Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus? Switch Review – An Intriguing Mystery That’s Held Back

Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus? is an engaging take on the full motion video (FMV) genre. In this game, you’re trying to find who attempted to kill Uncle Marcus and figure the poison that he drunk. While there are some misteps along the way, the game is worth checking out, especially if you love the unique genre.

For those who don’t know what an FMV is, the genre blends filmed footage with gameplay mechanics. In this case, you’re trying to get evidence from the participants of an online quiz night. It’s a family meeting that feels required and hostile, and along the way, you’ll find out more about your mysterious relatives.

Satisfying but hard to find clues

It feels overall satisfying to find clues and learn more about who attempted to murder poor Uncle Marcus. It’s also great to see how the main protagonist grows over the night as she learns to be more confident in herself and progressively stands up to her problematic family.

The main problem of Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus? is how you actually find clues about your relatives involvement from last night’s meetup. It’s unclear whether answering the quiz’s question or not would actually proceed with a potential clue. Playthrough after playthrough, I missed clues because the game doesn’t give us a good enough journal of what choice has been selected in prior conversation trees. Some answers are hidden behind a path of answers as well, making it even tougher.

The Mom, for example, loves the sound of her own voice, and you’d think that she would enjoy compliments or acknowledgement, but time and time again, she was hostile rather than helpful to the investigation. For Toby, the path isn’t clear as to how to get the first clue from his first conversation with the player.

Most conversations in Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus? are easy to figure out, on the other hand, like pressuring the weapon-obssessed Bradley to reveal evidence that’s crucial to the case.

Well written script and good actors

Despite its setbacks, the script is well-written and most of the actors shine with the context of the story. The villain of the story, that we won’t reveal in this review, does a devilishly good job with performing their character. Bradley also successfully creeps me out every moment that he appears on screen. Aunty June also has a funny persona to her as she insults everyone in her family with oodles of sass.

Some of the acting can feel over-exaggerated, like the Mum’s singing scenes and Tony’s squirming, but the cast does a great job of presenting the uncomfortable nature of communicating in a pandemic-era chatroom amongst eight or more people.

The story revels in its mystery, and even though it was hard to get some clues, I was hooked for hours. To find out almost everything in Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus?, it took around four to five hours. You will need to play the story over and over again, finding as much evidence as possible, and there are multiple paths your dialogue choices can take you.

Admittedly, the script in Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus? can be campy, but that’s what the FMV genre is all about. The awkwardness, the strange humor, the characters talking to you directly at the camera, it’s all there, and I love it. If the game took itself too seriously, it wouldn’t be as entertaining. The music matches this zany take on mystery games as well.

Made for playing more than once

When you play through the game multiple times, there is a neat option to skip scenes with the R button. However, some of the most repetitive scenes in the story between you and Uncle Marcus can’t be skipped, which makes no sense. There should be a patch by Wales Interactive and the developer Good Gate Media to fix this. You can skip dialogue effectively while talking to the characters, however, which can be helpful if you want to get to a specific dialogue choice.

One plus for Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus? is that there are eight endings in total, adding to the replayability of the game. Once you’ve gained enough evidence on one person, you can blame them and see the ending unfold. If you’re incorrect, it can lead to some unexpected turns, so even if you’re correct, I would recommend watching all of them.

Overall, Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus? is an entertaining experience with a fun script and decent acting. While some of the evidence can be harder to find than necessary, this FMV title is a thrilling romp for a night or two.

A review code was provided by the publisher.

Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus? Switch Review provided by Nintendo Link
Review also found on OpenCritic
Publisher: Wales Interactive
Developer: Good Gate Media
Release Date: March 18, 2022
Price: $12.99, £9.99
Game Size: 10.8GB