Moving Out 2 Review

Many of you would agree that renting in 2023 has its fair share of challenges and irritations. One of the more stressful factors of being in the rental game is moving all your accumulated crap from one house to the next. Doing this once is taxing enough, but leases end, situations change, and sooner or later, you’ll be doing the packing dance all over again. Back in 2020, Melbourne-based team SMG Studio boldly turned the widely loathed activity into a fun, multiplayer party game. Three years on, and the landlord is looking to sell the place to an interstate buyer for a tidy profit, so grab your tape, boxes, and markers, Moving Out 2 is here.

If you’re new to the series or haven’t played the original since the lockdown times, the core premise of Moving Out and this sequel is simple; take all of the items that are spread out across each level and load them into your moving truck in the shortest time possible and by any means necessary. Like other chaotic co-op games like Overcooked, teamwork and cooperation are essential, but screaming pivot at each other and laughing at the sight of an anthropomorphic high-top shoe carrying a goat are far more likely.

Once again filling the gloves and crack-exposing jeans of a hardworking F.A.R.T (Furniture Arrangement and Relocation Technician), it might be time to ask your cardboard boss for a raise because your workload has almost doubled. Dwarfing the original game’s 30 levels, Moving Out 2 offers a total of 57 jobs to tackle, and to say that they’re more varied is an understatement. Not content with just banging around the suburbs, these levels are also divided up into three other dimensions, each with its distinct theme and set of gimmicks.

Come on now cow, please cooperate 

Packmore provides the classic experience, with couches and kitchen appliances aplenty, while the other three locales mix up the formula like a moving company “mixes up your delivery address.” Middle Folkmore takes you into a fantasy setting of castles and magic, with portals connecting distant platforms and floating islands daring you to chuck heavy objects between them. The futuristic Pactropolis City is filled with flying cars and helpful robots, bringing battery-based puzzles and cloud-clearing vacuums. Lastly, Snackmore is a bright, colourful, edible workplace with wall-destroying jawbreakers and convenient conveyor belts. Each world poses a new challenge to overcome and a visual shakeup, resulting in the increased number of levels feeling fun instead of drawn out.

While I found myself grinning like an idiot as each new mechanic was introduced, not all gimmicks are created equal. The vast majority are winners, with a special mention to the ludicrously entertaining fans that blow you and the cargo around the stage, but certain elements arrive at their destination damaged. Levels that include farm animals that can escape from the delivery area and others that have you using heavy batteries to operate doors that have a charge that would make an old iPhone blush tip the scales from fun to frustrating. Luckily, these are but a handful and the rest of the puzzling missions are a blast.

The moving in levels that flip the script and task you with schlepping beds and barstools into a house return from the first game, alongside a range of new minigames like score and time attack. From catapulting gumdrops into a giant basketball hoop to smashing delicious lollipop targets, these detours are hectic, hilarious, and fit well with the established formula.

Those who move together, shower together

The additional challenges attached to each level are back with a vengeance from the original. Every mission comes standard with a passing time and an advanced time, incentivising teamwork and speed, but several extra conditions will also be unlocked once you complete the level for the first time. These cheeky objectives range from avoiding breaking glass, breaking every pane of glass, packing non-essential items into the truck and uncovering secrets like an angry goose hiding in a box. Some objectives feel like a chore and step away from the fun, but most are quite clever, and some are pretty tough. Not only do these fun side activities provide an added layer of replayability to each level, but it also ties nicely into progression.

Completing objectives will reward you with stars, and collecting a certain number of stars will raise your F.A.R.T level. Sections of each map will be locked off until you reach a certain F.A.R.T level, with the roadblocks cleverly placed in a way that will bounce you around between the dimensions, ensuring that you’re never doing the same thing in the same place for more than a few back-to-back levels. I comfortably collected enough stars to hit the credits by achieving the base times and hitting the odd extra objective, so you’re not forced to replay levels. Still, you’ll want to simply because they’re enjoyable.

Hidden throughout select levels and in the HUB world are character crates that unlock new movers and style crates that unlock alternate outfits for the hardworking haulers. Moving Out 2 brings back many popular characters from the original, such as the wonderful toaster head, while also introducing a range of excellent newbies, my favourite being the aforementioned high-top shoe. Whimsical, wonderful. There are 33 characters to collect, and each one can be toggled to use a wheelchair, a feature that carries over from the first game.

Many of the levels are creative, cute and challenging all at once

While sitting elbow-to-elbow with friends is still my preferred method, Moving Out 2 introduces online co-op for up to four players. The addition of online multiplayer is excellent, further improved by the rock-solid performance while utilising the feature. Playing with a full roster of four players (where the game is at its best), I didn’t experience a second of lag or any dropped frames. That’s indicative of the game as a whole actually, as it ran smoothly from start to finish. The sequel keeps the original’s visual style and quirkiness, but the polish level far exceeds its predecessor.

The gameplay of Moving Out 2 will appeal to just about everyone, and the game’s excellent suite of accessibility options will ensure that they can all enjoy playing it as well. Building on the great foundation from the first game, the sequel offers a bevy of amazing, toggleable settings that snap furniture in place, extend the time limit, make two-player items light enough to be lifted by a single player, change the font to be dyslexia-friendly and heaps more. For a party game to be this accessible is extremely commendable and should be used as a benchmark for all others in the genre.

Final Thoughts

It would be all too easy for a co-op party game sequel to be more of what came before, but Moving Out 2 takes it far further. Almost doubling the content on offer, SMG Studio went the extra mile to make it all worth playing, whether you got around the first game or not. New locations and level gimmicks warrant the added play time, and the game’s great pacing keeps you from burning out. A handful of ideas that undoubtedly sounded great on paper don’t quite translate, resulting in some frustration, but luckily their numbers are few. It feels odd to say this, but I’m thankful that the Aussie devs kicked us out and made us move again.

Reviewed on PS5 // Review code supplied by publisher

Click here for more information on WellPlayed’s review policy and ethics