Originally posted here: https://cultclassiccornervideogames.wordpress.com/2019/01/31/a-story-about-my-uncle-2014-review/

Every now and again I come across a great game that focuses on it’s story instead of combat, such as A Story About My Uncle, which is a game that has no combat, and instead has the player leaping from platform to platform and experiencing the world it has developed.

Told through a father recounting a story told by a father to his daughter, the game follows a young boy who goes to look from his missing uncle Fred. After finding a a mysterious suit that lets you jump incredibly high and far, the main character soon finds himself in another world filled with a strange frog people that he becomes friendly with, along with encountering a few dangers along with the way.

Most of the gameplay involves the grappling hook mechanic, which feels incredibly smooth and satisfying. It’s like a smaller scale first person Spider-Man game. Along with the grappling hook, you can occasionally leap from platform to platform with the help of your suit, and half way through the game, you can get rocky boots that add a rocket jump, giving you some extra help with certain platforms.

Near the end of the game, it can go up in difficulty, and the young audience that this is aimed at might have some trouble getting through it. But the whole game is never unreasonably hard with it’s puzzles.

The game art stands out, and makes up for the games obvious lower budget. It starts out looking nice, but half way through the game, it really shines and shows how gorgeous the game can be. I can definitely see myself using a screenshot or two, or some of the art for this game as the background on my computer. I should also not that the soundtrack is also pretty nice, and compliments the rest of the game really well, really adding to the whole experience.

Every now and again I don’t quite know where to go due to some of the floating rocks you have to swing across not being immediately obvious, taking a moment or two to for me to find them. Sometimes, one of the rocks can be hard to determine how far away they are, leading to a few leaps of faith before getting it right.

There is some replayability in the game, with a few some unlockables both in the form of Time Trials you get after completing the game and collectables tucked throughout the game that give you stuff, including being able to change the color of your grappling hook, an Acrobatic and Adidas mode, along with something called Goat Mode (which is almost to be expected since this game is from the same guys as Goat Simulator after all).

A Story About My Uncle is a fun and pleasant experience the whole way through, and I found myself going back and playing it a second time a while after finishing it. I’d easily recommend this game.

Recommended, but only if you can get it on a sale

A Story About My Uncle feels less like an IP than said IP's DLC, and no, that’s not a shot at its length (although it does falter there in relation to price). What I'm actually referring to is the way the story and world come together; it's more akin to a product that expects baseline knowledge of its gameplay mechanics as you’re put through a series of trials and tribulations without much guidance.

Ah, I suppose that doesn’t do much in terms of clearing up what I mean. Let me try this again- ASAMU is a short adventure centered around a system of parkour and grappling. And because you’re not doing anything uniquely different throughout the title aside from that (compared to a bigger game which would introduce variations throughout), it's spiritually reminiscent of DLC due to narrative add-ons doing just that: creating a separate environment, introducing a new gimmick, and then setting the player off on a quick errand.

Is this a criticism? Yes and no. ASAMU could have done a lot more with the movement puzzles its gameplay focuses on, yet it’s saying something that I wanted more since I found it fascinating. It goes like this- you have the ability to spring, jump, super jump, leap, and grapple. You’re going to have use all of these abilities to traverse the rocky terrain that makes up most of the world. Velocity, jumps, and falls are all crisp, and there was an option by developer Gone North Games to make this purely about movement ala Sonic- that is, have the level layout revolve around darting, bounding, and grappling in a fast-paced environ. Instead, they opted to craft parkour puzzles wherein you use the aforestated powers to plan your traversal across a world with floating stones and platforms. Was this a good decision or bad? In light of their budgetary or time constraints, it was good since it allowed them to focus on one aspect rather than split up the effort, but given that ASAMU should have been longer, there's no denying an alternating schema between the two parts would've spruced things up significantly.

In general, the controls work and respond fine....minus a hitch with the grapple: it operates like the tractor beam from Star Wars in that it locks you into a directional suck once used on an object. The problem with this is you can’t turn or leap at all while you’re zapped, meaning if you target a platform at the wrong angle, there’s a 95% chance you’re going to have to restart as your character will fail to land on it and consequently fall. And yes, it gets frustrating despite the abundance of close save points (and the ability to insta-respawn). The introduction of rocket boots helps alleviate things via giving you a mid-air boost jump, but I don’t think this was intended to be a solution, rather its own feature.

There were a couple of remedies that could have been implemented to overcome this: one, give players directional control, or two, incorporate a ledge grab that causes the protagonist to pull themselves onto a surface even if they come at it at the edge.

