A Story About My Uncle

A Story About My Uncle takes place entirely in flashback. A father is recounting a story about his youth to his young daughter as he tucks her into bed, narrating the tale as the player lives through the events firsthand. He tells her about the time when he went in search of his headstrong, adventuring uncle after he went missing for a lengthy period of time. Upon searching the uncle’s workshop, he found a strange suit and a launch pad that catapulted him into a strange underground world. By using the power of the suit, he attempted to find his uncle and learn the truth of why he disappeared in the first place. The danger was immense, but he didn’t care--it was an adventure, after all.

The best word I can use to describe A Story About My Uncle is charming. The dialogue is written to suit each character superbly, particularly some of the interplay between the older father and his daughter as he’s telling the story. What you’re actually doing at any given moment is never anything but lighthearted and full of wonder. Even the obviously amateurish voice acting manages to add to the charm, feeling perfectly believable and endearing despite the odd intonations and flat delivery. More than once, I found myself smiling for no real reason at all, completely engrossed in the inviting narrative and world even with its relatively low production values. There’s an intimate feel on par with a favored children’s story, making it eminently believable as a story a father is telling his daughter to put her to bed. Watching and listening to the characters interact with one another is a treat, one that deserves to be experienced by more people.

When you’re actually in control, A Story About My Uncle is easily defined as a first-person platformer. The suit you put on at the beginning has several key functions that unlock over the course of the game. First, you have a charge mechanic that allows you to boost your jump’s strength. This can be used either vertically or horizontally to gain extra distance and make certain jumps. Much later on, you get a boost functionality that jettisons you in the direction you’re pointing for a few seconds, useful for getting just a bit further. The true star of the game, however, is the grappling beam. This allows you to tether to most surfaces, pulling your character towards the spot as long as you keep it turned on. Each of these abilities is governed by meters which only recharge when you touch ground, preventing you from indefinitely swinging through the air. Many of the navigation puzzles in the game force you to plan carefully in order to avoid running out of energy and falling to your doom.

Each level is massive, forcing you to swing from floating islands and jutting rock faces to progress, yet you take a mostly linear path from beginning to end. The different levels mix things up, with each different gorgeous environment (featuring some fantastic art design) having its own special elements: rotating windmills you need to ride, special plants that light up the darkness when targeted, and even certain surfaces that you can’t attach to. Navigating each of these environments was a ton of fun as I planned my grapples and other abilities to best make it from one platform to the next. Some of my favorite moments come later on, certain sections where you must make a leap of faith and catch yourself on a particular surface before it’s too late. There’s a great deal of momentum on your movement, but you also have fantastic air control to help fine-tune jumps. As such, this is one of those games that just feels good when everything’s going well: launching yourself with a long jump, falling hundreds of feet, and catching onto a grappleable ledge just before it rockets out of your reach is always gratifying. It’s a thrilling rush during these moments, a sensation I feel could only be made better through use of a Rift.

I did have a few problems with A Story About My Uncle, though they were minor ones. Most annoying is the fact that your grapple beam pulls you towards the object you attach to instead of being a tethered cable. While this is extremely useful when you’re just trying to make sure you hit a particular platform, certain grappling sections where you must swing from several points consecutively can be a bit finicky, mainly because your momentum tends to carry you into the grapple point itself. A few sections are particularly frustrating because of the angle of your approach, making navigation touchy as you attempt to maneuver yourself in the air to avoid collision. There’s also a bit of difficulty figuring out where to go at times, especially in the final couple of levels. For the most part, the designers did a great job of outlining the path, highlighting where to go with special marks, but those times when they didn’t are immediately noticeable and bewildering. These issues I had aren’t game-breaking issues whatsoever--in fact, they didn’t even affect my overall opinion of the game--but they are rough spots nonetheless.

A Story About My Uncle isn’t a long experience; I finished it in around three hours. This isn’t a negative for the game, but a positive. It feels like the perfect length for what it is, remaining charming and new throughout. Mechanics and story beats unfolded at a skillful rate, keeping me glued to my seat until I had finished the whole thing in one sitting. It’s also a blast to play, capturing the sensation of flying through the sky beautifully; as a fan of games with grapple mechanics, I can’t help but appreciate a game that does it (mostly) right. A Story About My Uncle doesn’t do anything innovative or unique, but it instead uses its standard game-design elements to the best of its ability. As such, the game manages to be something you should play due to sheer talent of production. Simply put, A Story About My Uncle is delightful enjoyment in video game form.