Packing Life Review

Packing Life is a puzzle simulator developed and published by Aroko Game Studio. I played a lot of Ship, Inc., even got all the achievements, and this game seemed extremely similar to it, so I had to give it a go. Boasting “charming visuals, relaxing gameplay, and a lighthearted story”, let’s see if it’s worth joining yet another soul-crushing shipping company!

You play as Lily, a university student who has just moved into the city and is working at a shipping company to pay bills until schooling is in full swing. As she works, she learns more about how to be self-sufficient, looking towards a bright future while reminiscing about the past.

The story… isn’t good, to be honest. The dialogue isn’t really anything of substance, just the general, mundane talks you’d have with friends and co-workers, which is realistic but isn't really interesting to pay attention to. Also, you have to wait for all the dialogue to be written out, because clicking will advance it instead of showing the whole thing. For one thing, it will cause you to skip dialogue, and as someone who reads fairly fast, this is torture! I already hit the end of what I’m reading long before it’s even finished writing. Even the dialogue itself is flawed, as I spotted some grammatical and capitalisation mistakes. The horror, I say!

For the game graphics, they’re fairly nice to look at. Most cutscenes are told through dialogue boxes and the shadows of Lily and her boss, but the actual workstation looks good. There’s definitely a used look to the table and plastic bins, which really sells that you aren’t the only one working here. The products you box are quite detailed too. There is one boardgame that is bordering on copyright infringement, but it’s fine.

Now, there are two ways to play this game: with or without a timer. With the timer on, you’re racing against the clock to fill in your quota of orders or be forced to stay later than you should. I decided to play without a timer because it felt like it would stress me out more, and because I like to take my time with puzzles.

Anyways, let’s get packing. Items will come in from a bin, and you just have to scan and put them all into the required box, all indicated by the tablet on the top-right of the screen. All products fit within a grid-like system, so no physics mayhem to be had here in this cosy game. Just rotating items to arrange them into an efficient layout. Even if you can pack all the items, at times you’ll also need to account for all the bubble wrap needed to ensure nothing gets damaged during shipping.

That being said, I found the controls to be a little unintuitive. You’d think WASD would be all about rotating an item, right? Nope! “A” and “D” turn the box around, regardless of whether you’re holding something or not. I find turning the box to be unnecessary most of the time, as you have an overhead view to see everything, and you could always just take stuff out to reorganise. It also makes closing the box take a little longer, because it needs to return to the default position. If you’re on the clock, this could literally cost you.

I think the worst is the camera. You can’t be precise with packing unless you’re zoomed in, but then you don’t have access to your entire station, so you have to shift the camera to use the extra space or the bin. That meant that when I was reorganising the box to account for large items, the camera had to move back and forth between areas. Because of this, I started to get physically ill from it all, which made me stop earlier than I wanted to for my first play session. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not feel bad while playing a game. I got used to everything, so it isn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be, but still, it’s not too great.

Once you’re done with packing, it’s time to tape the box shut, place on the required stickers indicated, and ship it. And… that’s pretty much it. Repeat until you reach your quota or until the day ends. You’re paid some money and, after bills, you get to use that cash to buy cosmetic items to freshen up your workstation. There are some nice items, but eh… I didn’t find much I’d want to get (aside from getting an achievement), plus they’re all rather expensive and I’m afraid of finding out whether you can lose or go into debt if you spend too much. Probably not, but those bills could make that possible.

However, you can choose to work on your days off for some extra cash, but weirdly enough, you can only do this three times before you’re legally required to stop that. I guess that’s realistic, but I really do like more money…

Anyways, that is pretty much it for the gameplay, as the main campaign will only last a few hours. Aside from getting new products to pack, there aren’t many changes or new challenges as the days go on. Day 1 isn’t too much different from Day 14, except you might have a fancier workstation and additions to the loading screen.

While there are no glitches I encountered, I just had more issues with the game design. I was rather annoyed that the colours for “Yes” and “No” were red and green, respectively, meaning if you aren’t reading carefully, you’ll hit “No” if you want to exit the game. It’s the little things that really matter when it comes to user experience.

Unfortunately, while I did enjoy playing Packing Life… I think Ship, Inc. is a lot better when it comes to simulating being part of the packaging process. The story is lacklustre, the controls can be fiddly, and you can get nauseous from playing the game. However, it’s still a nice game to play after a long day of work; I just hope you aren’t a packer yourself.