Graphically, ASAMU looks solid. Though it kind of sucks that Gone North built it in Unreal 3 given that Unreal 4 came out the same year ASAMU was released, it still looks great for the most part – in-between the blocky roundness of the Xbox 360 and the beautiful polygons of the Xbox One. Texturing isn’t as strong as it could have been, but given that the game is consistently dim, it’s not noticeable, with the exception of NPCs. OMG did they look ugly, and not in a xenophobic way but in an uncanny way. Facial animations (really all animations in general) are particularly jarring.

Outside from your grapple's illumination, the lighting is baked, which was a wise choice. The majority of the title takes place at night and most of the environment’s luminescence comes from these in-game crystals that, if dynamic, would have made things too dark. That being said, ASAMU, as a whole, could have been brighter as it was sometimes hard to see where to go next despite the presence of glyphs indicating as such. I also liked that your character model is small, indicating you’re a child.

With sound, the score is good but not used enough. It plays during the beats that the director wanted it to play, but outside of that it’s mixed in way too quietly, even with max volume settings. The same issue applies to SFX where you get these nicely crafted acoustic accompaniments to your jumps, windfall, landings (LOVE the oomph there), and use of tools, but in general it’s soft. I also would’ve liked a lot more ambience, particularly for the cavern areas.

With voice acting, you primarily have the performance of Walter Ferrero as the narrator, who does a good job at simultaneously explaining what was going on whilst also interjecting his dialogues with other character in the story as well as conversations with his daughter outside. His daughter is also good. The other voice acting, particularly for Maddie and the titular Uncle….your mileage will vary is all I’ll say as I wasn’t a big fan of them personally, though I acknowledge they had script limitations and delivered things as they were told to.

This brings us to the story. ASAMU evidently draws on classic epic poems like the Odyssey and Beowulf, as well as frame stories like The Princess Bride. It details a tale from the narrator’s childhood wherein he ventured into an alternate microcosm in search of his missing Uncle Fred. Because the environments are relatively similar to each other, you don’t have much in the way of an adventurous feel, despite that being the intentions of the devs. It’s also not emotional in the slightest due to the lack of fleshed out characterizations and relationship developments, though I don’t think this was a big intention. That being said, the writing is good insofar as it is does a great job simultaneously narrating what’s going on storywise, providing the protagonist’s inner thoughts, explaining new discoveries/items/mechanics to players, and incorporating the aforestated dialogue, all without coming off as forced or expository. In fact, it was so good I wanted more. There are too many sections where you’ll be walking or running and not have anything but silence, and I feel this was a missed opportunity to include more from the well-done script, even if the package as a whole was lacking in scope.

Overall, I did enjoy my time with ASAMU. It’s a shame that no sequel has been made or will be made (as of the time of this writing) as I think it laid the foundation for something solid to be built off of ala Portal -> Portal 2. While the story lacks an epic or even thrilling feel, and while there were problems with the gameplay like the tractor beam, the physics engine combined with mostly-precise controls made it a fun playthrough. Hopefully this concept is picked up on again in the future.

I got around 4 hours (maybe less, my Steam clock is inaccurate since I was afk for at least 30 minutes), which does not justify the $15.00 asking price. Granted, I didn't look to get all the collectibles since I didn't think they were worth it (they do provide some goodies like new game modes and a different colored grapple beam, but that's nothing substantive). As such, I recommend getting the game on a sale.

First person platforming isn’t attempted often. A Story About My Uncle keeps it basic with grappling, anti-gravity jumping, and various puzzles. The story is fairly simple and doesn’t really mean anything until the very end. A boy is trying to find his uncle Fred. He finds his uncle’s lab where he straps on a weird jumpsuit and takes off to some unknown land. He eventually comes across a species of frog people and a little girl from this village befriends the protagonist.

The jumping is actually quite exhilarating. You jump really high and your character’s hands swing around which make you feel vertigo. The sheer speed and height this game creates is something not really seen in most games. As you make your way across bottomless chasms and dark caves you begin to wonder what all this means. What’s the point? The jumping puzzles get progressively harder to the point of downright frustration. The grapple has three shots. Once these run out you either need to land or you’re falling into the abyss. Later on, you get rocket boots that allow a quick boost if you miss your shot or your next grapple point is too far away. One of the hardest obstacles are the windmills. I actually had to manipulate the physics by landing on one for a split second so my equipment recharges. The game gets so tricky towards the end that casual players may not make it. Sure the game is only a couple of hours long, but the complicated jumps are just mind bobbling.

With that aside the music is great and the game looks beautiful. While it uses the dated Unreal Engine 3 the art style is superb. I honestly felt like this was Journey to the Center of the Earth meets Mirror’s Edge. There’s nothing else out there like it and the ending is extremely touching, well worth the play through to get a few heart-strings pulled.

I just wish there was more to the game. Sure jumping around gets fun, but sometimes I feel areas dragged on forever with too much nothing in between. It’s a step in the right direction for this type of game. With more story being pushed out and some variety in gameplay, this game could have been something even more incredible.