This one is for the 1st-person platformer masochists. You know who you are, you don't deserve clear level design.

Fun little platform puzzler. Some nice graphics. Frustrating at times. Soaring through the air is great fun once you get the hang on it. Especially the outdoor level has a great feeling about it.

In relation to the rest it's getting kinda hard at the end. Do you remember the people complaining about the difficulty of Psychonauts' Meat Circus? Like that.

Cool story, Unc.

A Story About My Uncle is an adventure/platform game; it offers an interesting concept, but was it exploited well? Let's see.

The story starts with you, telling to your daughter a bedtime story about an adventure you've experienced as a child. Of course, you get to live the adventure.
A kid of not specified age finds some sort of space suit into his uncle's closet. This suit looks just made for him. He then decide to wear it and place himself into a strange teleporter. This shoots him into another dimention, made of flying rocks that he can swing on with his special Spider-man web magic glowie beam that he can shoot out of his Iron-man suit glove.

First thing you will notice about this game: the stunning environments. Each stage haves a different one, and they all looks very interesting. Well, maybe the last one won't be looking really cool, because it's just a ice mountain, but we'll get to the final part of the game. Oh boy, we will.

The voice acting is pretty decent, not the best quality you will find, but still enjoyable; same goes for the music, appealing, but not very memorable.

The gameplay works very well, M1 to shoot the beam that will drag you around, M2 to load up your super jump, and later on, spacebar while in the air for rocket boots (also, expect a dumb brony reference after you'll get them). The first person model animations are very well made, but the camera angle doesen't make me look like a little kid at all. And having an adult grunt when the character fall from a huge heigh doesen't help.

But here is something that bugged me a little: the level design.
Much more I was going on, much more it felt a little bit repetitive. Sure, the story was proceeding, but I didn't really been following that because was pretty cliché and expecially they whould spoil you pretty much all the biggest twist with some question that the character made to himself. Is like that guy that while you watch a movie says "oh, I bet now this is gonna happen", and that actually happen. Is kinda frustrating.
Anyway, about the level design, it wasn't only done pretty badly, but also there was no sense of progression. You can take the first stage and then pass to the last stage, the level of difficulty is pretty much the same. And expecially, there could be way more gameplay elements then the one we got.
For exemple, at one point there will be a giant monster. They could have added a way to actually fight it, but nope. We got Red Light-Green Light game. Great.

And then the last problem with this game: THE F*CKING RUSHED FINAL.
If there is something that I hate more, is the feeling of not have achieved something in the end. And this game passed that line.
After a boring normal puzzle, you finally get to the ending. You will then take part of a scene (pretty much like Half Life 2, there is no actually cutscenes into the whole game) and then the game ends. There is no boss fight, no final time trial puzzle, nothing. Just a 2 minute stupid, stupid dialog.
Words cannot express how much I hate this kind of finals, and this really makes me even more angry, because I want to like this game.

But still, I whould reccommend it.

FInal score: 6/10

It's fun, it has an interesting concept and the 3-4 hours long doesen't make it way too much boring. Still, the game fell with the final.
13€ may be too much for this game, I would suggest getting it for 5-6€ on a sweet sale.


Even Goat Simulator had a better ending then this, damnit.

A really nice little game, that doesn't overstay it's welcome. Essentially a first person platformer with a grappling hook, a jetpack, and a simple story. Worth a look.

A Story About My Uncle. (ASAMU)


When I saw this game on the Steam frontpage it was love at first sight. Normally I wait for a discount, and then just tuck the games I find interesting in my backlog, but ASAMU was different: I bought it at full price, downloaded it and finished it in one sitting. Even though I throughoutly enjoyed the game, admired the visuals and find (most of) the story interesting I cannot wholeheartedly recommend this game, I'm not sure if I can even say that it's a good game. Third person platforming is one of my favorite game genres which is sadly neglected, ASAMU much like Mirror's Edge offers the thrill of leaping through huge depths, and the feeling of freedom (have you ever dreamt that you can fly? well it's a bit like that) Let me elaborate:

1. Graphics:

Pros:
+ Beautiful scenery and landscapes.
+ True feeling of depth below you.
+ Smart camera movement making the jumps and movement more immersive.
+ Perfectly optimized, runs flawlessly on a mid-spec laptop maxed out.

