In 2020, developers DevM Games and SMG Studio teamed up to create Moving Out while Team17 published it on the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One. Team17 is famous for publishing the wildly popular and fantastic series of Overcooked. Moving Out would take a similar concept of giving players the task of moving items in and out of building with exaggerated physics. Would this be a successful spin-off, or should Moving Out be packed away? Get your duct tape and PIVOT when reading this Moving Out review.
Moving Out Plot:
You and presumably a friend will be playing Moving Out together. It’s best played in couch co-op, but here’s the gist of the plot. Your buddy and you are grunts in a moving company happily taking orders every day while your boss gets rich. You both have great attitudes and generally love moving heavy items.
There’s not much more to the plot than that. At some point, you accidentally begin stealing items for a mysterious client. Other than that, it’s simple. Move boxes in and out with a smile and listen to your boss.
Moving Out Gameplay:
I didn’t know what to expect when I began my Moving Out review with my wife. We were both avid fans of Overcooked and expected similar addicting and challenging gameplay but there was just something missing from Moving Out. Teamwork is key in completing levels. You and your friends will be tasked with moving boxes, items, and other silly objects into a moving truck. You’ll need to do this within a certain time period to “beat” the level.
My wife and I were able to 3 star almost every level in Overcooked 1 and 2, and while they are separate games, I believed we would have the same type of success in Moving Out. We did not. Moving Out was much more difficult and we barely earned bronze in each stage. Part of the frustration is on purpose which is too bad. The physics of how you move the furniture is quite silly and will make you laugh. It will also create frustration as controls are difficult to predict. You may mean to go left and your character goes up. Double the frustration will occur when you are carrying a couch or a heavy item that requires two movers as you and your partner will both have to master the controls and if you both aren’t masters then you will fail.
During my Moving Out review, I was pleased with the amount of unique level design. You’ll move packages from haunted mansions filled with deadly ghosts, wild farmhouses with animals running around, busy streets with cars, and more advanced stages with factory conveyor belts, rising lava, and speeding trains. Due to the controls being so erratic, my wife and I were never able to advance past the lava stages. We would fall off repeatedly on narrow passageways that continued to grow our frustration.
In Overcooked, we eagerly replayed levels excited to learn from our mistakes. They were OUR mistakes. In Moving Out, we didn’t enjoy replaying levels or trying again as the mistakes were more control issues than us. We’d get the same results almost every time and didn’t see a need to replay levels.
What I did enjoy from the Moving Out review were the characters and dialogue. They were well done and added a flare to the game. Every level had some jokes and they were clever. There was also some 80s electronic music that we vibed to. We enjoyed customizing our characters too. I stuck with a dog with an astronaut outfit and my wife chose to be a toaster head. Literally. When her character got overworked toast would come flying out and litter the ground. Even more so when she was frustrated, the toast would be burnt. All nice touches.
During our Moving Out review, we encountered many obstacles. Some of the most frustrating but fun items to move were farm animals. Chickens clucked and ran around while you chase them into the truck. There’s another element to keeping them in the truck though as you’d need to build a pen for the animals in the truck with other items. There is a strategy that goes into Moving Out and a lot of it involved teamwork. The obstacles and hazards were fun to make our way past but I keep coming back to the main issue in this Moving Out review. Controls. If the controls are too difficult then everything else is wiped away which is, unfortunately, the case with Moving Out.
Memories:
My wife and I have plenty of fun memories playing Overcooked. It’s one of our favorite series to play together. When Moving Out was announced I knew I’d buy that too for us. I was surprised to see some not-so-positive reviews about Moving Out but despite them, I purchased the game on the Nintendo Switch for Christmas.
We giggled a ton while playing Moving Out but both expressed our frustrations of the physics and how overly difficult moving some items was. For whatever reason, the magic of Overcooked didn’t translate to Moving Out but we were still able to get some enjoyment out of it. We made it to the last few levels but could never beat them.
Moving Out Review Score:
After the massive success of Overcooked, Moving Out had everything in its favor with a set fanbase of Team17 games. Unfortunately, the secret sauce that Overcooked had didn’t translate to Moving Out. Sure, it will make you laugh and giggle with the humorous dialogue, unique characters, and silly physics but it will also frustrate you with the tasks, layouts, and difficult levels with the absurd physics. In the end, Moving Out unpacked more frustration than fun.
Moving Out scores a 6.2 out of 10.
What would you write in your Moving Out review? Did you think it held up as well as Overcooked? What levels did you enjoy the most? Were you able to beat the game? Did you play it with friends? Let me know your thoughts and comments on Moving Out, I’d love to read them.
Tiger Chainsaw 