Moving Out (Xbox One) Review

Becoming a certified F.A.R.T. (Furniture Arrangement and Relocation Technician) has never been easier! Join Smooth Moves removal company's ragtag crew as you 'move out.' The goal is the de-furnishing of other people's property and the game is destruction and relocation. After a short training level, players can get stuck in straight away. There's no need to worry about potentially damaging the customer's belongings, they signed a waiver after all.

The amount of well-placed and funny sarcasm in here is much appreciated. Aesthetically this game is pleasing, with bright and colourful visuals coupled with bouncy music, which helps tie together the humorous script which is full of jokes. It makes for a fun experience that can be enjoyed alone or with up to three more players. The controls are somewhat difficult to use or deliberately fiddly, but that seems to be in pursuit of a looseness that enhances experiences in games such as Overcooked. In fact, without this loose character control, it would make this way too simple.

The gameplay involves controlling a character that is in charge of moving certain items out of someone's property, and each level challenges you to do this within a certain timeframe. These items have to be moved into a lorry which is placed at a set position around the property in each mission, and only once every marked item is inside the lorry is the level complete. As for the local co-op offers, these are a whole world of fun.

Instead of working against one another, you have to co-operate with your companions to get every item onto the moving truck. The game changes the variables on certain items for the co-op, meaning that larger items will need to be lifted by more people now, and players can work out a strategy to empty a lot as fast and effective as possible, it ups the stakes in such an ingenious way that it's almost like a whole other game.

The level select is set up as a hub map where players control the lorry that must be filled during the levels, and it can be driven to different buildings and areas that contain the different levels. It also allows for a fair amount of destruction with things like the football field which can be dismantled, or being a menace and pushing other cars into the river, which is surprisingly entertaining. The game's progression through the levels is linear, with each new property becoming available upon completion of the preceding level. Once a level is cleared players will unlock bonus objectives, which can be completed by replaying the level.

This can be done a number of times with new objectives to fulfil, such as 'break all the windows' or 'break no windows.' Depending on the level, there may also be different obstacles. That could be a swimming pool requiring couches to be thrown over in order to move them out, a curious chicken, or a very angry tortoise. It's important to note that levels are ranked on the time taken to complete them, forcing players into a frenzy at times, with tight limits for gold medals. Replaying levels with different groups of friends aiming for different medals adds lots of replayability.