Moving out can be rather stressful and chaotic if you didn’t plan ahead. Putting everything in boxes, moving fragile objects from one place to another. It’s not always that much fun. And yet it’s the main inspiration of SMG Studio’s newest game: Moving Out. Gone are the days where you had to carefully move your furniture, this one is all about fun, chaos and working together.
Overcooked meets Moving Out
If you take a look at the screenshots of Moving Out, you’ll immediately spot some similarities with the successful Overcooked franchise. Just like in Overcooked, you select one of the colorful and crazy characters and enter a world map where you’ll go from one place to another, always trying to clear the objective as fast as possible. Your objective isn’t cooking, it’s moving furniture from the house to your truck, in style. Just like Overcooked, this game is extremely chaotic and doesn’t really care about anything else than its main goal. If you’re hired to move sixteen objects, you’ll have to get those objects safely in your truck, all the other objects aren’t important so you can easily smash those around for some extra fun and chaos. Although the resemblance is certainly there, Moving Out isn’t just an Overcooked clone, it has its own style and puzzles.
Think before you move
Every level starts with a brief glimpse at the house and its furniture, seconds later, you’re running around moving furniture as your life depends on it. In this brief moment, it’s important to plan ahead. Your truck is rather limited in space so if you first pick up and load all small objects, you might have a problem loading the heavy objects onto your truck. It’s crucial to have somewhat of a plan as the locations are in fact puzzles. Is it faster to throw boxes over the water? Do we move the sofa via the backdoor or should we throw it through the window? What’s the right angle to move the fridge as fast as possible? It’s not always that easy and you’ll find yourself losing precious time discussing the best way to move objects if you didn’t plan ahead.
If you play on your own, this stress gets a bit reduced as you’ll have to move fewer objects but it never gets easy. The game is a bit calmer while playing alone and it’s easier to keep track of everything while moving but in all honesty, it’s a lot more fun to play together. The game is playable with up to four players and the more players, the more objects you’ll have to move and thus the harder it gets. I played it in co-op with my partner and we had a blast. Communication is key here and if you keep the right pace, you’ll reach the highest scores, which isn’t always that easy. It’s a perfect chaotic co-op experience during this stressful lockdown period for sure.
Think outside of the box
The more you advance in the campaign, the more complex and challenging everything gets, forcing you to often think outside of the box (pun intended). Just like in Overcooked, the levels get a lot crazier the more you advance. At first, you’re just moving around furniture in a regular house while later one, you’ll have to cross rivers in order to get to your truck. These extra challenges are what keep the game fresh while playing. The variation and spike in difficulty really motivate you to keep on going, always trying to set the best possible time. We adored this but also were a bit disappointed with the length of the campaign. This isn’t the biggest game out there and it’s a shame the fun ended a bit too soon. Of course, this also tells a lot about the quality of the game since we simply wanted to continue playing it. That’s because it just works. The puzzles are challenging, the controls are smooth, and the presentation is stellar. Everything about the game is handled with a lot of love and eye for details. Ranging from the crazy looking characters to the random animals you’ll encounter while moving, everything is created to max out the fun.
Conclusion:
It’s not always easy to take your mind off reality during these uncertain times but with the help of Moving Out, it gets a lot easier. SMG Studio really succeeded in their goals and created a fun and chaotic co-op game that takes the best of the Overcooked franchise and combines it with new and unique elements. It’s a shame it’s over too soon but that just speaks even more about the quality of the levels. If you’re looking for a great co-op game, this is the one you’ll need to play.
