Volume review

[Administrator]

One of the most refreshing things about Volume, Mike Bithell's second game after the charming Thomas Was Alone, is that the design is entirely naked. This isn't a game that tries to hide its systems behind a fig leaf of "immersion". It's not a game that wants to grease your path to victory so you can see the ending.
It is, proudly and defiantly, a game. Games have rules, and Volume's are spelled out in unmissable ways. Like the great pioneering arcade titles, everything you need to play the game is right there on the screen, in the sound effects, in the colour schemes and animation. That's design, and Volume isn't afraid to let it show.
At a surface level, Volume seems like a quantum leap from Thomas Was Alone. Gone are the flat geometric shapes, replaced with stylish 3D characters which retain the same sharp angles as Thomas and his friends, but wrestle them into more complex forms. More importantly, out goes platform jumping and in comes stealth.
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