Moving Out is a game about removals: you turn up in a level with a few friends, grab all the stuff that’s lying around, and try to get it onto the van. Nothing ever goes quite right, of course, which is why it’s a party game and an argument starter as much as it’s a game of tactics and positioning.
To get to the heart of this brilliant experience, Bertie, Chris Tapsell and Donlan all joined up to have a go together. Teamwork! Brilliant. Here’s what they all made of it.
Half-way through playing Moving Out with colleagues, I realised I had reverted to the role I generally fill in my large family back home. Basically, I was busy looking busy while everyone else did all the real work. Moving Out is chaotic: one level has the floor rising and sinking as you move tables and beds and fridges across it, another has ghosts and chairs that want to run away once you’ve put them on the van. Somehow, though, out of all this frantic action, everyone manages to reveal their true personalities through the way they play. Chris Tapsell, who is the youngest of the three of us, quickly became the boss, dividing us up into different tasks, streamlining and tutoring us on the best ways to yeet a closet through a window. Bertie became the flair player – delivering moments of athletic brilliance with a lampshade or a microwave that saved the day more than once. And I was at the back, trying to look busy but secretly not doing very much at all. I didn’t feel judged. I felt understood.
(A quick word here about accessibility options. Moving Out is absolutely brilliant in this regard. Dyslexia options, text size, button remapping, level skipping, a meaningful easy mode. More of this stuff in games, please. Everyone should get to enjoy a treat like this.)
Part of growing up is about learning to accept yourself for who you are. I, for example, am extraordinarily bossy – nothing gets me going like a designated, clearly defined role – and this makes games like Moving Out extremely fun for me and I’m sure definitely very fun and not at all stressful or irritating for everyone who plays with me as well.
Some levels in Moving Out require this more than others. You can probably get through the standard house level by just lobbing stuff out the big window as and when, and we did fine on the Frogger-like stage by just hurtling back and forth on our own. In the haunted mansion, though, you will need a designated ghost-slapper (happy to oblige) and an assigned haunted musical instrument-baiter (Donlan: “I’m kiting the piano!”). In the conveyor-belt warehouse you will need to form a chain of operation through separate rooms – like a conveyor belt! I get it – and in the devious Floor is Guava level, you will need Bertie to stop messing around and do his damn job.