What narrative can do to a simple game: Unpacking

Surprise! Back with the Indies games after a week full of stress and some posts that I really had not planned to do, finally back home I jumped this game in my Steam catalog and that might look too much like your typical management/meditation game but that has left me a couple of good moments in which it seems an experience without substance and ends up becoming a very emotional ride, all this achieving it from a state of limitations that is very usual in all indie games, Unpacking is a pleasant process where along different scenarios (or stages of life) we unpack all our belongings in our home, the thing is that as we go playing those belongings that at the beginning of the game seemed simple code are forging bonds with us as we are told a story behind everything, it is a short game and without too much depth so I will go in steps to explain it well.

Witch Beam by the hand of the developer Humble Games, producer of several amazing Indies this year, try to demystify the tortuous emotional process of moving in a game that could be framed as Zen and meditative, the concept is quite simple, we enter what is our new home and there are a lot of boxes to unpack full of objects that we can place along the rooms, the process of putting them has no practical purpose in the game, It is merely aesthetic so we can place each thing as we wish and just empty all the boxes to complete each level so you could say that Unpacking is one of those "Feel Good" games similar to for example Stardew Valley or Journey, with a gameplay that could even be considered therapeutic, exploring the passage of time and how changes shape us in our lives, it seems a little deep reflection for a game that is based only on pointing and selecting objects and then accommodate them but there is a little more narrative that in my opinion has been phenomenal to highlight this title.

The developers have not settled for a quiet experience but have also provided it with a narrative load based on the small moments and objects that we have, at no time we change our vision of the classic room and yet we can feel how time passes, the characters change and we are grabbing a certain affection for each object, it is a story that becomes great in the small moments where we can understand the context of each room and how much has changed along the way, Despite having a narrative if you miss a little more depth when it comes to show it, the intention is great from the beginning but as I played it I can not lie to tell you that the magic was lost with each level and also with how little we are told, there is not too much context as you would like in each of the objects so it is likely that we never have a relationship with them apart from being souvenirs that we can accommodate.

It is a fairly simple and casual game that tries to disguise the repetitiveness with a very interesting mechanic, but it also has other options to give variety to the story of our character, our path along all the moves we make (each home becomes much larger and therefore the difficulty increases but never strangles) is one of memories, we start with a few objects and throughout each level we increase and seeing how the old objects are still with us, more worn or with a story behind, It gives a touch of personality to a game that bets on a simple gameplay without too many challenges, is one of those Wholesome Games with which someone can disconnect from the outside and have a good hour playing, maybe missing a little more design in their levels or a little less standard graphics, but otherwise it is a game that aims to build in the middle of the frustration that are almost always removals a small space where to make them feel relaxing and bearable, and that gentlemen is Unpacking, simple and unique.