Moving Out is back with a vengeance! The chaotic, co-op moving game peaked at a time when people had to huddle together in isolation (God wasn’t COVID fun!) and work together in the most outrageous ways possible. And was definitely a game that broke many friendships, and relationships and tested the patience of even the saintliest of saints! But was also a massively over-the-top, enjoyable and light-hearted couch co-op adventure that gave a perfect balance of joy and anger, just like Dark Souls does. Moving Out 2 is the sequel we never knew we needed, and is determined to do everything as mentioned above once again, and then some!
What is Moving Out 2? 
The concept of the Moving Out games is simple, you and a buddy play as employees at a logistics company known as F.A.R.T, in a colourful land where everyone has big houses with the weirdest layouts and plenty of smashable items. As an employee at F.A.R.T., your job is to go to houses and move everything out as any good mover should, except this is a video game and things such as time limits, wonky physics and the lack of boxes, tape and sense are present here.
Moving Out’s couch, co-op moving mayhem nature was perfect for multiplayer, as you would need to work together, communicate, and work quickly in order to obtain a good score, and have satisfied customers. Of course, this explains why the game destroyed many marriages and friendships, as any good coach co-op game (including Overcooked) should do.
The sequel is pretty much more or less the same as before, throwing couches, smashing windows and “moving” out homes in a cheerful, wacky, fun manner. Except for the dial of insanity has been turned up even more, with more crazy-level designs, cool new environmental elements, and new dynamics that add extra layers to the moving process in both meaningful and infuriating ways. But the good kind of infuriating of course!
Make sure the good China is bubble-wrapped 
So, you’re properly wondering what the next step for a packing game to go, and the answer is simple. Into a multi-Verse of Madness of course!
Things start off weird right away as the lovable moving rogues in the town of Packmore discover a series of strange wormholes that lead to multiple new dimensions and of course, there’s moving and logistical work to be done! Venturing through the many rips in time, space and existence reveals a whole heap of newly discovered, and mind-bogglingly weird places that require movers right away. There are all manner of odd setups that will require even more patience, care and the strongest of bonds between you and your loved ones. From navigating through houses made from food, gigantic roulette tables, sprawling islands, high-tech mansions filled with many death traps, and a massive hotel being held up by a giant that tilts back and forth.
There are some insanely surreal and great setups here for more moving chaos, and the visual style, thematic elements and vast number of different items you’ll be moving are incredibly charming and whimsical. I couldn’t get over just how much the developers crammed in, adding many varied layers to the gameplay loop, over the course of the campaign. From portals, using drones with wrecking balls to destroy obstacles in the way, and just the simple physics of bouncing items off certain surfaces always brought out a mix of joy and intensity from my moving partner.
There are plenty of the old, and familiar setups, including your usual houses with multiple pools, floors, and sofas that are just the worst thing ever to move in game and real life. A bulk of the first act is made up of these, to where Moving Out 2 feels a little too close to the original game. But soon enough things do get more interesting, and plenty of wacky gameplay dynamics are thrown in, and the level change-ups are so drastic it does overshadow the humbler locations.
Even in the simpler locations, there are a ton of new level mechanics to spice things up, from moving boats over paths of water, a vast number of floors to traverse, and new ways to sling-shot heavy items across the world, in a hilarious and nail-biting manner. But one of my favourites was a level comprised of a dozen or so rooms, each with a door that only opens one way. What seems easy at first, soon turns into a time-bending maze of memorising the path of doors that lead you from point A to point B. It was so simple, yet highly effective at testing all of my and my partner’s skills, without overdoing the intensity.
There were however quite a few stages and elements that drove me and my partner completely mental, or just felt quite tedious overall. The concepts of narrow walkways, and vents that blow out wind should never, ever be in a moving game, ever again! Along side, small animals that move incredibly quickly (having to gather chickens into a pen is not as fun as it sounds) and introducing weather elements that have to be fought against so intensity just kills the pacing, momentum, and goodwill the rest of the game manages to pull off.
