The set up given at the beginning and gameplay makes me think of a more grim version of Unpacking. The mechanic definitely has the potential to tell a compelling story, but unfortunately it'd need more effort put into the writing to make it feel more like we're learning about different episodes of the hero's life.
Perhaps being able to interact with the items through a dialogue tree to find out more about them if they seem interesting based on the introductory description would be a good way of expanding it?
The item description text overflowing and covering other descriptions certainly took away from the experience too.