![]() It is also apparent that the voice actors are not English speakers. The suit’s sounds manage to convey the feeling of speed and impact but lack some “oomph” (I don’t know how to really describe this better, it just is not satisfying to me). The calm and gentle music fits the theme of the game and plays quietly in the background, but is unremarkable in every way. Not that it is bad, mind you, but it certainly is not on the level it could be. ![]() The sound design is rather unexciting too. The game’s environments very clearly are just an ensemble of platforms, rather than a coherent and sensible world. The world still consists only of floating rocks, and the bottomless pits are now cloudy instead of just black. But very soon you’ll notice that nothing has actually changed. After you get out of the caves for one level, the world becomes much brighter and colourful, and for a moment, the world looks really nice. Paired with the low-detail textures and overall darkness, it also makes for a rather boring visual experience. This leads to very little variation in the level design. Most of the game takes place in underground locations, with huge, bottomless pits, filled absolutely nothing and only the occasional rock floats around. In my opinion, “A Story About My Uncle” takes its narrative a bit too serious and ends up telling a rather lacklustre story about family and fitting in. The story (told as a bedtime story many years later) has you following in your uncle’s footsteps and discover a hidden civilisation in a mysterious world. After so much slower paced and linear gameplay, the last level can come across as a severe difficulty spike, but once you’ve settled in, this is where it feels that the real game starts (before it ends about 20 minutes later).Īll other aspects of “A Story About My Uncle” seem to be just a framework for the game’s mechanics. In the Ice Caves, the game finally picks up the pace, lets you explore (and I use the term “explore” very loosely) alternative paths and forces you to plan ahead your moves. It is not until the very last level that the game lets go of your hand and actually challenges you. Technically, “A Story About My Uncle” has seven levels, although the first and last one are purely story-related walking parts and one designated tutorial level. Generally, the game is far too hand-holding. Of course, platforming games with a lot of options need to guide the player towards the right path, but if there is only one path available and it is littered with “Click here”-symbols, it feels downright patronising. All of the levels are strictly linear, and most of the platforms and rocks (that act as grappling points between them) are clearly marked. Sadly, “A Story About My Uncle” does almost nothing to capitalise on the strengths of this system. A grappling hook that can latch onto almost any surface outright cries for free movement! With movement like this, it would be a blast to try and speedrun the levels! Maybe throw in some tight mazes, with lots of different ways to complete them. This kind of traversal system is best suited for big, open environments with a focus on vertical mobility, speed and momentum. While this may not sound like much, but combine these mechanics, and you’ll be able to cover amazing distances. Your other means of traversing the world (besides walking, sprinting and jumping) are rocket boots, which can extend your reach quite a bit, and a power-jump, which you have to charge for a short amount of time, but propels you almost as far as the rocket boots. The hook can be used up to three times before you have to recharge it, either by landing on solid ground or by activating certain crystals mid-air. You can use it to pull yourself up high ledges, grapple onto flying rocks and “ride” them to your next destination or to accelerate yourself during a jump, hurling yourself towards an object for a massive speed boost. As I said, the main mechanic is an energy grappling hook, that you can use to latch on to almost any surface in the game. It never really lets go of the player’s hand.īut let’s not get ahead of ourselves and speak about the gameplay first. The game’s main issue that it does feel more like a tech demo than an actual video game. I had played through the story, found all collectables and unlocked all four extra options. ![]() But after about 4 hours it was over already. Now, these three words alone should make you instantly want to play this game to bits. “A Story About My Uncle” is a 3D platforming game, revolving mainly around the use of an energy grappling hook.
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