Hozy Review
Hozy is a cozy game similar in concept to 2021’s Unpacking that’s able to resonate with people who typically don’t connect with the genre since it’s not an endless hamster wheel and the universal experience of moving is extremely relatable.
The controls are intuitive and the gameplay loop is very cozy with a high level of satisfaction since it offers renovations and unpacking in one experience across nine beautiful dioramas. Unfortunately, Hozy doesn't capitalize on the narrative seeds it sowed as the story felt disjointed and devoid of emotion. The experience also often felt contrary to the ethos of the cozy genre as Hozy often hinders the freedom and creativity of the player.
At only around three hours, Hozy is on the shorter side. Sadly the limitations on self expression and lack of variety remove a lot of the incentive to return. Nevertheless, Hozy checks all the essential cozy boxes and unpacks them too in an experience that is a must for fans of the genre or anyone looking to unwind.
7
If you want to see our full review with more nuance, continue reading below or watch the video
HOZY REVIEW
Hozy is a cozy game about lightly rehabilitating a single room in nine different homes without any pressure and minimal objectives. What makes Hozy unique is that in each of the nine dioramas there are two distinct phases: the renovation phase and the decorating phase, both of which are extremely gratifying.
When you arrive at each new location, the game will give you a very short checklist of what needs to be done before you can bring in the moving boxes and unpack. Even without the checklist, you can see what needs to be done just by looking at the room and what tools were brought to the job site. The most common ways that you can bring each space back to life is through collecting trash, mopping the floor, cleaning the windows and painting the walls.
Hozy has all of the cozy essentials. There are no scores, timers or pressure and the experience is full of relaxation, satisfaction and serenity. You begin your cozy home improvement journey with all of the houses covered in white cloth, except for the first one you will visit, which is the artists attic. There is garbage everwhere, the windows are hazy, the walls are in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint and the floor could use a deep mopping.
The controls are minimal, intuitive and with the simple click of a button, you’re getting your first dopamine hit as you grab huge piles of garbage, but you can’t do it all at once or you will drop a bunch of garbage on the way to the bin. There are more restrictions like that in place that force the player to slow down and unwind. Going slow while cleaning and renovating will actually provide a lot more satisfaction as you are able to paint straighter rows or clean the windows with fewer passes.
On the topic of cleaning windows, the audio design in Hozy is beyond reproach. Each diorama has a serene score to put you at ease as well as phenomenal background sound effects that make the experience immersive as the sounds of a lazy summer day are as authentic as can be with dogs barking, birds chirping, kids playing in the distance, cars driving by or the rain gently coming down. However, the star of the show is how cleaning is teeters on ASMR, as you can hear all types of different squeaks from cleaning the window or the spongy sound of the paint roller as it goes up and down the wall.
Every single aspect of cleaning is extremely satisfying and provides a sense of accomplishment as you can see the results in real time. The way cleaning the windows lets in more sunlight or how the floors glow after mopping, how move in ready the space feels after a new coat of paint and how quickly the space becomes liveable as you start to unpack the boxes.
What makes Hozy so engrossing is all of the little details that were taken into account. The ability to light the candles, turn on the radio, open the windows, turn on the fan or how the packing peanuts explode onto the floor as you unpack your items. The visuals are also stunning, most notably are the lighting effects as the sunlight breaks the windows or how a floor lamp drenches the a corner of the room in a soft glow.
Hozy Criticisms
What initially drew me to Hozy was that it had a storyline unlike most cozy games, which are just endless treadmills. There was a beginning point and end point to each level, but also to the entire experience. Unfortunately, Hozy missed a huge opportunity to incorporate a deeper, more meaningful or even more cohesive narrative in a similar way that Unpacking managed to make the experience relatable. The lack of narrative cohesion meant that each level felt disjointed.
Each location was different, but with only nine dioramas, there wasn’t enough variety. From beginning to end, it’s a lot of the same cleaning and painting in familiar cozy locations. The dioramas that stood out were the ones that offered something unique such as a fresh gameplay idea like replacing the floorboards or a new setting like the modern, industrial home with the pool on the balcony.
The entire ethos of the Cozy game genre is to encourage creativity and self expression. In Hozy, the goal is to make the house a home and impart your personality onto each one, but too many times the freedom felt constrained. There were a few rooms that forced you to do renovations like the modern loft and its beautiful polished concrete floor or the cafe with an exposed brick wall full of character. Hozy forces you to cover up both of these with carpet or wallpaper and when it comes to painting, there are only three colors per house, which were usually variations of white, green and orange.
You also don’t have a say in what boxes will arrive when you’re finished renovating and allowing the player to pick a set of boxes depending on their style would have given the player a chance to impart more of their personality. You have the ability to discard items you don’t want to use, but unfortunately, you’re also limited to how many items you can discard, which doesn’t cater to the minimalist demographic, a group that strongly overlaps in the Venn diagram with cozy games.
HOZY FINAL THOUGHTS AND SCORE
In many ways, Hozy feels like a natural evolution of Unpacking, the 2021 indie classic. The big difference is that you have more autonomy with the feel of the space prior to unpacking, there is a satisfying cleaning phase beforehand, the visuals are drastically better and the audio is deeply immersive. Unfortunately, Hozy fails to keep the promises it made as the intriguing narrative ended up feeling disjointed and there were too many constraints on self expression, which is a pillar of the genre.
As a genre outsider, Hozy resonated with immersive gameplay and intuitive controls that kept me hooked from beginning to end. There is a finish line to each room, but you’ll find yourself savouring every minute as you obsess over the perfect placement of every single item. Hozy blends cleaning, renovations, decoration, and unpacking into one satisfying package that deeply taps into our subconsciousness to provide the ultimate warmth and relaxation loop. If you liked Unpacking, you’ll love Hozy as it exudes comfort and coziness.
