Get Packed: Fully Loaded [Xbox]

Developed by Moonshine Studios, Get Packed: Fully Loaded is a furniture-removal game that originally released on Stadia in 2020, before making its “Fully Loaded” launch on consoles earlier this year. A salt-mining company has taken over the small town of Ditchlington, and your company: Last Ditch Removals, must get everybody all packed up and ready to go - although things take a turn as you move on to bigger jobs - with more risk, leading you to cause a whole mess along the way. There are twelve playable characters, with four of them available in the beginning, and more being unlocked as you progress, or by achieving certain tasks. Each character has additional heads and costumes that can be swapped out before you begin playing, with these being unlocked over time (including a turkey head à la Joey in Friends).

There’s Local and Online modes, with local being able to be played in Campaign or Versus - but with the option of playing alone or with up to a total of four people. Within Campaign, there are other level types available too, with the standard campaign mode, a Destruction mode and a Time Attack being available within each level. Online is one mode, where you’ll wait in a lobby for a total of four players able to join in. Consisting of five stages plus an epilogue, each with three levels - your aim is to achieve three stars for completing each level, as well as ticking off all the items on your checklist, whether they be to smash all of the windows, pack a parked car or wrangle a feisty cat into the delivery truck.

It’s visually very similar to another packing game that was released last year, Moving Out, with both having the same general idea with some key differences. Get Packed is a lot more physics-based, with wacky controls - and ideally suited to playing in a group with up to four players, as the 3:30 time limit remains constant regardless of how many players are contributing, and it makes things far more manageable with multiple people going after all of the necessary items. Levels are well varied, and the selection of costumes and cosmetic changes for your characters head are decent - giving you the ability to tweak your look. The soundtrack is pretty great too, with tunes that evolve depending on the level settings, such as the ‘Doswell’ level towards the end.

There are conveyor belts that lead to giant industrial shredders, as well as cars and forklifts that drive dangerously (and well over the speed limit), to act as a hazard as you try to ferry items from the buildings to your removal van. You’ll also come across ‘enemies’ in later levels that will do their best to absolutely get in your way, from Guards in the museum that will chase after you shouting “no!” whilst trying to manhandle you and retrieve items you’ve stolen, to the countless vehicles making a hazardous path between you and your truck.

It can feel really frustrating at times when you’re trying to pack things onto the van, as trying to get yourself back off the van will often lead to items being dragged off with you. Of course, you can always choose to send the van away if you’re truly trapped, and wait for you to return before continuing to pack, but this wastes a significant amount of your very valuable time. Similarly, there is a distinct ‘no-go’ line around the perimeter of the map, that items can bounce beyond, leaving them out of your reach forever, which can easily flip a level from looking promising to being a definite fail, if the item was of a decent value. Some items feel too breakable as well, which can lead to diminished rewards and a huge amount of exasperation - as this will frequently happen even when you feel like you’re being as careful as you can.

All of this combined can make it feel like the game is really going against you, whilst equally making things feel odd at times when you easily nab three stars seemingly with complete luck. It’s fun, but definitely more than just a bit frustrating - but this is helped greatly by having multiple people to play with. Overall, this is more of a family-friendly party game than it is a single player experience, despite being able to be played that way, so if you’ve got people you want to play this with, you can pick it up £16.74 on Xbox Store.

In the end, we decided to give Get Packed: Fully Loaded the Collecting Asylum rating of 7.5/10.

Have you played Get Packed: Fully Loaded yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thank you to Coatsink for the Get Packed: Fully Loaded Xbox review code!