Volume Reviews
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.
Because the challenge stays reasonable enough throughout, Volume's stealth systems remain satisfying and, most importantly, a consistent echo of the game's narrative.
Mike Bithell once again unleashes another creative title onto the indie scene, but Volume's addictive sneaking and fantastic cast can't distract from the lacking story.
Volume is a strong game that is not without its flaws, but finds a nice home in the class of stealth games this year has already offered.
All in all, Volume is a solid game. Its new-age telling of a certified classic is intelligently done.
Volume has an intriguing story and fun stealth techniques, but the game's repetitive mission structure and easy-to-evade enemies keep it from being one of the genre's standout titles.
Stealth hasn't felt this good, this pure, since Mark of the Ninja. Volume is tightly-designed and lovingly-crafted vivacious fun.
However, such considerations are minor, and there's an awful lot of pleasure to be had from Volume. Its uncluttered gameplay emphasises the puzzle-solving aspect of stealth, the level design is brilliant, the gadgets are sometimes clever enough to make you chuckle out loud and the whole experience is both surprisingly meaty and absorbing to the point of distraction. It may not be as wildly inventive as Thomas Was Alone, but it's a wonderful homage to what constitutes the very essence of stealth games.
Volume is not perfect, but it is a relentlessly fun, interesting and engrossing stealth game that looks to have legs thanks to an excellently simple level creator.
Mike Bithell has done it again. Volume is an incredibly entertaining and smart stealth puzzler that will test your brain, even if it doesn't challenge it too much. It's a simple, but extremely effective game that will pose questions in an appealing story without forcing an answer on you. There's an extremely easy to use but effective level creator included to add hours of gameplay through playing through other fun, user-created levels.
Really cool art and a great score pair to ensure that Mike Bithell's latest is worth a shout – but we'd advise proceeding with caution, because there are still kinks to be worked out.
At times, Volume may fly too close to its Metal Gear Solid roots - creator Mike Bithell has unashamedly noted 1998's stealth 'em up as a distinct source of inspiration - but what it lacks in immediate originality, aesthetically at least, it makes up for in innovative, engaging, and challenging level design. To brand this a clone would be more criminal than Gisborne's corporatocratic rule.
[T]he atmosphere, voice acting and plot had me coming back for more even when the puzzles overwhelmed me.
In many of the later [missions], bigger and more multi-path, I was reacting instinctively, taking risks and having them pay off, finding a groove. There was flow and joyfulness. The good game at the heart of all the frequently irritating bluster and padding shines through.
Early-game issues aside, Volume is an entertaining and addictive mix of Metal Gear Solid and Trials.
A mostly well designed, methodically thought out puzzler that ends up being too easy due to early checkpoint issues.
Volume is a fantastic experience that I highly recommend to any stealth-game lovers. It's a unique twist on the Robin Hood story, and while the game's main storyline might not have been as strong as I hoped, I think it is definitely a great follow-up to Bithell's success with Thomas Was Alone.
Coming off the back of Thomas Was Alone, Volume is a much more ambitious and expansive project, and there's little sign of this being a difficult second album. It can miss the mark in a few areas, depending on how you play, but this is a clever distillation of the classic stealth genre wrapped up in an excellent retelling of a classic English legend.
Volume is not a bad game. But it still leaves me wanting for something more out of it.
An inventive stealth game that strips the genre down to its basics.