A Story About My Uncle

A Story About My Uncle is a first-person platformer built almost entirely around one mechanic: a grappling hook that lets you swing, soar, and chain momentum across impossible alien landscapes. You play as a child searching for a missing uncle, and the whole thing is framed as a story being told aloud - a narrative wrapper that sounds thin on paper but quietly earns its place by the final chapter. Gone North Games released this as a small indie project, and the craft shows in every intentional choice. The movement system is the reason to play this. The grappling hook has genuine weight to it. You feel the arc, the snap of connection, the brief freefall before the next swing catches. There are no combat systems, no inventory screens, no skill trees. Just you, the hook, and increasingly wide open spaces that reward good timing and spatial reading. Levels escalate from tight cave tunnels into breathtaking open chasms where a single missed hook means a long fall. The game trusts you to figure out the rhythm, and when it clicks, you feel like you own the air. Visually it punches above its size. The alien world is rendered in warm purples, deep blues, and soft bioluminescent details that give each area a distinct personality without ever feeling busy. The soundtrack sits underneath everything like a held breath - ambient, slightly otherworldly, never intrusive. This is the kind of soundscape that you notice most when you stop and look around instead of rushing through. Where it stumbles is length and ambition. The whole experience runs roughly four to five hours, and while I will defend a short game that knows its limits, some players expecting more elaborate puzzle design or worldbuilding depth will feel the ceiling. The story is earnest and warm but not complex - it works as emotional texture rather than a plot you engage with critically. A handful of later platforming sequences also drift toward frustrating rather than challenging, particularly in sections where the geometry becomes harder to read. That said, for anyone who has ever wanted a game that captures the pure feeling of flight without building a 40-hour RPG around it, this is that game. It is genuinely good at the one thing it sets out to do. The 92 percent approval across nearly thirty thousand Steam reviews is not an accident - this is a small game with a clear vision that it executes with care. If you are tired of systems and menus and want something that just lets you move beautifully through a world for an afternoon, A Story About My Uncle delivers exactly that.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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