Ophelia Payne

I won’t speak for everyone, but I often have those moments where I fit everything I bought at the grocery store perfectly into that single bag that I brought in, or knowing the perfect way to pack your car’s trunk, or a closet. It’s such a satisfying experience of everything in its place. Where am I going with this? Well, the game Packing Life gives you a similar sort of satisfaction at times, as well as a healthy dose of frustration.

In Packing Life, from Aroko Game Studio, you play as a young woman named Lily who is in a city for school. She decides to take on a job in a factory for her last month to help pay her bills. Surprisingly, her boss is supportive of this, despite knowing he’s training someone who will be leaving fairly quickly. Your tasks are simple: open the box size shown on your screen, fit all the items from the bin in the box, use packing paper, if necessary, close the box, tape, apply ‘liquid’ or ‘fragile’ stickers as required, and the address label. Each one of these extra things (paper, stickers) is indicated on your workspace screen, so there is no questioning when they are needed.

There are 2 modes, relaxing and beat the clock. I play games like this to avoid stress, so I mostly played with no time constraints.

On the surface, this is a very ‘me’ game, something with Zen-like repetitive tasks, intertwined with small basic puzzles. As someone who loves games like Power Washing Simulator, I was hoping for a similar feel. However, after the first few ‘in game’ days, I was waiting for something more, and it just wasn’t there. That, along with how finicky the movement of the camera and placement of items was, I found it frustrating. There is finite space on your worktop, so if you need to remove things from the box to reposition them, it’s not always possible, and more than once, I shipped a box missing an item and took the penalty to just move on.

Sometimes, in the bin of items you will be packing, you’ll find an item that will trigger a memory. One of these was a stuffed bear. I would have liked more of these moments to keep me engaged in the story.

There is an in-game shop to buy items to personalize your space, but the in-game economy is a little silly. Lily complains about how expensive things are, and at the beginning of each day, you may have money to spend on bills or groceries ($40), but buying a single mug for your desk is $140. That is NOT a typo.

Now, this might seem like I hated the game, pointing out a lot of negatives, but Packing Life has a lot of potential. Maybe it just needs a little polish. A little more feeling, a little more fluidity in its movement and making me feel like I can afford to decorate my station without wondering if I can afford to pay rent (the reason I am working there in the first place).

The design is cozy, the colours are calm and reassuring, and there is something meditative about packing and having everything fit just perfectly before sending it on its way. I did, for the most part, enjoy the way this scratched an itch and made my brain calmer after doing or playing a more chaotic game, so it was nice to pop in and out for an hour or so here and there. Currently on sale for around $10 CDN, it’s worth picking up and supporting the passionate small team behind it.

Until next time…be good to yourself and be good to each other.

**Thank you to the Aroko Game Studio and Press Engine for supplying the game code. Reviewed on PC (Steam)**