Developer: Bithell Games
Publisher: Bithell Games
Rrp: £14.99 (Steam) and
£14.99 (Humblebundle)
Released: 18th August 2015
Available on: Steam and
Humblebundle
Played Using: An Xbox 360
control pad
Once a great nation, England is now fractured, each city a state unto itself, the rich
grow fat on the ignorance of the disenfranchised masses. But Rob
Locksley has a plan to try and solve that and mend this un-united
kingdom.
Mike Bithell, the creator
of Thomas was Alone brings to you the stealth game Volume.
The game is set in
Nottingham and you play as Rob Locksley. I hope you can see the
rather obvious reference there, but in the off chance that you
somehow don’t know about the legend of Robin Hood… Robin Hood is a
folk hero from the middle ages who stole from the rich and gave to
the poor. He came from Locksley which is a fictional town in the
county of Nottingham.
Of course Rob isn’t going
to steal from these people himself. No, no, no. Instead Rob is going
to teach the public how to do so for themselves. Using an empty
warehouse, a stolen volume (sentient AI) and the internet, Rob will
recreate the locations holographically, complete with guards, and
stream himself doing the virtual caper as a how-to guide.
As I said before, the simulation comes complete with guards, in all their various forms. From standard armed men on patrol to guard dogs to swordsmen, all with their own strengths and weaknesses. If a guard spots you their vision cone (or circle in some cases) turns red and the music becomes more dramatic. Once this happens you have a short time to evade them and then they shoot you, they never miss and one shot is all it takes.
You can whistle to create a distraction by pressing [X] and sometimes the environment provides an interact-able item that you can also use to that end. Some of levels will provide you with items to allow you to distract or bypass the guards more effectively such as bugles that bounce off walls and make a noise at their final destination.
Most items need time to recharge between uses and they also only work for a limited time. You can only have one item at a time and picking up an item drops the other, which can not be picked up again until you reach its original spawn point.
The aim of each level is to collect all the gems that are scattered around the level, these gems are supposed to represent precious items or documents in the real world. Every gem is required to be collected before the levels end point will activate.
In the standard mode of play, known as lock-down (more on that later), there are multiple checkpoints throughout each level. When you are caught you immediately respawn, or perhaps reset is a better word, to the last time you passed though one. However, if you are being pursued they will disappear until you are no longer being chased.
At the end of the level you are shown how long it took you to complete the level, your personal best as well as a par time, in case you wanted to try and improve your efficiency. The story mode consists of around one hundred levels but there are also community maps that others have made that you can play, the best being listed in ‘Staff Picks’. You can also make your own levels with the level editor which can be submitted to the community. If you’re lucky it might be featured as a ‘Staff Pick’.
The story of the world you inhabit is told through three separate methods, those being documents; you find, conversations your character has and the description of the level on the level select screen.
The problem is that as much as I liked this game and the writing (which is really, really good) the game does feel like it drags on a bit. I’m a lover of stealth games and even I was starting to grow bored of the main gameplay loop after a while. Perhaps this is the kind of game that should be played over several short sessions so that its kept fresh rather than an extended play session.
A few paragraphs ago I said I’d speak on the play modes, well there are three modes you can set the game to; lock-down, execution and freedom. Lock-down is the standard mode, where the checkpoints disappear while the guards are alerted. Execution removes the checkpoints entirely and Freedom makes the checkpoints always appear regardless of the guards alertness.
In many ways this game is very similar to ‘the Marvellous Miss Take’, although in this game the guards don’t move randomly (which is a blessing). It also features the lyrical stylings of Dan Bull, as well as the voice of Jim Sterling.
As I said previously I like stealth games so this for me is a real winner in that regard, but… well there’s an awful lot of padding to it and the inability to cancel out of an action once you commit is just annoying.
Perhaps its because of when I’m playing this game, with everything that’s gone on in the UK recently, it feels a little odd. Without wishing to spoil anything but there are certain elements of the story that sound far too similar to current political events.
If this appeals to you
perhaps try;
The Marvellous Miss Take
Mark of the Ninja
Invisible Inc
