Today I suggest fighting existential anxiety with a cozy and soothing unpacking simulator - a minimalist puzzle game where you spend three to five hours (or more…) neatly taking things out of boxes after a move and arranging them in a new apartment. Your playtime, I suspect, depends entirely on how feral your urge is to sort books by height and organize socks by color. The game works especially well if the ability to neatly fold a pajama set, tuck it under a pillow, and then place a heating pad under a blanket triggers a warm and fuzzy feeling of control over the boundless ocean of surrounding chaos for you.

For such minimalist gameplay, “Unpacking” does a surprisingly good job of revealing the protagonist's character and life story. It even packs (pun intended) a few unexpected plot twists! One of them hit me profoundly while I was trying to cram a truly astronomical number of bras into a dresser - no other game has ever shocked me with a narrative turn while I was digging through someone’s (clean) laundry :)

Some levels were tricky due to my personal experience. One item left me utterly bewildered; I dragged it all over the apartment - it didn't fit the kitchen, it looked wrong in the bathroom... what is it?! In a fit of frustration, I messaged my friend, who had already beaten the game. I told him I was totally in deepest despair because this one stupid awkward rice cooker is trolling me and doesn't fit anywhere!!!
"Rice cooker?" he laughed. "That’s a game console, dummy."

A few stressful moments aside, the game wraps you in the feeling of being cradled and promises that if you work hard, fold your socks neatly, go to bed on time, and do your morning stretches, everything will eventually be okay… That’s not necessarily true, but you really want to believe it sometimes.