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Unpacking, the game that’s all about unpacking, is arriving on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 next week, on May 10th.
The game came out on November 2nd, last year, on Switch, Xbox, and PC. It tasked us with unpacking the manifold items of a woman’s life, as she moved from place to place. I found it intriguing and lacking in equal measure, as it told its wordless narrative through objects.
In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Tim Dawson, an artist and programmer at Witch Beam, spoke about the game:
“The items often have a personal connection to you, the player, as you encounter things that remind you of your own life or those people you know. And the items are personal to us, the developers, because part of making this game involved drawing on our own experiences and finding ways to add small details where we could.”
Dawson then goes on to highlight one such item in detail, and talks about the way that it evokes a time:
“Unpacking starts in 1997 and moves forwards through time, so you get to encounter wonderful moments like this level set in 2004 complete with a period-appropriate computer. Join us on a journey to the distant past where people still used cathode ray monitors without being a retro game enthusiast, and bought and used cool mouse mats. Marvel at the sound of PC fans spinning up and thrill to receiving an instant message from your friends.”
Unpacking arrives on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 next week, on May 10th.
