Half of France's premier FPS sibling duo just put out the most exhilarating parkour game I've ever played, and it's only $8
Overview & Key Takeaways
All movement, no shooter.
Weird Weekend
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Vholume is not big on waypoints or barriers, and I love it for that. In the first level, there's a naturalistic, reasonably signposted "correct" path to walk you through the tutorial. I immediately went the opposite direction for shiggles to indulge my well-honed sense of childlike wonder and curiosity. I lost myself in a field of brutalist rooftops, wallrunning and mantling about with no sign of the beaten path in sight. I accidentally stumbled across the level secret this way, unlocking a B-side bonus mission.
My wanderlust eventually intersected with the critical path, and after wrapping the tutorial, I unlocked time trial mode for this level. After my super-chill freeform exploration, white knuckling it to a gold level time almost felt like a completely different game.
VHOLUME Release Trailer - YouTube
Alongside co-developers Nathan Grange and Niels Tiercelin, Vholume was created by Léonard Lemaitre, one half of the brotherly duo behind our 2024 FPS of the year, Straftat. This previous work was an atomically pure arena shooter, like Quake 3 by way of the Source engine. It was all about lightning-quick rounds and movement mastery, with a dry, slapstick sense of humor.
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Vholume borrows Straftat's surreal, dreamlike sensibility, and builds on its movement toolbox, adding an insanely good wall run to the wall jumps and crouch slide. Even with the similar DNA, it's a very different kind of game. There's a multiplayer mode, but the focus is singleplayer time trial and exploration amid desolate concrete cityscapes.
The vibes and music are mournful, but the platforming is pure goddamn speed force momentum, all but blasting you back in your chair. Trying to think of other games that feel this propulsive, what came to mind for me were F-Zero GX and Neon White. Counter-Strike surf maps and the defrag mod for Quake are also handy points of comparison (and possible inspiration.)
Slide city
VHOLUME - Main Levels WR Compilation #3 - YouTube
The more time I've put into Vholume, the more defrag feels like the most relevant comparison. You can do sexy cinematic parkour if you want, but the real shit is crouch slide bunny hopping to get crazy momentum for PB level times. There are already speedrunners like Fobxx on YouTube showing off blistering world record level clears.
I love that Vholume doesn't put a mechanical damper on its movement tools: I can crouch slide bunny hop till my heart's content, and this is probably one of the most generous wallrun durations I've seen in a platformer. You know how some games say you can only wall jump so many times before your feet have to touch the ground again? None of that here.
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Instead, Vholume limits your abuse of these mechanics through level design. This game was made with an insanely fast, mobile protagonist in mind. One trick I love is how Vholume will space out platforms or drops just so to punish heedless hopping.
There will be irregular distances between a series of platforms so you risk overshooting one or falling just short of another if you're button mashing. Elsewhere, gaps you have to crouch slide through will be deliberately placed to bring a sloppy, mis-timed bunnyhop sequence to a standstill, forcing the humiliating ritual of slowly crouch walking under instead.
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(Image credit: IronEqual)
(Image credit: IronEqual)
(Image credit: IronEqual)
(Image credit: IronEqual)
(Image credit: IronEqual)
(Image credit: IronEqual)
Speed and precision are the name of the game. If that sounds too stressful, I think Vholume more than offers full value as a casual, exploration-forward platformer and mood piece. But man, when you really get moving it is positively thrilling. Even though it costs more than Straftat's hard-to-beat "free," at $8, Vholume is firmly a "no duh" purchase recommendation in my book.
