Team 17, the team behind the beloved Overcooked series, are back with an attempt to recreate that lightning in a bottle of a game. Overcooked was a series where one to four players attempted to run a chaotic kitchen. Making sure orders are correct, generally set out in the right order, and done in a time frame to get the most amount out of it. On the other hand, the follow up series, Moving Out, was about players packing, or unpacking a truck and moving house. Moving Out 2 continues on this new series with the addition of new level types, like moving animals, or as mentioned above, moving in to a house instead of out.

Moving Out 2 features new levels as mentioned. Alongside the normal types of levels, where you’re unpacking a house and throwing everything into a truck, there are also levels where you unpack a truck and throw everything in the house. Unlike when everything is being thrown into the truck, when packing a house items need to go in certain places. For the most part, it’s not like “the table needs to go where the table goes.” Instead it’s more “here’s a small box, it can go where any of the small boxes go.” The same goes with big boxes, chairs, etc. It’s not overly specific, which makes it take a bit less brain power.

The worst of the levels though, are the farm levels. Throwing things in a truck is fine, for the most part it will stay in the truck, obviously stuff like balls can roll around and might roll out. The farm levels on the other hand, everything can run away. Animals are living creatures and they will run, fly, jump, etc., and it’s easily one of the most annoying things that exists. I’m honestly not sure if it’s intended, but chickens specifically can fly over fences and when playing as a single player, means every time you throw one in, one can jump out, and every animal has to be in their pens to be able to win.

Every level has bonus objectives, mostly to encourage you to replay them, especially since some of them contradict each other. This artificially pads the playtime and can make some already annoying levels way more frustrating, if you decide to go for the full completion, that is. Basically, in every level you have five possible stars you can get. The first two are obtained by completing the level  in a set amount of time, and then beating it again in approximately half the time.

After first clear, you unlock three additional challenges that can’t be completed ahead of time it seems, so there’s not much of a point in looking them up beforehand. Some of the other challenges are things like “don’t break any windows,” “break all the windows,” or “put all the horses in their pens first.” This means at best, levels will take at least two playthroughs, at worst, it can push each level up to three or four plays, minimum. Stars are required to bring up your level, and levelling is required to unlock levels, so have the best of luck with this tedious endeavor.

The other thing you can do in levels is look for character crates. Essentially, these are predetermined loot boxes. All they do is give you new skins for your character. The characters are cute, but incredibly random. Would you rather play as a snowman, a taco, or a shoe? Once you find some character crates you can change from being a shoe, to being a boot. Which is so much more interesting isn’t it? Yeah, I didn’t really think so either.

As I said though, at least they look cute, because they definitely look just like everything else in the over encumbered levels that exist in Moving Out 2. Sometimes it can be incredibly hard to even be able to see some of the small items that you need to move because they blend in with the background. There is a counter on the screen, but often times you’ll find yourself wandering around wondering “what the hell?”

There are two massive slacking points in Moving Out 2. The first is the music, for any fans of Overcooked that has played it plenty, you can recall exactly what its music sounds like. I apologise right now if it’s in your head. Moving Out 2 lacks that drastically. There is absolutely nothing interesting going on in the background, which leads into the second issue: the co-op.

Playing with other players feels pointless, unlike other games like this. The challenges remain the same, and don’t scale in difficulty whether you’re playing as one person, or playing as four players. There’s no real feeling of cooperation and no communication even needs to happen when you play. Players just simply move things separately and eventually you’ve finished the level. Sure, you can get a friend to help move a couch, or hold a door open, but that’s not overly hard to do alone.

As a fan of Overcooked, Moving Out 2 should have been right up the alley of many fans. The thing is, it feels like it tries to play the same way, just as a moving company. The reality though, is it misses every single mark by a long shot. It’s not that it’s a particularly bad game, it plays as it says for the most part (I have had a couple instances of stuff falling out of the map and never respawning), it’s just overly boring to play alone, and just as boring to play with people. It’s not a party game like Overcooked and it’s not overly cooperative, so it’s hard to say what the aim was, if there even was one.

 

Graphics: 6.5 The animated look of all the characters is cute, and characters (as strange as they may be) are distinguishable. The levels are boring in colour: grey with green, brown with green. So on, and so forth. Items blend into the background very easily as well.	Gameplay: 4.0 In Moving Out 2, you move out, move in, and move animals for some reason. There’s not a lot to be said. There’s a lack of real cooperation as well.
Sound: 4.0 Unlike similar games, there’s a lack of music to capture the atmosphere. There’s no tension music, just simply some casual music during levels and in the overworld. It’s very casual, and honestly, boring.	Fun Factor: 2.0 What is a game that isn’t fun to play alone, but also isn’t fun to play with people? When are you supposed to play Moving Out 2? Unfortunately, it’s just not hitting any of the right notes regardless of how I try to play it.
Final Verdict: 4.0

Moving Out 2 is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Moving Out 2 was provided by the publisher.