ASAMU lacks both these elements: missing a platform or grapple-point leads to watching your character's arms flail for what feels like an eternity, when all you want is to return to the checkpoint immediately. That game's great strengths included a fast restart after dying, and a clear sense that any mistake was down to the player, not the game. Now, challenge is a necessary component in the majority of games - personally, Super Meat Boy strikes me as the perfect example of 'tough but fair' difficulty. This positive experience diminishes as the difficulty ramps up. At this point the only criticism I might have made was that the central mechanic of the game results in an over-abundance of the same grey floating rock, which is a bit lacking in variety.ĭiamonds aren't called 'rocks' here. The game makes an excellent first impression, providing some idyllic fantastical landscapes to traverse. The controls are simple and generally feel pretty great: ASAMU is at its best when the player is soaring confidently from one target to the next, effortlessly crossing great distances before landing on the next platform with a satisfyingly hard impact (no fall damage occurs, presumably due to suit-magic). The grapple laser then pulls you in that direction like a tractor beam, but your forward momentum prior to grappling continues, launching you in a swinging motion from one grapple-point to another. At the start of the game, the protagonist discovers one of his missing-for-years Uncle's inventions: a suit that allows the wearer to jump really high and grapple to most objects and surfaces within range, via some fancy laser technology.

The grappling mechanics in A Story About My Uncle perform essentially the same role. Portal notably solved this conundrum by giving the player a lot of mobility and allowing them to carefully plan each move they make. In first person, you can see that jumping destination, but have no frame of reference for where your feet might be, and as a result landing on that target with any accuracy can be frustrating. The main issue with the concept is a matter of perspective: in a third-person game, you can see the character, and you can see where you want them to jump to. When it's not the primary focus of a game however, the results can be pretty tepid - the first person platforming segments of Assassin's Creed: Revelations were awkward and felt out of place.

Mirror's Edge is the highest profile and probably best executed example in the subgenre - while that game did have problems, they lay in its combat, whereas the platforming was rock solid. I have a mixed history with platformers of the first person variety. Putting you in the boots of an unnamed protagonist retracing the steps of the titular Uncle Fred, this game tries hard but unfortunately ends up proving that the indie badge does not guarantee value for money. A Story About My Uncle is a first person platformer held together with grapple physics.

A story about my uncle ice cave