Pack it up, pack it in, let me begin!
Moving house is one of the most stressful things a person can do. There’s reams of paperwork, endless fees, stress over timings so everything is ready to go at a moment’s notice. In an ideal world, you can pay someone to do the majority of the lifting and shifting for you, but you probably wouldn’t necessarily pick someone with a cactus for a head.
Moving Out 2, from the moving minds at SMG Studio and DevM Games, sees the return of the F.A.R.T. (Furniture Arrangement Relocation Technician) crew to lug clients precious items out of a house and into a van, often through a window. If you aren’t familiar with the first game, think “Overcooked” with boxes and lower back pain.
You start off in the fairly sedate area of Packmore, moving normal objects out of normal houses, before an Incident occurs and you find yourself traveling to a medieval area, candy land and a futuristic place in the sky.
Each area offers its own twists on the basic moving out mechanisms, with conveyor belts, rotating platforms, portals, breakable walls and more. Completing levels bestows the player with stars, which is based on your completion of each mission, plus bonus objectives not revealed until you’ve finished. The more stars you get, the higher your level and the more places you can explore.
A crucial part of Moving Out 2 is that it’s absolutely designed for multiplayer. The option to play solo is available and there are plenty of accessibility features which make it a feasible choice, but it’s nowhere near as fun as getting friends around the TV, or even online with cross platform play.
When playing with friends, it’s more chaotic and a lot more enjoyable, especially when you remember about the slap button and someone is perched near the edge of a drop. Some items need two people to carry and you’ll almost certainly start yelling “Pivot!” at each other.
On top of the variety of worlds to visit, there are also ‘moving in’ levels where you unload the van to specific places in the houses, and a variety of score attack levels which mix up the gameplay for a nice change of pace.
Other than it not being hugely fun in single player, my main criticism of the game is its length. Normally, the more content the better, but the levels started to feel very long and I was wishing for more concentrated bursts of fun in between the more convoluted tasks. This also means if you do get friends together to play, you won’t finish many levels in an evening and it’ll require a lot of dedicated organisation to get everyone together to see you through the whole game. That’s also before you replay levels to finish off the bonus tasks.
It feels churlish to complain there’s too much of a game, but I think the chaos of games like this is improved in shorter bursts. During the score attacks in particular, I found myself having already passed the goal for the highest rank with minutes left on the clock so I put the Switch down and looked at my phone instead.
Verdict
Moving Out 2 offers up great humour, whilst also packed with truckloads of charm. It’s accessibility options and inclusivity, where any of the diverse cast of characters can be in a wheelchair, are very much welcomed. It does a lot to keep the gameplay varied and it’s huge fun with friends. It can feel a bit of a grind at times, and could do with shorter, better paced levels, however this is a minor niggle in what is a brilliant party game.
Where to Buy
- Hit.com
- Price: £27.19
- Link: https://tidd.ly/3ubIiRX
- Amazon UK
- Price: £29.95
- Link: https://amzn.to/3FXCHkH
#AffiliateLinks
Credits
Written by John Edwards
Edited by Mark McAllister, Jen Griffiths and Tash McManus
Graphic Template by Paul L. Russell