I’ve tried to play Stacking for the past two weeks. Even over the long holiday weekend, I just couldn’t bring myself to loading it up. I’m not sure if it’s my computer not being up to par with requirements (I’ve been too lazy to check) or if it’s just the game that doesn’t appeal to me. Either way, I was a little disappointed.

I first heard about Stacking from MPR’s Top Score podcast by Emily Reese. (I have fallen behind on the podcast itself since I don’t work out at the gym any more and that’s when I would listen to it, but I digress.) It’s been one of those titles that I had a slight interest in, but was content to wait until it was released in a Humble Bundle, so of course I jumped on it when I saw it in the Double Fine Bundle.

The main theme behind Stacking is unique, I felt, because of its use of Russian matyroshka dolls (the wooden nested dolls). You play as the “runt” or the smallest doll. While other, larger dolls, tend to pick on you for your size, it’s actually an advantage because you can nest yourself inside of larger dolls. The larger dolls each have a special move, like seducing, slapping, burping, charging, and so on. It also makes it a bit weird when you can talk to the larger dolls, then nest yourself inside of them and take control over them like a parasite. I am wondering if there’s some larger message that I would have found out if I had been able to play through it longer.

The story, from what I could tell, is about a family whose sole breadwinner is the father. He tells the family that they should be coming into some money soon because he found work with a wealthy employer, except he never returns. The mother is forced to give her children up for labor – all except for the runt. They receive a letter from the eldest son (I’m assuming because of his size as one of the larger dolls) asking for help, so little runt rushes out to help his siblings.

The vintage-esque theme between the old-fashioned slide reels for the cutscenes, sepia-toned color palette, music, and even the dolls’ “clothing” styles help set the mood and era of the game. I found the cutscenes were overly long, especially the intro, because by the time I was allowed to play, I had already settled back to watch a movie. I also found myself getting a little nauseated trying to play the game. I’m not sure if it’s because my computer isn’t up to the game’s requirements or if that is just how the camera has been coded (I had a similar problem with Guild Wars 2 and I wasn’t the only one). Either way, it was very difficult to play in bite-sized chunks (ala Costume Quest) because I wasn’t sure when I’d run into a cutscene or find a solution to the current puzzle (more like a “quest”). There were also no visible save points so I stopped where an auto-save would make sense like after a cutscene or finishing a puzzle.

I felt the game has potential and maybe it was another case of Costume Quest where I just needed to give it more time, but I’ve unfortunately already lost interest. I may try it again when I finally get the funds to build a new gaming rig to see if it really is hardware issues, but that will be out a ways. I would say this is worth a try if you are interested in puzzle-type games with a light sense of humor. If you are a completion-ist, you can stack into dollsets which are sets of 3, I believe. There are also silly things like inhabiting a butler doll and going around slapping 20 other dolls because that is its special skill. An example of a bit of humor and silliness available in the game. Another completion-ist task is finding all of the possible solutions to the puzzles as there are multiple ways to advance. Normally I’m amused by such things and would happily pursue them, but again I think just the difficulty I had with playing it for prolonged periods of time put me off of the game.