VHOLUME

An extremely fast paced parkour platforming game about clearing stages as quickly as possible.

I don’t know if I can really call this game some kind of spiritual successor to Mirrors Edge, the gameplay is far too distinct, and the story (for what little there is) is told through drastically different channels, but it does scratch the same itch. VHOLUME is a parkour game in the sense that you can use your speed to run across or up walls, and make scary jumps. The difference is in momentum handling.

You can get up to and above top speed very quickly by chaining slide jumps all over, quick-kicking off walls, and doing all sorts of other tech that you learn organically as you play the game and chase down the medals for each stage. You don’t need to worry about mantling or rolling, you just keep moving and sliding and jumping. Respawning is quick and snappy, but you don’t want to be doing it after your discovery run, since respawning doesn’t reset the timer unless you reset to the start of the stage.

One thing VHOLUME and Mirrors Edge do share in common though are the aesthetics. Mirrors Edge loves concrete. Bright white and clean, but very cold architecture. VHOLUME also adores concrete, but in a more drab gray unpainted brutalist way. You’re running through dark tennaments with high walls and far drops, at least through the first half. Some stages later on start to decohere slightly in the level design, making the main challenge of your discovery and learning runs to find the best route through a stage. Eventually you’re given multiple very distinct paths and challenged to find the fastest one. Naturally, faster routes are also more technically demanding to execute.

There is a leaderboard for each stage, and you can download record ghosts to see what route they take and what tech they perform to go fast. This game really does feel like it is built for speedrunners. The silver medal times are fair, and the gold medals are challenging but still achievable, and medals also have associated developer ghosts that you can follow to learn the route, or you can experiment to find alternate faster routes.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4131730 £6.00 (Demo Available)