Moving Out – Review

It’s a great day for co-op party games it seems, as we are being treated with big hitters such as Team17’s Overcooked 1 and 2, Catastronauts, and even the somewhat milder Tools Up!. While these games are certainly a lot of fun, it’s hard to find extra players with the current lockdown going on in the world. That being said, this didn’t stop Team17 from publishing another wacky party game, Moving Out. In this game, you’ll be playing as comical movers who take no regard to the client’s personal items and bash and trash the place they’re moving from. Broken TV? Don’t worry, you’re insured! Refrigerator out of the window? No problem, insurance will cover it! Is your pet turtle being tossed in mid-air? Well, that could be a tad more problematic.

Story

You’ll be Smooth Moves’ new employee, and they will teach you the ropes of their special moving techniques. You’ll get a crash course, which is literally, crashing through a course, in order to show you how they work. After that, the game has little story value, but you’ll get a few snippets of text here and there, with a few humorous references. Other than that, you’ll have to make up the story as you go.

Graphics

The graphical style is very reminiscent of the games we mentioned in the introduction. You’ll be thrown in very colorful levels, with a lot of clutter and a lot of hazards you’ll have to keep track of. The characters are exquisitely designed and very diverse. You can go from a character with a flower pot as a face to a unicorn that leaves rainbows in her wake. The world overview is done in a very simplistic Overcooked style, where you drive around a moving truck and plow your way through oncoming traffic to go to the next destination. We have to be honest that the map is not always clear in what has been cleared and what not. We preferred the approach of clearly marking the levels that are done with your score in the fashion of Overcooked and Catastronauts.

Sound

The sound design in Moving Out is fairly well done, but it’s not really that memorable. The music is upbeat and somewhat catchy, but most of the time you won’t even notice it when you’re smashing a house. The sound effects are done in a simple fashion, but quite well. It’s quite satisfying to throw a TV-set out of the window and hearing it crash to the ground.

Gameplay

Moving Out is a party game that is all about clearing out houses for people who are going to move elsewhere. As the game rests on a witty and funny foundation, you’ll be smashing their old residence, rather than clearing it out professionally. You’ll throw, drop and break a lot of their items, but the game tells you it shouldn’t be a problem as all the clients are insured. We tried the game solo for a while to see if this would be interesting for people currently under lockdown, but we advise you to play the game with friends (locally) as the true potential of the game will fully shine through then.

We have to note that the game’s controls feel clunky and a bit like you’re driving a tank in an obstacle course. We reckon this was a style choice of the developers, as it makes the game somewhat funnier at times, as you’re mucking about simply to try and pick up a few boxes, or when you find yourself accidentally slapping around breakable items, you’ll get a laugh or two out of it as well. Despite the fun that can be had, you’ll also notice a fair amount of frustration when trying to lift heavier items with a friend, as you often grab the wrong side of said heavy object, or the clumsy controls make you run around like headless chickens. This makes the game somewhat unfairly hard at times.

It’s clear that even the creators of the game know their game is actually quite hard. It doesn’t take away from the fun that Moving Out is not an easy party game, but sometimes the game is actually harder than it should be due to the somewhat clumsy controls. Nonetheless, there is an assist mode that allows you to make certain aspects of the game easier, such as having more time, making two-player items lighter allowing you to carry it alone, making items that are delivered in the truck disappear so you don’t have to stack them, and so on. This makes the game a lot more accessible to those who are just looking for a fun party experience, without a lot of stress.

Conclusion

Moving Out is yet another great party game that is now out on pretty much all available platforms. The game proves to be a colorful mess that is a lot of fun when played with friends. While the controls sometimes make the game harder than it actually should be, the assist mode will make it so that every player can enjoy this game to the fullest. We advise you to play this game with friends or family, as the single-player mode feels a bit bland compared to the amusement you can have when playing with other players. If you like games such as Overcooked! and Catastronauts, we advise putting this one on your list for your next multiplayer session(s).

Ibuki

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Aspiring ninja.

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