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Volume |OT| Adapt. Evolve. Be Heard.

S

Skux

Member
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Narrative stealth action from award-winning game designer Mike Bithell (Thomas Was Alone). Enter the Volume to halt the corruption of Gisborne Industries and train the masses to rob from the rich in this reimagining of the Robin Hood legend.

  • 100 levels of unapologetic stealth action featuring a suite of gadgets for use to avoid, distract and evade detection.

  • Full set of content creation tools to build and share your own levels with the world.

  • Full campaign playable using pre-made or user-generated levels. 

  • Starring Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes), Danny Wallace (Thomas Was Alone) and YouTube personality Charlie McDonnell (charlieissocoollike).
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, PC, Mac OS X
Release Date: 18 August 2015 (EU PS4 version 19 August)
Developer: Mike Bithell (Thomas Was Alone)
Genre: Single player stealth
Price: US$19.99
Official Site: www.volumegame.net

--- SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ---

OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8
CPU: Pentium 4 1.8GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (recommended: Pentium 4 Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+)
RAM: 1GB (recommended: 2GB)
GPU: GeForce 210 or AMD Radeon X600 Series (recommended: GeForce GT 340 or AMD Radeon X1900 GT)
Hard Drive Space: 1GB
Sound Card: Windows Direct X 9.0 Compatible
DirectX Version 9.0

--- REVIEWS ---

Polygon - 9/10
NDTV - 9/10
GameInformer - 8.75/10
Gamespot - 8/10
Eurogamer - Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell bypasses the difficult second album hurdle with a simple, elegant and carefully paced stealth puzzler.
RPS - There’s a clever stealth game here, without question. I’d just like it so much more if it ramped up faster and cooled it with all the chest-thumping.
GodIsAGeek - 7.5/10
Destructoid - 6/10

--- MEDIA ---

Watch the launch trailer here!

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Click to expand...
 
A

Auctopus

Member
Looking forward to this, already decided I won't be picking it up for a couple months though.

Also, the gripes from RPS really sound like something that would get on my nerves too.
 
S

Skux

Member
Thanks for the info, I've added notes about EU and Vita availability as well as system requirements.
 
W

WITHE1982

Member
Glad this seems to be reviewing so well. I was a massive fan of Thomas was alone (quadruple dipped on it) so I'm happy that Mike seems to have another hit on his hands.

I'm hoping the soundtrack is just as good as in TWA. One of the best I've heard.

I'll buy the second it releases in the EU.
 
S

Skux

Member
Playing it now. The first few levels are simple, but once you get the
bugle
some interesting gameplay opens up, the solutions are still linear so far though.

Looking forward to seeing how many more gadgets there are and how they affect the gameplay. Hopefully there are some more sandboxy levels later on.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
Game is reminding me a decent bit of Marvelous Miss Take so far, which was a pretty good take on the isometric stealth puzzler too.
 
Stilton Disco

Stilton Disco

Member
Sounds sound performance wise, so I'm in the moment it's up on the EU PSN. Shame the Vita version got delayed mind, but at least it's still crossbuy, and hopefully gets a PS+ discount.
 
O

Omikaru

Member
Will get this tomorrow for the EU release. I've been weighing up PS4/Vita or PC, but the CrossBuy is too compelling, I feel. I may grab the PC version in the future if I like the game.

Great OP, by the way. I was considering throwing in for this myself, but I honestly don't have the time to make an OT at the moment. One thing I'd have done is called it 'Volume |OT| Turn Up The Metal Gear'. But that's just me. Good job!

Speaking of the OT, here's the Mac system requirements:

OS: OS X 10.10.3
Processor: 1.4GHz
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: 1.5GB
Hard Drive: 3 GB available space

Looks like Mike has catered this for the low-end 2015 Mac Mini, which is nice.
 
gunstarhero

gunstarhero

Member
Glad to wake up to the high scores! Was a little worried this was a potential dud after hearing little-to-no news or hype for the last month.

Can't wait to give it a go.
 
M

MattyG

Banned
Is Jim Sterling still in this? I never see him listed in the cast, but I could've sworn I remember him announcing he was in it.
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Omikaru said:
Will get this tomorrow for the EU release. I've been weighing up PS4/Vita or PC, but the CrossBuy is too compelling, I feel. I may grab the PC version in the future if I like the game.

Great OP, by the way. I was considering throwing in for this myself, but I honestly don't have the time to make an OT at the moment. One thing I'd have done is called it 'Volume |OT| Turn Up The Metal Gear'. But that's just me. Good job!

