2021 in review: The most moving game of the year was about moving Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. 2021 in review: The most moving game of the year was about moving Think outside the box. Feature by Tom Phillips Deputy Editor Published on 29 Dec 2021 33 comments Hello! Over the next few days we're going to be going back over some of our favourite games and moments and themes and whatnot from this very strange year. We hope you enjoy looking back with us! This Christmas I'm going back to the house where I grew up. It's been more than 15 years since I moved out, and so it is now very definitely my parents' house and not my own - but part of me will always think of it as home. No one enjoys moving house, but I've wondered whether having that childhood address for so long is part of why I hate the idea of moving so much. Moving is a huge disruption. It means putting life and work and money on hold. It means setting up the internet again. But packing up and then unpacking somewhere new is a fact of life, and something we all have to put up with as circumstances change. Work or schools change, jobs change, families change. These changes are so often coupled with a new address. Sometimes, the only thing you can control is what you take with you. Watch on YouTube I remember my first move, to uni, with just a car-load of old possessions plus a new set of crockery from Morrisons. I didn't spend long choosing what to take - it was more about the sense of freedom for what I could leave behind, a need to shed many of the childhood belongings I still retained. Seeing those memories replicated so simply and beautifully in Unpacking, as its protagonist moves through their life, made it my personal game experience of the year. It has its own, subtle story to tell - and does so brilliantly through gameplay - but it's the stories it chimes with that really make it stick. Unpacking is as simple as games come - taking possessions out of cardboard boxes and finding them a fresh home. But as Malindy wrote so perfectly in Eurogamer's Unpacking review, it's also the story of the items people take along with them, and the life changes which prompt those decisions, which drive your curiosity forward. How much can you learn from a person by their university room? It's a time of life defined by hastily-bought posters Blu-tacked over walls. What about when you have to share spaces with others? Strangers? Lovers? What about when you have to take a step back? Unpacking's genius is its simplicity - without anything more complicated to do, it's impossible not to ruminate on how the game doles out items and prescribes the limits on where they can be placed. It is sometimes hilarious, and sometimes heartbreaking. Treasured possessions are lost and refound, hobbies grow and wane. There are various outside influences. There's another sock - and another toy chicken?! Ultimately, Unpacking is a game about the lives we lead via the rooms and houses we live in, filled with possessions which possess so much of us too. Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More Features Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Feature What games get wrong about horses And what they could do about it. 28 Feature Shout out to all the Overwatch supports - where would we be without you? Merci. 55 Latest Articles Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks less than a fortnight after Stadia shutdown GeForce Now preinstalled. 4 Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Genshin Impact Path of Gleaming Jade dates, login event rewards Including other anniversary rewards and how to claim them. Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store