Cons:
- Low-res immersion-breaking character models.
- Somewhat inconsistent art-style.
- The visuals don't really support the story.

2. Gameplay:

Pros:
+ Interesting equipment upgrades like "laser grappling hook", "rocket-boots"
+ Smart platforming puzzles.
+ Constant sense of adrenaline-rush and challenge.
+ Intuitive/easy to learn controls
+ The lack of any violence, and death when falling makes the game unusually soothing and relaxing.

Cons:
- Unintuitive checkpoint system where the distance between the chekpoints grow larger and larger.
- The fast-paced gameplay slows down and stalls in the later levels.
- Unfair difficulty spikes.
- Trial-and error puzzles (you can't do it at one try, you should die 5-50 times before you figure out)
- The hardcore precision-platforming requirements at places may scare away newcomers to the genre.
- Short gameplay time (I finished it in around 6 hours in my slow-pace most people finish it in 2-3 hours)

3. Story

Pros:
+ Sort of interesting premise
+ Interesting narrated gameplay (like Bastion), however it becomes inconsistent and scarce as the game progresses.

Cons:
- Terrible, terrible ending (oh god why), I just stared at the screen feeling cheated. It would have been better to not have a story at all!
- Uninteresting characters, cliché dialogues.

4. Music/Sound Design

+ The music is cool, but nothing to write home about.
+ The sound design gets the job done, nothing impressive either.

Verdict:

If I'd be objective I'd give ASAMU a score of 60/100. It was sort of a financial flop, and not a commercial success either (according to Steamcharts 166 players played it the most, currently has 2 players active). It has an interesting concept but sadly it falls short in delivering, the story feels terribly rushed (like they wrote it 20 minutes before released) the gameplay although fun has it's flaws which combined with the story (in a supposedly story-rich game) just can't make it.

However I still recommend it, why?

Because I can't say that I didn't enjoy the game, I mean I finished it in one sitting that's something right? It's just a lovely short game that I recommend to pick up on a -60%+ sale, and you will enjoy it if you are aware of it's limits and lower your expectations accordingly.

I wanted to like this game, I really, really, really did but unfortunately I couldn't. It look's great, the scenery is beautiful, music excellent and the voice acting isn't half bad either, but it stops there.

The core game play is first person swinging physics, you have a grappling hook with a limited number of grapples each time you jump to get from platform to platform. This starts out as a lot of fun, but quickly spikes in difficultly. Your grappling hook only has a limited range and limited uses between jumps, this isn't a problem at first but after one or two levels, the surfaces you need to grapple to start to become only just in range to the point of Limbo difficulty where if the jump/swing is not done perfectly you will fall to your death, a lot.

The swing physics are fairly tricky as well. Quite a few times I found my self clinging to surfaces around me to try and build momentum, letting go when I had speed, only to slam into what I just let go of and fall. You also receive upgrades however they do not make it any easier as the difficulty again increases. This makes sense but it would have been nice to have an area or time to just enjoy care free these features.

It's not a bad game, but it quickly becomes frustrating and I can't help but think it would have been better with a little more polish and better placement of surfaces to grapple to.

I wanted to swing from platform to platform with ease, get lost in the world and while I'm sky high look down and watch everything become bigger as you slam into the ground like iron man; but I just couldn't.