Speaking of the OT, here's the Mac system requirements:

OS: OS X 10.10.3
Processor: 1.4GHz
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: 1.5GB
Hard Drive: 3 GB available space

Looks like Mike has catered this for the low-end 2015 Mac Mini, which is nice.
Click to expand...

should be today on the PS store right? I thought they aligned with Tuesdays for releases? Rapture was last Tuesday.

If I have to wait another day I might just buy it on steam. Kids are hogging the TV during the summer hols anyway.
 
S

Skux

Member
The story, and the way it's told, is definitely the weakest point. For a game where the game-like artifice is so obvious (you're literally going through level by level, puzzle by puzzle), the story becomes even more contrived to attempt to justify how obvious it is.

Basically it boils down to me wanting to punch the main character in the face because he sounds so whiny. No wonder all of our lead males are gravelly-voiced protagonists.

That and the whole "quirky sarcastic self-referential British ooh-I'm-being-so-clever-right-now" shtick has really been thrashed to death at this point.

Apart from that, I'm about 20 levels in and it's starting to get my brain going. There is solid gameplay here. Due to the exact nature of some of the solutions it feels more like a puzzle game than a stealth game. So more of a cross between Hitman Go and MGS VR missions. There are some interesting puzzles where you
actually have to take advantage of being spotted in order to progress, because it modifies the AI
. Pretty clever.
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
From the Thomas was Alone guy? You have my attention, even if its another stealth game from the school of level design I'm tired of
 
L

Luke_Wal

Member
I find it weird that there's not more buzz for this considering how successful TWA was. I'm excited for this, though I'll probably wait for the Vita version.
 
E

Endo Punk

Member
The fact the story hampers the otherwise stellar stealth experience will bug me to no end. is there no way to just turn the story off and play the game without interruptions?
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
I just played through roughly 50% of the story. Really smartly designed game. The introduction of new ideas and ramp on/off of previously introduced ideas is very cool. The game is very exploitable; it'll be fun to watch speed runs in the future.

I don't get the constantly repeating dialogue, surely this showed up in testing? For those that don't know, the anytime an enemy sees you, you finish a level or the music otherwise changes based on some event, any voice-over that's currently playing is interrupted and then repeats from the beginning. I've played through multiple levels where the exact same paragraph is repeated over and over again. Super weird. I mean, I get that it's by design, but the timing of the VA versus the length of the levels feels completely off.

But yeah, buy this. It's super cool.
 
AHA-Lambda

AHA-Lambda

Member
oooh, fairly significant spoiler :eek:

it appears from text excerpts that the events of TWA is where AI in the world of Volume gain sentience. So Volume is technically a sequel!
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
There's a part of me that wishes this just embraced a more arcadey structure. The act of playing the game and the visuals works together so well, but then there's this weird narrative layer on top of it that feels completely disconnected.
 
O

Omikaru

Member
mrklaw said:
should be today on the PS store right? I thought they aligned with Tuesdays for releases? Rapture was last Tuesday.

If I have to wait another day I might just buy it on steam. Kids are hogging the TV during the summer hols anyway.
Click to expand...

Nope, this game is scheduled for tomorrow on the PS Store in Europe. Only reason I can think of is that the release date was set and scheduled before SCEE changed the day the store updates.
 
W

WGMBY

Member
lord_lad said:
Basically, Metal Gear Solid VR Missions for the new millenium!
Click to expand...

Should be a great way to plug the (nonexistent) hole in my schedule while I wait for MGSV.

AHA-Lambda said:
oooh, fairly significant spoiler :eek:

it appears from text excerpts that the events of TWA is where AI in the world of Volume gain sentience. So Volume is technically a sequel!
Click to expand...

Yes! That's awesome! I loved that ending.

Gaah, I have a concert to go to tonight. Guess I'll have to wait for tomorrow to give this a try ;_;
 
Y

Yasawas

Member
Tomorrow? Boo. Didn't the European blog post something a month or two ago about having releases on Tuesdays in line with the US? Did I dream this? How many question marks can I put in one small paragraph?
 
N

Nzyme32

Member
Bought and downloaded. Will give it a quick spin now and probably dig through it as I have more time available. Looking forward to stealth fun. Actually also makes me want to reinstall mark of the ninja too.
 
D

darkside31337

Tomodachi wa Mahou
Holy shit had absolutely no idea this was out today. Have been interested in this for a while, definitely gonna check this out.
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Sod it, bought on PC now. Seems to work nicely in 21:9 but the pop up text in the middle of the screen is surprisingly blocky
 
M

MaLDo

Member
Lots, I mean LOTS of framerate problems in the trailer.

Let me guess.... Unity Engine, right?


Correct. Another one, I'm out. I guess how much money I will save this year with so many Unity games.
 
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