The Unusual Storytelling of the Unpacking

Unpacking is an indie puzzle game with really nice pixel visuals where you essentially unpack and place your character's belongings. You follow different life stages of your character as she moves into other places, and witness her growing, accomplishing, failing, and learning about her relationships. The only thing you do in this game is unpacked boxes and place the belongings inside them into different environments in different years of her life, you never control the main character or see any other characters personally. Yet, you feel attached to her, feel sentimental at times when you see a new belonging that indicates her new accomplishment, and feel sad when she leaves behind something important to her. Let's take a look at each level separately to uncover how this game uses environmental storytelling.

1997: The Childhood Home

After you finish each level, the game shows you your character's journal where she writes small notes about each room, and by her note for this room, you understand that she is given a room of her own for the first time. Everything indicates that this is probably a young girl's room. It's the end of the 90s, so she has popular 90s toys and items like Tamagotchi, radio, board games, and such. You unpack lots of art supplies, implying that our main character is interested in art from a young age. Other than art, she is into games and toys as apparent by their abundance. In this level, we're introduced to the items she will take with her throughout her life: the red souvenir bus from London and her plush collection.

2004: First Time Away From Home

The main character moves out of her home and gets into a dormitory as this is her first year at University. We unpack and place her belongings into her bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen on this level. She takes her first step into adulthood now, she has to cook for herself and learn to manage her own. She has more art supplies and even her computer now fits the vibe of the early 2000s with its huge monitor. Her clothes that we unpack seem gender-neutral for the most part like her other belongings. Other than that, she still has her plushies and another souvenir from Paris.

2007: Moving in With the Roommates

Three years have passed now, and she has graduated from the university as we see her degree among her bedroom belongings. Different from the previous levels, we are moving into a place where already others are living and not an empty one. As we can understand from her increased number of art supplies and a new drawing tablet, she wants to pursue this field but cannot earn enough money yet, we even see clothes from her part-time job. This explains why she shares a house with other people. However, her belongings seem in harmony with her roommates, her items just fit in the vibe. They like gaming and creative arts and collect plushies just like us. The game can tell so much about relationships without showing us any of the characters.

2010: The Boyfriend's Apartment

This is the hardest and worst level of the game as agreed by the fans, but it is all intentional. The main character moves into her boyfriend's house, and the place feels so cramped. It feels like her boyfriend barely opened any space for her belongings, so it is a challenge to fit her things in. Entering this level just after the harmonious living environment with her roommates, she and her boyfriend's vibes feel so apart and unharmonious from the start. Her colorful and geeky vibe with her art, gaming, and plushy collection doesn't fit with her boyfriend's plain, modern, and colorless house. And most importantly, we can't put her diploma anywhere, the only available places are the wall above the toilet or under the bed. It shows that he doesn't respect her enough and her achievements don't have a place in this relationship. You can see right away that this relationship won't work.

2012: Back Home Again

As was apparent from the start, she breaks up with her boyfriend two years after and moves back into her childhood room to live with her parents. You can understand that it was an unpleasant break-up because you cannot hang their photo as a couple on the board. The game only accepts if you put it into the cabinet, a place where she cannot see; but she doesn't get rid of it either, probably because she isn't over him just yet. However, coming back to this place as an adult feels so much different. It is like a narrative circle where the character comes into the same place where they started to emphasize their change and contrast with their old and current self. This room feels so different from her sweet childhood room, because it's now so cramped, and feels like you came back to a place that you shouldn't as an adult. Probably her pursuit of an art career is failing.

2013: Her First Apartment

Just a year passed, but it seems like our main character has made a fresh start. She has her apartment, and her apparent career as an artist finally started to give its fruits. Now she even has an office dedicated to her art. She's definitely at a better place than in previous years, and she has all this place for herself. She has a queen-sized bed to herself, there are a lot of empty spaces on the shelves and in the wardrobe, unlike the other places. However, all the space makes it feel a little lonely.

2015: Moving in Together

This is the first level in the game where you pack another person's belongings. Someone else is now moving into our house, and it feels so satisfying to fill all these empty spaces and make the space more lively. You first don't understand who it is, but when you pack her bedroom belongings, you understand it's the main character's girlfriend. And she is much more feminine, colorful, and livelier than we already are! Unlike the boyfriend, she and her girlfriend fit so well with each other. From her belongings, you can understand her girlfriend is working in a creative field like the main character, probably film-making. She likes gaming and has lots of plants, make-up products, and colorful dresses that just make the living space so much more lively. The best moment was when you put the girlfriend's plushes next to the main character's that she carried throughout her life.

2018: The Final Home

In the final chapter the main character and her girlfriend -now her wife probably- bought a house. She and her partner just feel like a true family now, their belongings are in the same boxes randomly put in. And they will be a real family now with their baby on the way. It felt so emotional to put our lifelong plush into the baby's bed, it will be hers now. Other than that, the main character became a professional artist and even published a children's book. You just feel proud of how her life turned out in this final episode.

And at the end of the game, you see this picture. The main character and her partner now are a happy family with their baby. After finishing this game, you feel surprised at how much you got attached to these characters that you never once saw. It demonstrates how this game has told you a story by just using the environment.