4 out of 5

A Story About My Uncle is a first-person sci-fi fantasy platformer that focuses on simple yet enjoyable mechanics: run, jump, grappling hook, and rocket boots. The player is placed in the shoes of a father telling his daughter the adventure he had as a young boy in search of his uncle, an adventurer who had gone missing. The young boy came upon a intriguing mechanical suit that fit him and a launch pad that propelled him into a world full of wonder, intrigue, and a lot of floating rocks.

The good:

The environemt is really well-made and offer enough variety to let you forget that you are in caves 80% of the time. There were standard caves, dark menacing caves with glowing plants, ice caves, caves of floating villages, and caves of artifacts from another time. All caves were enormous, big enough to contain a whole city and then some.

The art style leans toward cartoonish but fits quite well with the fantasy setting that requires a bit of suspension of disbelief (floating rocks, duh).

The sound and music were well-done and serve the mood of the game nicely.

The dialogue, though few, was quite decent and the voice-acting was excellent.

And the mechanics are very polished and together the setting, the art style, the music, the sound, and the gameplay made up a very immersive experience. It is hard not to feel the pounding of your heart as you run, jump, grapple and slinghshot yourself through various terrain with incredible speed. The rush is there, but gravity never did forget you. I remember countless times where I miss the right timing to connect my grapple then look up as all rocks around me shoot up, the wind swoosh by. and everything fade to black.

The bad:

While the mechanics were quite good. There were definitely a few places in the game where I felt there could be more cues as to what can be connected with the grapple. In one instance I was supposed to connect to the stalacites on the cave ceiling to swing myself across, but no sound or environmental cues were provided. And I felt frustrated as I tried to super-jump myself across but inevitably fell to my miserable death every time. At another time, there were these glowing crystals where the player is supposed to use in mid-air to charge the grappling hook and further the swinging distance, but for a quite a few of them no matter how close I get no charging was possilbe. And so I had to plan my route not using them. Note that these frusrating intances are far and few in between, and the developer are still releasing patches, so I remain hopeful that they will be fixed in due time.

final words:

If you are looking for a neat game you can enjoy in an afternoon, and the idea of being Tarzan swinging in fantastical caves intrigues you, then consider "A Story About My Uncle." It is an atomoshperic, narrative-driven experience that takes you away to a different world one swing at a time.

Hmm, I have mixed feelings about this game.
The visuals are stunning (I play on max settings so don't know what the graphics are like on low/medium). The world is just beautiful (the foliage in particular) and as far as platform games go, the idea of this game is quite fun.

However, there are two main downfalls of this game:

1) It is extremely short! With only six levels taking approximately 15-20 minutes (if that) to complete the first time round. The majority of people writing reviews have completed the game in just 2 or 3 hours.

2) The game gets VERY repetitive very quickly; the gameplay is almost (if not) identical in each level and there isn't a large enough variety of modes to support more types of gameplay, multiplayer for example.

So if you love games made to look beautiful, by all means try this game out, but don't expect to ever play it again after your first completion of the game (I who have OCD about getting every achievement for every game am even struggling to find the motivation to play this game again for as long as it takes).
But if you want a game you won't get bored of easily, has masses of content and you'll want to play for more than a few days (which is the majority of gamers), I wouldn't recommend this game.

Great game, it has better potential for its mechanics and design. Hope for a sequel.
A must have for who like Parkour with jumping and flying through a beautiful world.

+ Good mechanics, jumping, grappling hook and flying.
+ Solid gameplay, animation and great graphics.
+ Good level design.
+ Nice unlockables, Goat mode.
+ Very good atmosphere, you feel like you are part of the world.


- It get frustrating sometimes, but its part of the challenge point.
- Its very short, only 6 beautiful levels.

here are some suggestions for the game:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/278360/discussions/0/619573787333625038/

there is a Reset Button, F7 rebind it to R ,so you can restart faster if you fail.
I will update this review later with more details.

This game is amazing. Beautiful story line, gorgeous atmosphere, and detail was surely put into it. This game is worth having and I recommend it to anyone. I hope to see more works like this from the developers in the future.

