Tidy Up Together Review (PC)

I swept the dirt from my shoulders and let out a deep, deep sigh, fully aware that I had just signed along the dotted line to fulfill another promise—another mess, and another chance to lose sleep over a thousand bits and pieces that should have been neatly arranged. It wasn’t all that long before that I had mopped up the previous spill—a video rental store, a wine cellar, and a magical arcane library, naturally. And so, waltzing into an Adventurer’s emporium of dazzling swords and wondrous artifacts wasn’t a mesmerizing thing. The fatigue had already settled in, and I knew that, in order for me to truly appreciate the world, I’d need to put in a lot of legwork. Tidy Up Together wanted me to take stock and organize its clutter, but I couldn’t decide if I genuinely wanted to oblige, or if I wanted to cash my final paycheck and walk back home.

If Tidy Up Together had released, I don’t know, three or four months before Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library, then I would probably have a lot more to say about it. The truth is, though, that Librarian has cast quite the shadow over the “cozy” genre as of late, and has therefore become the latest trend that everyone is looking to imitate. It’s an easy idea to mirror, too, given that it is quite literally about, well, organizing products in numerical and categorical order. This store just happens to be filled with swords and other fantasy-like objects. The point of the game, however, remains the same: to return thousands of items to their original locations in the store, and to unlock a couple of upgrades along the way to make your job a little less daunting.

Given that there is a market for these types of games, it wouldn’t be fair to talk down on Tidy Up Together and brush it off as “just another Librarian clone.” Oh, it is the same game, as is it a game that borrows most of the same elements and gameplay mechanics. Case in point, the game rewards you for putting items into their correct locations with various upgrades—a perk that, similar to Librarian, allows you to hold more items, locate shelves quicker, and increase your speed. Again, though, the process is entirely dependent on a single thing: patience. If you lack the patience to put away over a thousand items, then there’s a chance that you’ll struggle to sample that post-game nectar.

There are a couple of additional things that give Tidy Up Together that extra spring in its step. As the title implies, you can tackle the de-cluttering experience with a friend. It doesn’t add a lot of weight to the journey I’ll admit, though it does make the process a little less boring. But that’s not all that it offers. In addition to its co-op mode, Tidy Up Together also features a jam-packed campaign that accommodates three locations, fourteen categories, and somewhere in the vicinity of 10,000 objects. It also includes skins, customizable characters, and a score sheet that, while completely unnecessary, documents your time. So, quite a lot of material, all things considered.

Of course, if you had high hopes of getting your hands a little dirtier in this store, then I almost hate to break it to you, but even with the cosplay elements and rich cultural artifacts, Tidy Up Together is still the same basic gig as the others of its kind. The point of it, much like your average organizing sim, is to switch off, recline and unwind as you gradually replenish the stock and sprinkle a little post-cleanup pizzazz on the bottom shelf. It’s grueling, but it’s also satisfying work that, as time passes by, becomes a lot easier to juggle, especially when you unlock new nodes on the skill tree, complete categories, and return one of the three stores to their original condition.

Story-wise, there isn’t a lot here that gets the cogs in your brain ticking. It’s a little lazy, even, in that it tells you of a rampaging wizard who, for some reason, has made an unnecessary decision to blitz through your store and reduce it all to rubble, and that you need to mop it all up. The lightbulb moment? You also have the opportunity to unleash your inner magical power, which, of course, is the ability to, you know, clean a little more efficiently. To tell you the truth, it doesn’t go a lot deeper than that. The store is in tatters, and it’s your job to clean it up, brick by brick, sword by sword. Again, not a lot to say here.

As I said, Tidy Up Together is a small part of a larger wheel—a community, if you will, that clearly has a soft spot for these types of cozy experiences. It doesn’t go above and beyond to deliver a brilliant experience, but it provides everything that you could need and want from a genre that is, quite simply, built around a rather dull pastime. With a friend, it’s a little cozier, but the fact still remains: it’s busy work that doesn’t get your blood pumping or your heart racing. Still, if you, too, have a soft spot for Librarian-like organizing sims, then you will more than likely love shoveling through this store of global peculiarities.

Verdict

Tidy Up Together might not be the swinging scythe of cozy organizing sims, but it is a genuinely enjoyable one that, while still a branch on a densely populated tree, has all of the elements of a likable time-burning exercise that can keep you and a friend busy for hours. With multiple locations, thousands of objects, and a good variety of upgrades to shovel through, Malum Games delivers a to-the-letter affair that should, with any luck, give you enough to write home about.

Of course, there is a burning question here that needs to be addressed: how much more can the sub-genre produce before it loses its charm? Given that we have had four Librarian-inspired games in the last month or so, it does beg the question of whether or not the concept has had more than its fair share of time in the spotlight. It seems only time will tell. In any case, I think we can all agree that Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library has made something of an impression on the cozy sphere. The question is, how many more gallons of milk can it squeeze from the udder before it loses its value and begins to curdle?