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Moving Houses is a perfectly normal game about packing your belongings. You have a truck for your boxes and you need to get ready to move into your new home. It’s very cosy. The music playing while you’re packing up all of your bungalow’s rooms is very soothing and pleasant. But if it was all sunshine through the clouds, I wouldn’t be writing a Moving Houses review.

The paintings are dropping off the walls, the garage door slams behind you, and there’s certainly something wrong with your constantly expanding house. I hope you enjoy a bit of psychological horror mixed with the reverse of Unpacking, because that’s exactly what you’ve found.

A quick content warning before you start reading: There is a nursery in this game, and images of a baby. There are also sounds of a baby crying. If you find any of this distressing, this might not be the game for you.

Story – How to Activate Your Fight or Flight 101

Moving Houses doesn’t give you much in the way of a straightforward narrative. But, that only adds to the eerie atmosphere. What starts as a typical task – packing your belongings – slowly reveals a more distressing undercurrent. At first, you’re under the impression that you’re moving out on your own. There’s one knife, one fork, one spoon… But as the game progresses and more photos appear in the rooms and hallway, the cracks in that assumption start to show. Why are you doing this alone? Who else lived here?

Each room tells its own story, one that you piece together through objects and shifting surroundings. It’s less about a fully formed plot and more about the shadows left behind. The slowly expanding house, paired with the family photos that seem to multiply, makes it feel like you’re uncovering something darker beneath the surface.

While the developer (Gordon Little) might leave these clues ambiguous, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something deeply wrong had happened in this house long before I started boxing up belongings. There’s a creeping sensation of loss or tragedy. I found myself questioning more than just the moving furniture. The story is like the reverse of Unpacking, with each item you touch hinting at a past you’d rather not uncover.

Gameplay – There’s Only So Fast You Can Pack

While Moving Houses may look like a simple physics-based game, the actual mechanics can be a bit clunky. For starters, your character doesn’t exactly move like a human – more like a slightly oversized puppet. I found myself constantly bumping into furniture, counters, and doors as I tried to complete the packing tasks. The living room was so tightly packed that it became a battlefield. Not that the displacement of that room matters much later. But, by the time I was done running around, the seating arrangements were completely out of place.

Speaking of doors, I ran into an odd glitch with the front one. After I finished packing the kitchen, the door would appear open but be closed when I tried to walk through it. I had to open it again, causing this strange double-door mirage before I could actually step outside.

The worst part? If I didn’t immediately leave after opening it, the door would shut again on its own. Before that, I’d been able to leave the door wide open without issue. It’s clearly a bug, and hopefully, the dev will patch it soon. But if it happens to you, rest assured your game isn’t broken – just your patience!

Developer Gordon Little has confirmed this bug has been fixed!

It’s Not All Furniture Minefields

Despite these mechanical quirks, there’s an odd tension that builds during the gameplay. Even though the scares start off relatively tame – think footsteps, creepy music, or the occasional jump scare – there’s an underlying sense of urgency.

Strangely, packing a room felt like the safest thing I could do, yet I couldn’t stop myself from rushing through it. Maybe it was the creeping dread, or perhaps just the knowledge that the house had other plans for me. Maybe it was the hype to write my Moving Houses review.

Audio and Visuals – I Hated Packing the Radio

Moving Houses manages to lull you into a false sense of security with its deceptively beautiful atmosphere.

The night sky is especially breathtaking, a serene moment of calm that almost makes you forget the horrors waiting inside the house. Standing by the moving truck, gazing up at the stars, was the only place I felt truly safe. But don’t be fooled. Beneath the peaceful exterior lies a game ready to shake you to your core. I hope that’s come across enough in my Moving Houses review.

Visuals – A Home Too Perfect to Be Trusted

The visual design of Moving Houses is strikingly realistic. The house and items you’re packing look like they could have been plucked straight out of The Sims – it’s all very cosy and homey at first. The level of detail really sells the idea that this is just a normal packing game. That is, until the furniture starts doing… Less normal things.

For fans of dark and cosy aesthetics, this game’s charm might be hard to resist. However, once the eerie happenings start, the shift is a bit jarring. The shadows, in particular, didn’t quite land for me. They felt too generic, lacking the subtle menace that would make them more impactful. I think with a little more blending and finesse, they could be much more terrifying. That said, it’s hard to explain their full effect without giving too much away in my Moving Houses review!

What really caught me off guard was the overlay-style jump scares. They sound simple, but they hit with an unnerving intensity. I wasn’t expecting a jump scare involving a real estate agent’s smiling face to make me want throw my controller, but here we are. These sudden visuals are strangely terrifying in their contrast to the mundane task of packing, and somehow, they manage to be both surreal and deeply disconcerting. It’s the kind of scare that sticks with you because it feels so out of place, yet so perfectly timed.

Audio – When Silence Becomes Your Worst Enemy

The game truly excels in the audio, and I need to highlight this in my Moving Houses review. At first, the music is calming, providing a comforting backdrop as you pack up your life. The soundtracks play softly in the background, carried by radios scattered throughout the house, making the task of packing feel peaceful and cosy. I found myself delaying packing the radios just to keep the music playing for as long as possible. Once the radio goes silent, though, the atmosphere changes drastically. The house’s silence is heavy and unnatural, amplifying every creak, footstep, and distant sound, making the quiet moments feel far more ominous than they should.

What really sets the audio apart is its masterful timing. From the faint cries of a baby to the sharp, unexpected slam of a door, the developer perfectly places every sound effect to make you jump. He strikes just when you think you’ve got a handle on the game’s rhythm – then suddenly, you find yourself thrown off balance. The cries and slams aren’t just random noises, though; they come at moments that heighten the tension, making even the most routine actions, like packing a box or walking into a new room, feel fraught with anxiety.

It’s the kind of audio design that keeps you on edge throughout the game. You begin to anticipate sounds, expecting a scare with every creak of the floorboards or flicker of the lights. But even when you think you’re prepared, the sounds can catch you off guard. They create a sense of unease that lingers long after each scare, reminding you that, in Moving Houses, silence is just a prelude to the next alarming moment.

Verdict

Moving Houses is a mix of cosy-ish simulation and psychological horror, delivering an experience that’s both calming and disquieting. The idea of packing up your home seems simple enough, but it quickly turns into something far more sinister. You must remember that Steam markets Moving Houses as a game about “moving on,” but I don’t think any of us truly understood the weight of those words.

The game excels in creating an eerie atmosphere, especially with its visual design. The realistic items and charming environments lull you into a false sense of security, only for the house to slowly reveal its true, horrifying nature. Moments like packing up the radio and facing the silence afterward are simple yet effective in building tension.

However, the shadows and more obvious visual scares could use a bit more work. They didn’t quite have the impact aimed for, feeling too repetitive to truly scare. That said, the scares that do hit are terrifying. Maybe not to the veteran Psychological-Horror gamer, but I’m a cosy/dark cosy gamer and they Got. Me. Good.

Moving Houses is a game that succeeds in delivering unsettling moments wrapped in a deceptively cosy package. However, the gameplay’s rough edges and occasional visual missteps hold it back from being truly great. I’m giving it a score of 7/10 for my Moving Houses review. It’s perfect for gamers who don’t mind a bit of clunkiness alongside their psychological scares.

Looking for other games? Check out our Shadows of Doubt Review or read my piece on the Best Witchy Games to Play in 2024 to find some more supernatural fun.

Alternatively, you can join the discussion over in our Facebook community or tweet us on Twitter about your favourite moments in Moving Houses!