VHOLUME Parkour Through a Silent Concrete Giant

The whole game is built around getting from one end of a level to the other, and the city is your playground. You jump, run, climb and slide with real freedom, and the labyrinthine design invites you to break it: keep your momentum going, spot a shortcut across the rooftops, and a route that took two minutes on your first run becomes seconds once you know the tricks. The mechanics are few and intuitive, so you learn them fast, but the ceiling is high. Time trials give each level a target, and beating the gold times takes real practice and a willingness to learn the movement properly. It is the kind of game where one more run turns into ten.

For a game that pushes you to go fast, VHOLUME is strangely easy to get lost in. The derelict capital of Afro-Eurasia is made of vast concrete megastructures, geometric and imposing, under a dreamlike ambient soundtrack. The story is light: Robert needs his family's ration tickets back from an all-controlling Ministry, and the city itself tells most of it. Strange characters share a few odd words and move on, and empty districts hint at a civilization that is simply gone. It is a melancholy, contemplative place, and the atmosphere is half the reason to be there.