themselves far from the main obstacles to success.
You start your career as a Certified Furniture Worker and Relocation Technician with relevant environmental services. The first few homes allow you to get the hang of basic, which includes checking the location of the items you need to load on the truck and size the tricky parts of each ride. It can be tempting to grab some boxes nearby and put them in the truck, but those little things can add up quickly. Before you know it, it's time to put the bedding inside and you have no room. But first, you need to steer that couch to a couple of narrow streets, around obstacles, and out the front window.
You may have eliminated all these issues as a solo player, but that is the last resort. You do not have an A.I. friends, so you're stuck with dragging heavy objects without the option of doing a heave ho co-op throw with a partner. That mobility really helps in making the most of the limited space of the truck, since things like beds and tables can be covered if you put enough of your back into it. Bringing a friend for a ride with a local co-op makes some aspects of the game a lot easier, but comes with a warning: If you are not a patient, or prone to frustration or stress about something else, avoid this game. I'm just a comedy.
Even the early departure seems to be designed to be as disabling as possible. The doors are simply wide enough to carry large pieces of furniture, making them tightly packed in good conditions. From the outside it takes clear strings from Overcooked, but adds some important wrinkles: wacky physics. Overeating is good because the team is prone to failure, assessing where something went wrong, and reorganizing with a better plan of mind. Migration has that aspect of strategic planning – such as figuring out what things a team needs to deliver and how to do the work of these small things – but success is not expected. Maybe you will be hanged on an invisible bar near the door. Maybe your dump will come down short, throwing a fragile package into the pool. There seems to be more agreement or more reason for these goofs; even if you can clearly announce what the team needs to do next, doing what should be simple actions sounds like moving the dice.
As frustrating as it may be, I found myself drawn to a few levels of abstraction. I enjoyed the section inspired by Frogger especially where the movers have to cross a busy road before cutting through the logs and alligators. Some levels later, where players have to interact and deal with which departments are controlled by the exchange to open and when, is also funny. Players who find themselves getting into the game can look forward to achieving secret goals such as breaking all windows in the house or not stepping up stairs. This allows you to reach arcade style levels, which include challenges / submission of mysterious challenges. They are great for a quick blast of entertainment, but I never felt compelled to set high scores.
Migration There is a good sense of humor and the developers have clearly gone out of their way to make the game as accessible as possible. You can adjust the complexity in a spectacularly granular way, checking individual boxes to spend the time you have to complete goals, simplify things, remove some obstacles and more. That makes it easy to zoom in on some trickier levels, but it doesn't change the fact that moving furniture in this game is as fun as a real transaction.
