Volume

Volume may suffer from a few issues of poorly designed AI and easily exploited level design, but I still found a great number of challenging rooms with an intriguing story to match, and plenty of room to master. The added bonus of being able to show how to complete a room by livestreaming a game about streaming how to complete a room… is just icing on the meta cake.

Cyber stealth.

Volume mixes familiar stealth controls and perspectives with a bevy of intriguing, new mechanics. While its enemies won't really hound and hunt you - and the checkpoints provide more than enough support - Volume is a nice, low-fi experience for both casual players and hardcore stealth fans.

But that’s a single droplet in the ocean of brilliance that is Volume. One thing I do have to mention – because it sent me absolutely giddy – is our found ability to interrupt guard patterns by whistling or making noise. The amount of games I’ve played where the A.I. is drawn to the point of said noise before falling back into its predetermined pattern is frustratingly high, and after witnessing one of Volume’s guards slipping back into formation but out of sync, I’d made a noise I’m fairly sure only dogs could hear.

Early-game issues aside, Volume is an entertaining and addictive mix of Metal Gear Solid and Trials.

No summary available

This game is not bad by any stretch, it just might not hold your attention for long enough to get through it all. A little more variety in the game and the way you play it would go a long way.

However, a lot of where Volume suffers is in what’s not here. I wish I could pan around a level to formulate a plan before diving in. I wish I were given incentive to play well instead of just adequately. Volume is not a bad game. But it still leaves me wanting for something more out of it.

Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell bypasses the difficult second album hurdle with a simple, elegant and carefully paced stealth puzzler.

Volume features a level-creation tool that I played with too briefly to critique, but it's likely to spawn many more maps, many more patrols and patterns. I'm looking forward to playing the best of them. Bithell's sophomore effort is a lovely thing made up of spellbinding puzzles that demand the player's attention. Its beauty, wit and intelligence are nicely offset by its quiet anger.