Volume Review: Stealing back the middle class

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Mike Bithell, developer of the sleeper hit platformer Thomas Was Alone, likes to share his opinions about the games industry. Whether it's the suitability of free-to-play hooks, virtual reality, or just the general state of indie development, he's managed to leverage the success of his sole produced game into a high-profile industry soapbox.

Volume, his sophomore effort, seems like his attempt to work through opinions of a different sort. The stealthy Metal Gear send-up is set in a post-artificial intelligence England, where former arms dealer Guy Gisborne has dispensed with pretenses and declared the country a corporatocracy (there are some hints that this all takes place after the events of Thomas Was Alone). Army brat Rob Locksley, fed up with the classism Gisborne's regime reinforces, steals an antique AI-cum-holographic projector (the titular “Volume”), and proffers an active yet non-violent solution: to livestream lessons in how to steal from Gisborne and his cohorts, effectively taking back England one priceless painting and bank account PIN at a time.

It's cyberpunk Robin Hood, with the genre's requisite dose of social commentary. As for how the game plays, it's more in line with the overhead, third-person sneaking of Metal Gear Solid and its 2D predecessors (and its V.R. Missions spin-off) than with a first-person game like Deus Ex or Thief. You maneuver Rob from a top-down perspective, collecting gems and avoiding guards while reaching the goal in the shortest time possible. There are gadgets and hidey holes doled out over the 100 levels of the campaign, but the core objective remains the same throughout: don't get caught.