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jp's Moving Out (PS4)
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| [June 28, 2021 09:30:43 PM]
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Finished this with the kids earlier this afternoon. We only had 4 missions left or so, which wasn't much but...I think I was ready to set this one behind us? It's a bit frantic but not as much as fun as I had imagined. I think that's mostly because getting stuck carrying a couch through a doorway just feels more frustrating than wacky? Lots of games rely on imprecision for gameplay and comedic effect (Octodad for example), but this game places such importance on finishing things quickly (medals, timers, etc.) that I think it shoots itself in the foot a little bit with that. It even encourages you to come back and get better times and so on. So, when you get stuck on doorway carrying a couch and you miss the gold medal by a split second - that doesn't seem fun and you blame the game.
Now, we did have fun - there are moments of comedic gold for sure - and we did enjoy the few gold medals we did get. But overall? Things really improved when we turned on the "make stuff you delivered to the truck disappear" for sure.
The last few levels didn't add that much in terms of mechanics for making things harder - and the final boss was...underwhelming. But, the point was to play something couch co-op with the kids and have a fun enough time...so all's good.
Oh, not sure if I mentioned but you can pick for your characters to use a wheelchair which I thought was pretty cool.
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| [February 28, 2021 10:48:05 PM]
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We played this a bit more this past weekend. We've decided to play with the option where you items disappear as soon as they hit the truck...and it's SO MUCH BETTER. A lot, a lot better. Mostly it's because getting that last item in the truck feels like a win - rather than there being a let down moment as you realize you have juggle and sort the items on the truck.
We played a bunch more missions and it was pretty...uhh...fine. We unlocked a new mode which was less fun than the main one: moving in! Here you have to unload the truck and put things in the home. It's fine - but there's less chaos than the regular mode?
I was starting to get a bit bored - while there are some variation within the levels and it's mostly about making the levels harder/more complicated, the narrative was a bit stale. THere's humor - but it's not THAT funny. Until...we got a strange phone call (very suspicious) to go move some stuff out of a warehouse!
We did three of those fishy missions and sure enough - we were helping people steal stuff! It was amusing when we were told to just jiggle the door because they'd lost the key. Anyways, we then did a more fun mission - rescuing stuff from a moving train! This reminded me of the more dynamic levels in Overcooked (or Overcooked 2? Or both?) were things move around. Anyways, that level was pretty neat.
And then we arrived at a sort of scientific lab/station, learned that it's pack rats who are behind the whole "moving" operation, and then blasted off into space. At this point I'm ready for the game to "be done" but there are at least five more levels to work our way through.
Just for my notes here are some of the complications added to different levels:
(a) Ghosts that kill you - you can slap them.
(b) Buttons you need to stand on or leave an object on top. This opens doors, raises gates, that sort of thing.
(c) Switches that flip-flop between open/closed doors and that sort of thing.
(d) Fire! Some levels have jets you need to alternate between using switches.
(e) Rising "water" (guava, "the floor is guava" is one level in the game)
(f) Moving walkways - they rotate between positions and that sort of thing.
(g) Buttons that activate something in the level (fans that blow stuff)
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| [January 15, 2021 11:37:30 AM]
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I picked this up over xmas break mostly because it looked like a fun couch co-op game to play with the kids. We've had fun with Overcooked and the sequel and this seemed...well, in the same vein.
It is, and it isn't. Yesterday's experience was a bit underwhelming even as its obvious (especially from the overworld map you travel on) how much inspiration this game borrows from Overcooked.
The game is a lot harder - at least for us so far - we only got bronze medals with a few silvers now and then. But the challenge is that we don't really know WHY we didn't do better. So, it was not clear to us what we were doing wrong. In Overcooked it's easier - mostly it has to do with the teamwork not being organized right - two people doing the same thing while a 3rd task is not completed, people getting into each other's way, and stuff like that. So, coordination is key - the rest is execution and efficiency. One of the things I've enjoyed about Overcook is how we end up talking afterwards about a better plan - and then are excited to try it out.
We tried this in a few levels - but it doesn't quite work as well. There's a few times where "I'll stay by the truck, ya'll just throw stuff" seems to work - but other times it's unclear. I think that part of it has to do with the fact that some objects require two people and grabbing the 2-person furniture is awkward and unconfortable and often really wonky. We threw couches in the opposite direction too many times to count...
It's also a bit of a letdown because once you throw things on the truck you're not done - everything needs to fit. We had 3 or 4 levels where the last item just wouldn't fit and we'd spend a lot of precious time just wrangling things on and off - which feels like it shouldn't be the point. Our strategy of trying to load the 2-person objects on first didn't always pan out either (you can't sometimes because there are too many other things in the way).
I'm also really annoyed by the ghosts and the rakes. Step on one and you're stunned for a while which gets old really fast - the games' controls don't seem to be responsive/tight enough to allow for nonsense like rakes (and the ghosts).
That being said, the game does have lots of options to make things easier - so I'm actually a bit excited to try those out. Specifically the option where something loaded onthe truck disappears. This should help with the really disappointing last-minute wrangling. I'll see what the kids think though...they might not be that excited to play this some more?
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jp's Moving Out (PS4)
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Current Status: Finished playing
GameLog started on: Thursday 14 January, 2021
GameLog closed on: Monday 28 June, 2021 |
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This is the only GameLog for Moving Out. |
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