Welcome to The Sorting Bureau. We sort clients’ doom-pile boxes into more organised, aesthetically pleasing collections, and thanks to a photographer client, we also take satisfying pictures for our photo album.
Set The Scene
In The Sorting Bureau, you are set up in an office at your desk facing the window. To your right, there’s a set of shelves where your clients’ boxes are stored, and on the left a friendly cat sits upon your desk. The scene is a calm, cosy environment where you read your letters, choose your box, and watch the seasons pass through the window.
Taking Chaos And Creating Order
You start with a few boxes on the shelves, which you can complete in any order. Each box gives you a little information about the client and what is in the box. Your goal is to take the single mixed box and organise the items into multiple boxes depending on the contents. Some want them sorted by type, others by colour, and others by old/new, damaged, etc.
Most levels have you sorting into these boxes; some are prelabelled, while others you get to choose how you sort. Every so often, you get a box to sort onto a sheet of paper in a pleasing manner, then take a photo and add it to your photo album.
This could get repetitive fast, but they have done a great job of keeping the gameplay fresh by changing the type of sorting and how each item appears. One box was full of items to be sorted into new, rusty and damaged rather than colour, size or type. So even though the items repeat, they don’t always go in the same sorting system.
Changing Things Up
In The Sorting Bureau, many of the items to sort repeat, but they have found ways to change things up.
After a few levels, you get introduced to your morning drink. This morning drink helps shape what sort of boxes you’ll have on your shelves that day: a choice of drinks to match what takes your fancy. The boxes can have more small things, metal things or other things depending on what you feel like sorting that day.
The day passes in The Sorting Bureau, and you get a desktop lamp so you can keep working after daylight hours. This gives you the option to choose different office hours, which can also factor into your decision when choosing your daily drink.
This choice is a great addition to the game. Most sorting games you do not get a choice in what you will be doing, just preset levels, whereas here you can tailor the game to your mood.
Ambience
Another great addition to The Sorting Bureau is the accompanying background sounds. The changing seasons give you different weather sounds, birds, and wildlife among the general city ambience. I found one of the storm sounds a little distracting and couldn’t change it, but overall the relaxing ambiences are pleasing. You also get some lovely cat purring sounds if you stroke the cat.
I also love that they took the time to give each item an ASMR sound as you place it that matches the item. This attention to detail is part of what makes the game so pleasing to play.
Playability
The controls are simple drag-and-drop or click-and-throw mechanics, so nothing too complicated. I struggled with the throwing at first, but I soon got the hang of the timing and technique. You can also stack items into preset collections and then take the whole pile to the box in one go.
I found the ability to create piles outside of the box and put them all into the boxes in one pile really helpful. I learnt that pre-sorting piles could affect the replay from the end of each level, making great colour/size/type-order packing. This makes very pleasing short videos to watch back.
Accessibility
Though The Sorting Bureau doesn’t need much accessibility, a few adjustments could help. You can sort piles just by looking at them, but there are no colour-blind settings. The controls are basic mouse clicks, which should work for most people, but I see no controller support. Nevertheless, there are a few settings which I believe will be helpful.
They offer larger text, multiple languages, and the ability to pre-spread the piles to help prevent overwhelm while playing. The throw strength is adjustable, and with several choices for your piles, you can choose what your hand picks up in one go. The audio controls are good, with multiple volume controls for sound effects and ambient audio. This should give you enough control to set the game up just how you like.
Would I Play It Again?
After spending a good amount of time playing The Sorting Bureau, I’ve added it to my favourites list. I find the game relaxing and easy to play, and being able to pick what sort of boxes and time of day I want means I can fit it to my mood.
The levels are short, so I can quickly hop on and play even on my busy days if I need a little break to calm and reset my mind. Though I don’t know how many levels there are right now, it would be easy to add DLC to the game, giving it plenty of room to keep going for years to come.
Platforms: Steam
Publishers: Apelsinka Games
Developers: Apelsinka Games
Played On: Steam
Key Provided By: Keymailer
About the Author