Beautiful Scenary, beautiful soundtrack, great story. Overall it's a great game that can combine relaxed gaming session with a puzzle.

Unless this game is on sale and you're only spending a couple bucks on this, don't bother.

The game wants you to see it as a story-driven exploration game, but it doesn't really do to well on either account.

The story components are all a bit screwy. The script itself is awkward and the voice acting doesn't help. None of the voice acting sounds natural. The movement of the characters also look rigid and un-natural. The full story just felt uninspired as well; not bad per se but it felt like they just had a vague idea and just built off of it, as is evident with Maggy (one of the three characters in the whole thing) just being a huge stereotype. Overall, the story and all things related to it just make me uncomfortable and detract from the gameplay.

So what about the gameplay? "Eh." Jumping around and grappling from flying rock thing to flying rock thing is fun. There is no getting around that. The big problem is some of the parts seem oddly unforgiving. Jumping from thing to thing is fun, but once you start falling down again and again... Well it loses that simple style of fun flying around gives you.
And although the game is based on exploration, it's super linear. Which isn't too bad until you realize that going off the beaten path just means death. The worst part is they have hidden things in levels to encourage exploration, but once you try to explore that flying mountain you'll realize it's impossible to stand on, once you try to escape the giant creature in the cave by going into the river that's resting under it you'll realize that there was no river. Only lies. And you'll fall through and die.

So what is goo about this game? the environments. They're pretty, memorable, and look unique. I feel like this is the part they put all their effort into (and I mean all of it) and is the sole reason I can't completely bash this game, because I did enjoy looking at all the different areas. I just wish the villiages/towns were more... Fleshed out. They had some stuff that was pretty to look at, but it had no depth.

So in conclusion, the story and characters were a let down; the gameplay is frustrating, linear, and frustratingly linear in spite of good ideas; and the environments almost make it worthwhile.

This is basically that pretty yet shallow girl you dated that one time, but in video game form.

-* 7/10 *-

It's an interesting game, with innmersive mechanics and playability. A First Person Platformer, with a great effect for speed and vertigo, and it keeps you hooked. The story is a bit short but very engaging. For an extra challenge you can try to get the achievements wich will keep you playing for some time.

The concept behind this game is utter BRILLIANCE!!! Not only is the concept cool, but it also shows off what this developer, who also created Goat Simulator, can do.

The story is very touching, although cut a bit short in my opinion. The very idea of swinging from platform to platform in a first person setting is amazing, and it was executed very well. With different attachments that you get, such as how many times you can swing from objects before having to land and thrusters to boost how far you can fly through the sky.

The only thing I have against this game is the achievements. Although when I played this (when it came out), it did have timed challenge maps, the original game did not have achievements, adding it a while after I had beaten the game. And though I had already played through the game, I feel the achievements detracted from the storyline and the game itself.

But overall, this is a good game to buy, and for those who have played Goat Simulator, this game actually has a point. (I enjoy Goat Simulator, but it has no plot line and little purpose besides being a goat, which is understandable why that is the only point since it is a goat sim.). Eitherway, I would recommend this game.

A combination of nice artwork and graphics, some really inpired level design and some of the best gameplay i saw in an indie game, A Story About My Uncle delivers a fulffiling experience and a heart warming story with more than meets the eye.

The game starts off with you telling your daughter a bedtime story, of how you went to meet your uncle at his house as a young boy, just to find that he was nowhere to be seen. What you do find however is the special suit he built, a suit that let's you fall from any height without taking any damage (think Portal), execute some really long or high jumps, grab onto any surface and proppel yourself to it and (later on) use rocket boots to extend your air time. And that's what most of the gameplay is about: air time.

The gameplay is really fast paced, with you moving like the wind in a number of different locations, making use of speed and momentum to keep going forward, hoping the next jump will take you closer to your uncle. It's a really fun combination of plataforming with some puzzle elements that works wonders and there's really nothing out there quite like it: it's simple, but requires some degree of skill to move on quickly (especially if you're trying to beat the time trials). It's also a breath of fresh air that there's absolutely no kind of violence of any kind in the game. Not even singing turrets of doom.

