Neat! レビュー (PC)

Neat! finds comfort within a ball of thread that we can’t help but continuously pull at—a concept that we know is relatively simple to imitate, but one that we often find ourselves unraveling for hours, nonetheless. Like Unpacking, it prioritizes the little things—the homely touches, the warm ambience, and the small bursts of joy that come with the simple act of putting objects back in their rightful places. It isn’t a new idea that we are blissfully unaware of, but a familiar place that feels like a home away from home. Neat! knows that place, as does it know that, to make a welcoming gesture, you need only an invitation and an acoustic soundtrack, a box of bits and bobs and an empty shelf.

Neat! puts you in the shoes of Molly, an aspiring organizer who, like the majority of her peers, finds comfort in the act of sifting through clutter and rebuilding the smallest of cubbies, one item at a time. As Molly, it isn’t in your job description to repurpose old lots, but to lend a hand to regular people who just want a little more breathing room and a place to rest their head. Boxes of old trinkets and memories fall into your lap, and you, equipped with a meticulously crafted collection of creative ideas, compile the items in an orderly manner. If you happen to learn a few secrets along the way, then you can consider that a bonus.

In a similar vein as Unpacking, Neat! grants you the opportunity to unpack, categorize, and effectively organize various items across a network of homes and businesses. With each contract that you accept, you can use your newfound power to make subtle changes to the environment, whether it means adding the last-minute embellishments in an office space, returning books in an old library, or restocking vast products in a vintage store. Again, it isn’t your job to handle the day-to-day activities. It is your job, however, to step in and make the tenant, shopkeeper, or entrepreneur’s life a little more manageable. Because let’s face it —nobody wants to live, breathe, and work in a chaotic world.

Behind its simple structure is a perfectly harmonious plot that tells the stories of various individuals, some of whom desire a certain degree of Feng Shui in their lives, others of whom share emotional baggage and, consequently, look to you in dire need of a comforting spot to call their own. As a curator of peace and idyllic ideologies, you are given the chance to slip behind the net and to start whittling down their belongings. Mess swallows each room whole, and it falls to you to start removing the tape from each box, and to de-clutter each nook and cranny to re-establish a sense of peace and architectural balance.

Neat! isn’t a game that you need to be well-versed in to understand. As a relaxing, stress-free de-cluttering sim at heart, it strives to create an inviting entry-level atmosphere that will allow you to switch off, unwind, and engage with for several hours. And frankly, that same mantra spreads through most, if not all of the experience. The gameplay is simple and intuitive, and the finer details—the acoustic ambience, the lovably hand-crafted pixel art, and the wholesome interactive touches, for example—all contribute to a beautifully rendered canvas that is an absolute delight to gawp at.

While there is a rather simple game here that doesn’t tread a lot further than Unpacking’s version of a cozy interactive experience, Neat! is a charming indie that clearly gets a lot of things right. With a good variety of rooms, contracts, characters and stories, it thankfully has the weight to counter its lack of gameplay. To add, it takes full advantage of each of its rooms, too, with a mixture of interactive set pieces and original themes, decor and time periods. And honestly, they’re a lot of fun to play around in, too.

Unlike Unpacking—a game in which you gradually progress through a single individual’s journey from childhood to retirement—Neat! provides a few more jobs for you to work on to break up a predictable cycle, with an extensive catalog of businesses, homes, and client-tailored requests that range from setting up a streamer’s gaming space to categorizing various teas, cataloging anthologies to organizing plants. And so, while the core gameplay loop does feel reminiscent of Unpacking, the truth is, it does feature a few extra bells and whistles, job opportunities and perks for you to poke at. And that’s the brilliant thing about it: the fact that it keeps you second guessing the next job.

Of course, the gameplay is all rather straightforward here. In most cases, you receive a handful of items, a box or two, and a checklist of objectives to complete. Firstly, you highlight trash piles or unwanted clutter in the room. After that, you begin transforming the workspace, either by clicking objects, dragging them to their respective spots, or stacking them together to create orderly cubbies that fulfill the requirements of the contract. As you complete a job, you learn more about your clients and, if done correctly, unlock more contracts. It’s as simple as that.

Although there’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about Neat, it does make for a delightfully therapeutic experience that is a lot of fun to work through. Clearly, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel or push the genre to its limits, though it does capture all of the right elements of a wholesome chore core sim. The question is, is it worth stacking above the likes of Unpacking? 

Verdict

Neat! leans into the notion that, if you have the pixel art style, the soothing atmosphere, and enough boxes of clutter to keep your fingers twiddling for hours on end, then you have a good chance of catching the eye of a niche audience. And while it is a rather niche product, it’s also a brilliantly crafted one that gets a lot of things right. With enough contracts, stories, rooms, and objectives to hold your attention for the long haul, it delivers a well-rounded and surprisingly loaded experience that should, with any luck, give the target demographic something to write home about.