Blue Backpacks first release after the rebranding is a truly heartfelt exploration of the German twentieth century through the eyes of its victims. The German voice actors carry much of its emotional appeal.
The last quarter of 2025 is high tide moment for Blue Backpack and ByteRockers’ games: Their cooperative effort not only brought artistic 2D platformer fighter Constance out on 24 November, but also the contemplative narrative game The Berlin Apartment just a week before, that one in cooperation with PARCO Games from Japan.
While Constance has gotten a significantly bigger portion of the spotlight, mostly due to its genre, the ever-famous Metroidvania, and its clever marketing in the wake of Silksong which has brought it into the online discourse more than once, The Berlin Apartment fully stands on its own merits.
Through the eyes of Dilara, who helps her father Malik renovate a dilapidated apartment in Eastern Berlin in the Covid lockdown year of 2020 while her school is closed, we travel into four different past scenarios that played out in said apartment. Each episode represents a pivotal moment in the history of Germany and Berlin, and the game does not mince words when it comes to the worst parts of the German twentieth century. Packing up a single suitcase under time pressure from the perspective of emigrating Jewish cinema operator Josef in 1933 is the most openly im- and oppressive episode of these, but the silent trauma of Christmas 1945 through the eyes of the way-too-young-to-understand daughter of a Wehrmacht officer and the desperation of her mother can cause chills to the player as well. The two episodes in the German Democratic Republic in contrast play almost lightheartedly, especially the 1989 one, in which two young West and East Berlin residents exchange paper planes over the soon-to-fall Berlin Wall, serves as a fitting opening into the game. Under all the humour and lightheartedness however still lie the struggles of the time, as best seen in the 1967 episode of a writer struggling against the GDR censors, a battle of wits that plays out in the form of a space opera within the walls of the apartment.
Thematically, this German game about the German century hits its marks. How about its German, then? Blue Backpack took great care to find authentic voice actors for the characters. Both in English and German, the voice actors are German natives when you would expect it from the character and second-language learners when you would not, bringing with them the dialects and sociolects of their respective upbringing. Not only does this place the setting refreshingly in the English version, it is also rare to have good dialect representation in German games as well. Of course, these dialects are also used to work in comedic effects like in the form of the 1989 fish Erich, named and modeled after the eponymous GDR leader. But they make sense whenever they are used and bring live not only to the setting, but specifically to the timeframes the game evokes.
The Berlin Apartment succeeds in what many serious games struggle with: Packing serious messages into an emotional and gripping narrative enhanced with competent gameplay taken from an established and popular genre, in this case the ‘Walking Simulator’ or first person narrative adventure.
Games from Germany about the German are not nonexistent; specifically the Paintbucket Games titles Through the Darkest of Times and The Darkest Files come to mind, and they succeeded in their efforts as well. But in the grand scheme, these experiences are still few and far between. And that Blue Backpack, ByteRockers’ and PARCO have succeeded in packing these impressions into a pleasant entertainment product is a cause for celebration.
It is, however, also a prime example for the marketing and/or reception problem artist and writer GiovanH has described provocatively as "a wholesome plane has hit the second cozy tower": With its pastel tones and homely apartment scenario, The Berlin Apartment might look like a cutesy wholesome game at first glance, and indeed it was shown as such at the Wholesome Direct 2025. This does not do the contents of the game justice. And it's not to say that this is a deception or even a willing association done by the developers and publishers, but instead probably more of a trained issue in the reception of the audience. So far however, this does not seem to have curbed the appeal of the game, with over 110 reviews in the first two weeks on steam, 96 per cent of which are positive.
The Berlin Apartment has been released for PC, Xbox and PlayStation on 17 November.
