Volume Critic Reviews

Brilliant level design, hilarious puzzles and motivating freedom in Volume will convince you that plundering without harming anybody is still great fun.

Bithell's sophomore effort is a lovely thing made up of spellbinding puzzles that demand the player's attention. Its beauty, wit and intelligence are nicely offset by its quiet anger.

Basic and minimalist, Volume can be defined as the pure essence of stealth. The level design, the positioning of the enemies and the usable gadget form an almost perfect blend of stealth and puzzle elements.

Volume shows us that limitation really does breed creativity, delivering a thrilling, accessible experience in bite-sized pieces.

With Volume Mike Bithell has managed to create a finely tuned mix of stealth and action gameplay that continues to impress all the way through. Just like in his last game Thomas Was Alone the gameplay in Volume isn't overly complicated but it's backed up by a great story. Overall it's a great experience and one of the best in its genre.

A modern Robin Hood will keep your eyes on the screen for long, long hours.

A stealth game with a minimalistic art style but sophisticated contents. It proves that games can successfully tackle difficult subjects as long as gameplay remains the most important element.

With true stealth games a rare breed today, Volume stands as a declaration that the formula can still work.

Volume is a must play game for anyone who claims to be a fan of the stealth genre, while still being a suitable entry point for stealth game virgins. It's gentle while still posing challenges, even if gaming veterans will find ways to cheese the system. The script and voice acting take it to a whole new level of greatness.

One of the most engaging and fun stealth games in years.

Another exercise in elegant, flab-free game design from Mike Bithell - though lighter on the laughs.

Volume may be less original if compared to Thomas Was Alone, but it's equally sophisticated in the selection of gameplay elements, built on the stealth genre with a lot of style.

Volume may suffer from a few issues of poorly designed AI and easily exploited level design, but I still found a great number of challenging rooms with an intriguing story to match, and plenty of room to master.

It stumbles when trying to tell a story, but excels at communicating phenomenal mechanics.

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.

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.

Definitely a great follow-up to Bithell’s success with Thomas Was Alone. It might not grab your heart the same way those geometric shapes with human emotions did, but it’s still an experience worth having, and I can’t wait to see what wonderful creations come out of the game’s map editor.

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.

Early-game issues aside, Volume is an entertaining and addictive mix of Metal Gear Solid and Trials.

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.