The simplest way to describe in a few words the title under consideration today is this: Moving Out è overcooked but with furniture instead of food. It is no coincidence, in fact, that the two titles have in any case the publisher, that is Team17. The similarities are many from the artistic style and the isometric view, to then move on to the extravagant characters and the irreverent plot. If you have played Overcooked hoping to become a master chef but failing to try, Moving Out is your chance to try your hand in the magical world of moving. But be careful, you are not insured!
Pivot!
Moving Out's premise is quite simple: You and your friends are new employees of the Smooth Moves Furniture Removalists, the most irresponsible moving company in the world. Your job will be to load customers 'personal belongings onto your truck, regardless of any damage to your property and your and your colleagues' safety. All that matters, therefore, is to be able to transport all the objects and furniture from the house to the truck in the shortest possible time.
The various missions available, as the adventure continues, will gradually become more and more complex. It will start with simply having to bring the furniture up to the truck, to decidedly more intricate maps, including obstacles, moving platforms, packages containing fragile material and much more. During some missions we will also have to deal with ghosts who will try to put a spoke (or ectoplasm?) In the wheel.
Moving Out is divided into thirty main missions (not counting that tutorial), in which based on the time taken we will be able to get a bronze, silver and gold medal. Obviously, the shorter our time, the higher the value of the medal obtained. Also, to make the various missions replayable, we will have three extra goals for each map, like breaking all the windows in the house (or not breaking any) or avoiding all the obstacles present. Fulfilling one of these secondary objectives will give us tokens in exchange.
After the thirty missions (which are few, on balance), longevity is definitely raised by the extra missions. Some are accessible via the "VHS shop", Which will be unlocked by obtaining gold medals, others will be made available at"the Arcade”With the use of tokens obtained with the completion of secondary objectives.
If the missions of the "VHS Shop" will be more complex variants of the main missions, those of the Arcade will rely more on the platformer.
As well as Overcooked, here too we are given the opportunity to play in single or local co-op up to four players. Unlike the latter, however, where to get the best result you had to coordinate perfectly with your friends, in Moving Out everything has been simplified, and collaboration is almost zero. That does not mean that the title is less fun in company, on the contrary the chaos that it could generate in the cooperative will still involve several minutes of fun. However, it seems clear that Moving Out the cooperative is more about playing the same map at the same time rather than collaborating to be able to finish the level in the best possible way.
Additionally, players will not have any objectives to complete in a specific order, and it all results in disastrous chaos ... but fun for that very reason.
No days off for those who get hurt
The game, as mentioned above, although conceived for the local cooperative it is perfectly usable in single player, and surprisingly unlike other Party Games it doesn't get boring when played solo. Playing in single player, however, comes with all the difficulties involved, and trying to get the gold medal on your own could prove to be a far from simple task. To deal with this imbalance, it is possible to activate the "Assisted Mode“, Through which some simplifications to the gameplay can be obtained, such as lightening furniture that is too heavy for a single player, longer time limits, or making objects disappear once loaded on the truck.
In addition to this you are given the opportunity to being able to control two characters with a single controller, but the game itself warns that this could be confusing. And so it is. So it is strongly discouraged if you want to keep your sanity stable.
Another feature that makes the title very enjoyable is his humor. Of course, we are not talking about great comedy, but some dialogues between the characters are decidedly irreverent, not to mention the various references to the videogame world, such as theAAAAAH-tari office theater of a mission, some boxes in the form of blocks of Tetris, a level that pays homage Frogger and another he mentions Pac-Man. There is also no lack of citations related to the cinematographic field, such as the inevitable reference to Ghostbusters.
Give me a lever and I'll lift the cabinet for you
Ultimately, this is Moving Out, a fun Party Game that can also be used in single. Although it loses the complexity of its older brother Overcooked, Moving Out still manages to entertain despite its own short longevity. Once the game is 100% finished, unfortunately, you will hardly return, but if you are looking for a hit and run title to play in company it could be for you.
Moving Out's simple gameplay makes the title suitable for younger children, perhaps playing in a cooperative with his gamer father. The title of Team17 therefore manages to appeal to more targets, with a humor and 80s quotes that can only be grasped by the most adult players and a simple and fresh gameplay for the youngest.
We are certainly not talking about a masterpiece, and it is not free from defects (the sound sector is somewhat anonymous and in the long run the experience could be repetitive), but in general Moving Out does its job very well, that is to have fun without too many frills.
The title will be available from April 28, 2020 for Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC.
