Volume Reviews
An expertly crafted game that boasts stylish, nigh-endless permutations of a simple, engrossing form of stealth.
An enjoyable homage to old school Metal Gear Solid, but a lack of challenge and an overbearing story means it isn't quite a stealth classic in its own right.
Volume merges its influences very well and creates a very fun atmosphere, provided by good puzzles and a great script. Most game design and rhythm failures in the story are forgotten by the addictive and simple gameplay. The map editor, the creations of the community and the desire to return to the main story maps, seeking to improve your completion time, give the game a great replay factor and represents the great package that Volume is.
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All in all, Volume is a solid game. Its new-age telling of a certified classic is intelligently done.
While the main story missions are a little easy, it still is really fun to play with, and there are already plenty of user-generated missions to play with. Volume's purity of focus in creating simple stealth works well for the most part.
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 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.
In some respects Volume is a refreshingly simple take on a pure stealth title. It really does nail the stealth mechanics, and although short it offers a wealth of replayability thanks to an extensive level editor and community-made 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.
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.
Even with its flaws, Volume is a hugely enjoyable puzzle game, wearing its influences proudly on its sleeve. Near-perfect pacing, a wonderful soundtrack and deceptively simple gameplay, Volume will have you creeping back for more to try and top the leaderboards on as many levels as possible, and maybe even create a few more as well.
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.
A stealth game built to satisfy the central tenets of the genre in the most discrete, distilled, trimmed-down way possible. Certainly well-crafted, but simply not that engaging.
Stealth hasn't felt this good, this pure, since Mark of the Ninja. Volume is tightly-designed and lovingly-crafted vivacious fun.
Volume is a fun stealth/puzzle game that could have really been something special if it weren't for some glaring design flaws and a weak storyline. Still, its appealing mechanics and sheer amount of levels help turn it into a decent insight into cybernetic heists
Keep in mind that Metal Gear Solid VR Missions wasn't even that great of a game.
Volume is one of the most engaging and fun stealth games in years.
Volume isn't without its flaws, but the highs that it's able to hit completely squash the minor gripes players might have. One of the best pure stealth titles in recent years, Mike Bithell and his team have not only captured some of the storytelling magic that made Thomas Was Alone so special, but they also managed to capture the best parts of a genre that sees a great deal of failures.
Volume deserves credit for being fresh and accessible, but after a couple of dozen levels or so, it starts to grow repetitive. It was easy to pick up the controller and play, but without a lot of new innovations and a middling storyline, it was also entirely too easy to take breaks and move onto something else.
Bithell's wonderfully witty scripts complimented with Wallace's performance is a match made in heaven; I just wish I could love it all when mixed together with the game mechanics