Unpacking

 Switch
Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. Eurogamer
    Nov 1, 2021
    Offering a beautiful canvas to work with, Unpacking is a calm and tactile little sim about something most of us would usually dislike. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Awards & Rankings

18
#18 Best Switch Game of 2021
76
#76 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2021

User Reviews

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User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 29 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 29
  3. Negative: 5 out of 29
  1. Celinexx
    Nov 18, 2021
    2
    Not worth the money. The aesthetic is nice but it's repetitive and I finished the game the same day. Puzzles aren't exactly what I'd call aNot worth the money. The aesthetic is nice but it's repetitive and I finished the game the same day. Puzzles aren't exactly what I'd call a puzzle. I'm actually quite annoyed to have spent £18 on a game that I finished within a few hours. I anticipated atleast a good amount of levels.… Full Review »
  2. Adasc2906
    Dec 8, 2021
    7
    I honestly thought it's gonna be much better. it is still fun but i don't know..... it's just not THAT good.
  3. pepcorn
    Jun 13, 2023
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. I started out really loving the game. The starter bedroom is cute and cosy, and I felt I had so much in common with this little tomboy. My room looked a lot like that, growing up.

    The placing of all the belongings was relaxing and fun. There's a lot of attention to detail with the sounds items make. The art is beautiful. The music is soothing.

    I wondered how people could score this game any less than a ten. I thought to myself, maybe it's just too niche and not sufficiently targeted towards them. But it's definitely targeted towards me! I was thinking to myself that this would become one of my all-time favourite titles.

    I think the game peaked when our girl moves in with a guy, and everything about the apartment is suffocatingly sleek, and she disappears almost entirely. There's no room to hang her diploma. She can't make art anywhere. She's erasing herself to be with him.

    And the whole time I'm thinking: "Huh. I wonder why she chose this guy. She seemed so queer to me? Maybe I misinterpreted. Maybe I'm just projecting!"

    She read as bisexual to me, but still. Bisexual women don't usually end up in the apartment of the straightest man alive. Not long-term, anyways.

    And then the game came through and it felt really cathartic and special! I loved the more overt story, and also the smaller details. The childhood pig being displayed prominently again, the tear in his belly being repaired, him being a part of her art again, her receiving awards for her work, her journey with chronic pain.

    Sadly, this where the game started dropping off for me. I think it would've been nice if the game had ended on her final partner moving in with her, their belongings being combined. Or on packing everything up into boxes for once, and leaving their future unknown. Maybe seeing the book deal, and leaving it at that.

    Because by the time we reached the final home, it felt tedious. I didn't want to organise yet another kitchen and living room, especially since the rooms are less satisfying and less pretty than the ones in the previous place. The kitchen not having any space saving storage solutions (eg. a magnetised strip for cooking utensils) started really driving me up the wall. She has lived in half a dozen tiny kitchens, why can she still not figure out how to get to IKEA? :( I wanted some fresh air in the place, some actual tidiness. But it just kept getting more fractured and chaotic. Why couldn't we organise a garden or something? Why has she never once moved a jar of pickles with her? Let me see the inside of that fridge! Organising the fridge is one of the best parts. Let's go do our first shop and put it all away.

    I started loathing seeing certain items again, because why did she get rid of so many cute things but kept holding on to some truly tacky stuff. Not good-tacky, bad-tacky. It made me wish we could discard certain items for her. We spend so much time with her but we can't look out for her. Let the ugly tchotchke go, sis!!

    I wondered about her partner. Our protagonist has her own room for her work. What does her partner do? What does she care about, besides working out and fashion and plants? Why do I have to organise a hallway instead of being offered a fresh new discovery. Imagine if we discovered the girlfriend was the one making that rad Sailor Moon costume!

    At this point, the game also adds in the feature of the moving boxes blocking drawers and shelves, doubling the amount of painstaking work.

    I guess if there had to be a final place, I just wanted it to feel more different somehow. More satisfying, more synergy. A place for everything and everything out of sight. Less rooms. I get that she's moving up in the world and has more rooms now, but I don't want to put one roll of toilet paper in the half-bath. Maybe offer me an even bigger challenge, with all the boxes starting outside. Or getting all the boxes in the too-small moving truck.

    Or we jump forward into the future a little more, and we end on decorating another little kid's room that reminds us a lot of mom's, but markably different. Baby rooms have zero identity, because babies have zero identity. I also didn't like that mom put her childhood stuffed animal there. I get it, but let the baby have their own new animal and their own fascination.

    It would've been a ten if the final level hadn't felt like a repetitive chore. I did love the majority of the game! But I think ending on a tedious note that just kept going and going, making me struggle to find a good place for ugly knick-knacks and DVDs in the streaming age, dampened my enthusiasm by quite a lot.    … Full Review »
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