The number of times I’ve moved home is around 14 times, and to this day, never really found the process as stressful as people make out. To cover Moving Houses on the PS5, then it should be a walk in the park, and not something to sweat about, right? Right…?
No. The fundamental gameplay is a relatively relaxing experience in the guise of a Spray Paint Simulator type or House Flipper. From a first-person perspective, your goal is to half-empty a house (more on that in a while), traipsing back and forth through with boxes and bric-a-brac to the bed of your hired removal truck. Items can be manually carried through the home, up the ramp and into the back, or you can lob it from a distance – a la Moving Out.
Truth be known, throwing the objects was a bit pointless and wasn’t any more efficient than walking up to the back. As you progress through Moving Houses, your throwing ability improves, as does your running speed and the number of items you can pack into a box before needing a new one. The latter two are the keys, and perhaps the jump option now and then, though a crouch option comes far too late in the game, as this would be indispensable in reaching the computer mouse you’ve kicked under the table.
Items inevitably get misplaced in a house move, but it’s more frustrating when you can see it, though you can’t reach it. There’s a pretty redundant kick feature that occasionally knocks an item along, though it’s best reserved for kicking a bookcase across the room. Which is satisfying. Rather than restart the game, you can reload the checkpoint – something I did twice in the three-hour Platinum playthrough, so not really that bad. Mildly irritating though. What’s really irritating, though amusing too, is how the game (or Gord Games) trolls you.
Moving Houses features a linear approach. First, you clear the front garden, then the rear, followed by the hall, lounge, dining room and so on. From first impressions, this bungalow is relatively small, so you should be finished quite quickly. However… rooms start to appear after completing another, additional floors materialise, as well as something in the house. Moving Houses isn’t a scary game whatsoever, nor does it require any survivalist skills, though there are underlying themes that are a bit more personal for the developer. You can find that out for yourself.
When the ‘horror’ element kicks in, you’re tasked with locating a breaker switch in the basement (that has also just materialised) and end up running a rather ludicrous maze without much meaning or purpose. One of the additional features in the game is a cut version of the maze, and if I’m being brutally honest, I’m glad it was cut. It took away the gameplay mechanics of repetitive yet therapeutic motions of sorting through household items as if it were a reverse 3D Unpacking. The credits that followed not long after were quite amusing, with a song that’s almost as catchy as Landlord’s Super, though perhaps a little out of context, as Moving Houses isn’t necessarily funny.
Despite those reservations with mazes, the odd item that got stuck, or having that existential crisis that I was packing up items to move out but leaving behind fundamental pieces of furniture such as a sofa, desk, dining table or even beds, I did enjoy my time with the game, and it was a relaxing experience. It’s not something I would play again, however, in pursuit of an Eastasiasoft Platinum, I completed the game again, though with added objects to pack. In my opinion, since you’re reading this, that should have been the main game and the bonus being a simplified version. At the end of the day, you’re here to move house, so the more stuff to pack up and store, the better, right?
And putting aside that I have now moved home 16 times, it still wasn’t stressful, and these last two times were refreshingly soothing.