The game is also worthy of praise regarding the design of the levels. They are really, really huge and open but you will never feel lost or need to stop to look arround and find your way for more than 5 seconds. It's mostly linear when you come to terms with how the game was designed, but it doesn't feel like you are being "forced" to go somewhere, but rather right. That's where uncled Fred went, and that's where you are going.

However, the game is REALLY short (probably arround 2 hours for one playthrough), with low replay value, but there are the extras of the Time Trials and collectibles to be found in each level (some of wich add to the plot), if you're into that.

Bottom line, a different game that does what it set out to do very well, but goes by far too quickly, especially for a 15€ game... but it's still a worthwhille game that deserves to be played.

"Something, something about an adventure."

The dialouge doesn't lie, this game is an adventure. A beautiful, well made adventure, however short it may be.

I've spent quite some time with the game, doing three full runs and looking in every nook and cranny for any optional story tidbits and seismograph-things, and I have to say I've come out feeling like the game was worth my money.

The gameplay is enjoyable and new, (at least for me) and I love the first person perspective's way of making me feel like I'm at near cruising altitude while swinging over the cloudline, or a dark cave's unknown depths.

The story is quick, but then again the game is as well. I liked the co-protagonist's personality. Adventurous, fearless... or at least we're told.

She even is okay with risking her life to challenge you to try to get through an area without using the grapple device. (And while I'm on the topic she's also quite annoying on telling you that she "knew you couldn't do it" when you fail to complete the challenge without saving her life as you fall to your doom.)

While I won't elaborate on the features of the Unlockables that you get from collecting all twenty-five seismograph-things, I will say this; the last one is AWESOME.

If I had to point out some negatives, the character models can be sort of weird to look at sometimes, and during the parts when you have to watch them talk you can just wander away and not look at them and they don't care in the slightest. I sort of wished I could skip the interaction sections while trying to go for the flawless run and the grapple challenge achievements for the areas.

There's also the MASSIVE difficulty spike in the final level, which I was not expecting, but the hardest challenge there has been patched to let people flow through it easier. (Lifesaver for the low framerates I had been dealing with from time to time.) But that's really all I can remember that I straight-up disliked.

A Story About My Uncle is one of the best platformers I've played, and a good change of pace from the standard formula. The ending left me wanting more, and believe me, going for gold on the time trials?

I'll be with this for QUITE some time.

8.7/10

its a good experience. All be it a short one. But i am not sure i would say its a good game. The world is pretty but the people models look mediocre to say the least. Some of the challenge comes from the inconsistency in the physics but its a fun kind of challenge most of the time. The way you move about feels good and the overall Storybook feel to it has a ton of charm. Rich and vibrant colors and good sound design leaves you with a good feeling all the way trough as well. Or well that is untill you get stuck at a part.
You also have the ability to try speedrun versions of the stages and there are collectibles to find in each part of the game, that unlocks things for you to play around with. Which gives it a little bit of replayability.
All in all i would say its worth the money, i got it on a sale myself and i almost felt bad about it after i finished it.

This game is visually pleasing, and all around has a nice feel to it. The game play is fun, and the over all mechanics and presentation is very nice. The only complaint i have is the ending. I'm not gonna say what it is, but it's not great.

Over all, a good game to play if you're into movement based games.

Lovely little game, it had its frustrating moments but well worth a look into. It's quite relaxing just soaring through the air grappling, jumping and running from one platform to another. It has lovely graphics and felt quite magical

This isnt just a game its a jurney. I spent over 3 hours finishing this game and it was the best time i had in a game for a very long time its sorry driven and its emotional beautiful and simple finaly no killing no shooting just an amazing fun experience. A must try