Unpacking by Witch Beam is a cute, cozy game where you follow a character from their childhood home through starting her own family. It tells a story of hope, hurt, and healing through major life events through subtle storytelling as you unpack the character with each move. After reach chapter, you get a snapshot of whatever room you were last in with a hint to what’s going on. And you get the sense of what truly makes a house, or an apartment, a home.
You also can collect stickers along the way, which act as mini challenges. Sometimes when you move you’re not able to put items in certain location or have to hide them entirely. And more than once, you’ll see the same things from childhood return as your character moves.
So, what is the story of Unpacking?
You play as a girl, who loves art and games. As mentioned you follow her from childhood to adulthood, spanning 21 years and 8 chapters. Each chapter is a different take on life. Some were extremely relatable to me and others that I haven’t experienced yet.
- First childhood room: Our first taste of the character where we get a sense of their interests.
- First college dorm room: Not a lot of space, but the important things from childhood we hang onto are with us. And it’s our characters first time away from home.
- Moving in with roommates: Not able to move any of their things and having to find your own space among their things.
- Moving in with significant other: Able to move their things, but the styles don’t really fit and there’s no room for your passions. Not to mention, you can’t even display your degree.
- Moving back home: After the breakup we end up in our childhood home once again. Some things are different but much of it is the same.
- First apartment by ourselves: We get space to stretch out and our own studio space.
- Girlfriend moves in with us: Our character opens themselves back up to someone else, and they share similar tastes. We still get to have our passions and don’t have to make ourselves smaller. Not to mention, our character is winning awards.
- Family home: We move into a house with our significant other (I’m not sure if they’re married at that point) and we’re starting a family together. Our character has also published their own children’s book with the art they’ve been working on through the entire game. So, you get to see the story unfolds and what influences it.
I had a blast playing this game and trying to arrange each of the new spaces for our character. It was charming with the pixel art style with references to toys, gaming consoles, and more. You can also get super into organizing everything to make it just how you like it. And by the end you get to see the character you’ve been following with their family in the backyard of that final house. I couldn’t help but want to spite that ex-boyfriend who didn’t let us hang our degree anywhere by making sure it always was a key feature later (granted my own degree is in a box somewhere).
So, if you need a game that’s relaxing and stress free that doesn’t take too long to play (even doing a completion run) then Unpacking is a great game to check out.
Love ya,
Mae Polzine
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