Moving Houses starts out as a nice little game about packing up a house but soon becomes something a little spookier.
Before I get into the actual review of Moving Houses, I’d like to point out that this is a subversive horror game. By that I mean that on the surface it appears to be a simple game about moving house, but there’s actually something scarier going on as the game progresses. The easiest contemporary game to liken this to is Doki Doki Literature Club with its transition from cute dating game to horror visual novel. I personally find it’s best to go into these games knowing as little as possible. So if you simply want to know if Moving Houses fits this bill, it’s safe to say that it does, though it’s more like a mystery than a horror game. If you’re happy to go in knowing a little more, read on.
It presents you as packing up your house to move out, with you having a limitless supply of cardboard boxes and a moving truck to deposit them in. Friendly instructions pop up on the screen and tell you what room to focus on and any new features you should make use of. As you complete rooms, you’ll unlock new abilities such as “run” and “jump”. Honestly, the unlocks should be there from the start, but it’s all part of the presentation of this being a light, cosy game that slowly introduces gaming concepts.
This starts to change though. Knowing this is a scary game of sorts means you’re already looking out for things that aren’t quite right, and Moving Houses plays with this a little bit. At first, things like paintings falling from the wall and lights turning off are all you’ll get, and if I’m honest I was worried that this was going to be incredibly trope heavy.
But then the house changed, with rooms being added and entirely new floors appearing. The first time this happened, I genuinely started second guessing myself and thought I simply hadn’t spotted that door, but then more and more turns up, and the friendly instructions become more passive aggressive, and then overtly aggressive. I loved this part of Moving Houses, and it genuinely felt quite well put together. I was happy to work through clearing out another room just to find out what would happen next. Nothing was specifically scary, but it was uncomfortable as I didn’t know what was coming.
Sadly, the final third of the game is quite a let down. You’ll end up going down into the basement to find a breaker box, but this leads into all sorts of different locations that hint at the overarching story further. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that they are just maze after maze of you trying to find the way out. This could almost be forgiven if it weren’t for the fact that these mazes do that trick of resetting you when you take a wrong turn without telling you, so you could be wandering around lost for ages. I think Moving Houses would only be about an hour long without these mazes, but adding them adds a good thirty minutes onto the run time.
It does eventually come good, with you returning to the house and the plot revealing itself, but I could have done without the endless corridors beforehand. Thankfully, there’s a fun ending to the game, with a fun, slightly unhinged song about what your character has been through before a surprise reveal at the end. No spoilers here, but I quite liked what it did.
Mechanically, the item moving is surprisingly satisfying. I don’t think it’s strong enough to carry a whole game, but I quite liked the “dad game” element of gradually emptying out a room and could have gone for a little more. There’s an unlockable mode to play through the game with more items to pack up, but you’ll still hit the same story, so perhaps it isn’t the strongest selling point. The music was fairly solid too, which helped, along with serviceable visuals that somehow manage to make the house seem unsettling even though nothing is happening. I will say that I think it was much too dark at times, making navigation a pain, especially in those mazes, and the lack of a brightness setting in the menu was noticeable. Still, it isn’t hard to turn up my TVs brightness.
Is Moving Houses the strongest subversive horror game ever made? No, but it is a fun inclusion to a genre that lacks significant offerings. The lack of any actual threat keeps the horror to a minimum, but the mystery and anticipation of what will come next certainly keeps you engaged. Recommending this in part comes down to how much you can put up with endless mazes though. If you can, then this is an easy win, but if not then you might want a little video walkthrough handy if you insist on playing anyway.
Moving Houses is available now for Xbox, PC, Nintendo Switch, and Playstation.
