VHOLUME

this might be the best feeling wallrun ive ever played. watch this space, this is gonna be a big one

this game is amazing, not only does it have a beautiful soundtrack, it has some of the most intuitive, clean & quick mechanics. also extremely addicting

Great atmosphere Looks beautiful Love the music Love the level design Lovely mix of exploration and flow, some slightly challenging parts but all very approachable. Once again, amazing atmosphere and design of spaces, great feeling of scale and brutalist architecture Controls and game feel are so fluid and nice. Super intuitive to pick up. There is advanced movement tech there if you want it, but you can pretty much finish the game with only the basic movement, which is cool. Fun secrets to explore. Also runs very well on lower end hardware, Runs locked 90fps on steamdeck if you turn off anti-aliasing.

very good

There are two things that Vholume makes pretty clear the moment you begin playing it: 1. The movement is fluid, and it lets you go fast... 2. Just because you can go fast doesn't mean that the levels will let you. Vholume has some extremely fun movement tech. You can walljump, bhop, and slide-boost to your heart's content. Chaining these moves together properly will make you go so fast that you will feel like you're breaking the game. You might even get into a flow state; until the level throws an awkward jump, a cramped corridor, or an annoying obstacle at you, and either brings you to a complete halt or crashing to the ground. There is an inherent conflict in Vholume that I haven't seen in many other speed games. While you can make your way through the levels fairly normally, and even get a gold medal while doing it, it never feels like the levels are really DESIGNED for you to go that fast. Each level can feel like a puzzle of finding how much you can push the systems of the game to crank your speed up to max, and then find intricate ways to preserve your momentum through the rest of the level. While this friction doesn't always make the game "flow" well in the same way as a game like Mirror's Edge or Neon White does, it gives the player so much freedom to experiment with how to navigate the level that the skill ceiling feels endlessly high. You have to work hard to go as fast as possible, and each level does a pretty good of challenging the player to optimize their movement in different ways. Just because the levels may not want you to go fast doesn't mean that you can't. It doesn't mean that the rest of the game doesn't want you to go fast either. The leaderboard/ghost system does an excellent job of allowing you to spectate what players near your skill level are doing, and makes the prospect of improving your times very addicting and satisfying. I'm talking about the speedrunning aspect of the game, because it's what I've been finding the most fun. But honestly, the game is 8 bucks. The atmosphere is incredible; the sense of scale is wonderful and the music is on point. You get a lot of content here with online multiplayer and Steam Workshop support, so even if you aren't looking for something super sweaty and just want a cool looking first-person platformer to goof around with friends in, this game's got you covered too. I'm shocked that the game is launching at such a low price point because I would have easily paid at least $20 for it. It's an easy recommend and I can see myself sinking a ton of time into it.

It feels like those dreams where you can defy the laws of physics. It's like first-person Warframe in a dystopian European city.

Love the developers, top notch games