While there are plenty of annoying moments in Moving Out 2, there are vastly more that prove to be immensely fun, weird wacky, and downright utterly charming. I just love the vibrant and colourful presentation, and the huge amount of gameplay mechanics introduced over the campaign, and those that work, really do make the game’s simple, yet strong formula even better.
Pass me the Michael Bublé (Slang for bubble wrap) 
What made Moving Out such as Smash hit many gamers, was the level of unpredictability when playing with friends, as you had to verbally communicate and be in tune when moving both large and small objects. The old “My left … no the other left!” is something burned into my memory now, and of course saying “To me, to you!” while thinking how the Chuckle Brothers did this for so many years will be a puzzle to the day I die.
The crazy physics is yet another massive component that drives the comedy and tragedy in Moving Out 2 as it was in the original. But now with more level setups, layouts, and objects, this is only magnified to bring more joy and terror to gamers. It’s the same old formula, and not a lot needs to be changed here. The old saying “If it isn’t broke, then maybe don’t fix it” really applies here and it’s good as the developers have had the time to snazzy up the level design and throw in a few new ideas.
There are now levels that are the opposite of the formula, where instead of moving out, you’re moving in. You’ll be tasked with unloading the lorry of goods, and setting up the house as instructed, placing all relevant items in the correct locations. So, no sofa in the bathroom, toaster in the kitchen and no swimming pool, etc. It’s a simple, yet fun twist and does change things up a bit, making it more akin to something like 2021’s Unpacking, where you need to use logical thought, reasonable deduction, and quick thinking to set up a home, in the least destructive way possible. Again, there are various mash-ups of this setup, with certain levels tasking you to set up and move everything into a home via a massive canon, adding yet another layer of tactical thinking and placement to your actions.
There are so many new mini-games that left me absolutely buzzing, as they required the same level of skill and functions as the main game, yet nicely tuned the objectives in interesting ways. From shooting hoops, catching falling objectives and… moving a sofa over narrow walkways and past gusts of wind level. Pretty much all of them were fun and a nice break between the brutal and immense moving action that happened before. But even better is the number of unlockable goodies you can find by beating mini-games with high scores and finding secrets in certain levels. It’s an amped-up version of the original game’s take on unlockable goodies, with there being more of them, in more places, meaning you’ll always want to keep an eye on your surroundings and be pleasantly surprised when you do discover them.
Moving Out 2 just gives you more of what was great from the first game, with a higher number of fun mini-games, unlockable goodies and just the same level of wacky physics-based mayhem.
However, my only gripes came from the lacklustre solo mode, and the inclusion of F.A.R.T rankings, where levels can only be played if you have a certain ranking. I do get the ranking system is there to encourage replaying and beating previous levels with a higher score, but when certain levels are as tricky, or just downright irritating, then you’ll be forgiven for feeling some displeasure when you’re forced to stop and told you need to get better.
Now Moving Out and Moving Out 2 are meant to be played with friends, so I get this is why solo mode isn’t as engaging and feels a little lonely. But I did wish there would be something here to fine-tune the solo experience and get people invested when they don’t want the hassle of mingling with others. Yet in Moving Out 2, you can finally play with other people online, which is a massive bonus and means you don’t need to force anyone over to play with you at home.
Overall?Moving Out 2 is more of what you loved before, but with an expanded scope and scale. It has the same great level of insanity, physics-based mayhem on offer, super sweet, charming presentation and just lots more fun stuff including a ton of unlockable content. While not everything works for some of the level mechanics, including the annoying animal AI, and tricker level designs aspects, I can’t deny the core gameplay is ultra fun with friends, and the sheer scope of crazy level setups, colourful scenarios, unlockable content, and all the fun minigames really do make Moving Out 2 a splendid sequel that’s worth picking up!
Unless you’re one of the people whose relationships were ruined by the original, then I would say … check it out anyway. It might just mend it!
++ Same great moving mayhem and co-op fun
++ Lots more creative, and varied level design
+ More fun minigames, unlockable content and more crazy levels
- Some downright annoying new mechanics
- Level ranking can kill the pacing
- Solo mode is still underwhelming
A review code for Moving Out 2 was kindly provided by publisher Team 17 for the purpose of this review.
