Vholume Review (PC)

Mirror’s Edge meets MOTORSLICE in the concrete jungle of an Afro-Eurasia dystopian dream—a rugged and bureaucratic world in which political ideologies collide with parkour-skewered revolts and deadly feats that defy the laws of physics. One destination. Dozens of possible routes. A simple objective, but a lot of challenges that stand between you and that ever-elusive summit. It’s all the work of a strong, albeit unpredictable platforming nightmare, and it knows it all too well.

Vholume isn’t like your typical run-and-gun jackknife simulator; it’s a slick and oftentimes cruel affair that rewards patience and praises creativity. It isn’t a game that, like Mirror’s Edge, puts you on the right path or at the foot of a yellow tape-layered skyscraper so that you can merrily follow along a dotted line. Rather, it’s a game that urges you to explore the possibilities and the biomes beneath the beaten path. The destination might be obvious, but at no point does it ask you to skip over to it. Instead, it asks that you take the time to learn the language of parkour, and to master the art of gliding and climbing so that, when the final hurdle does come along, you can soar like an eagle.

While Vholume does present you with some basic plot points and a reason to ascend its derelict quarters, the game itself is largely dependent on the notion that, if you spend too long fleshing out details and groveling over the action, then you might just fail to captivate the crowd. With that, it chooses to take an easier route—a path that favors brute force, the buttery smooth transitions of a parkour-dominated world, and the slick and almost nauseatingly elegant free running mechanics. Simply, it doesn’t aim to spoon feed you a story, but rather, to give you an idea of one, and then to give you the power to fumble through the script as you focus on the heart and soul of the experience.

To call a game like Vholume a gloried package of time-coated platforming sequences just wouldn’t be true. Granted, it might share a lot of the same elements as the likes of STORROR, but given that it has a story—a light plot that reflects bureaucracy and civil rights in a dystopian society—it does make for a meatier affair in the parkour field. It might not be on the same page as Mirror’s Edge, but then, it doesn’t try to be, either. It does what it says on the tin, and it gives you a chance to lean into your inner acrobat. Sometimes, that’s all that you need to get the blood flowing and the cogs in your head turning for a little while.

Vholume has a good foundation to it. As melancholic and as dull as its derelict world is, it provides a great opportunity for fledgling parkour enthusiasts to test their mettle over a series of platform-heavy biomes. In a similar fashion as Mirror’s Edge (minus the glass and blood red labels, of course), it hands you the freedom to express yourself through the power of fluid dynamics and swift movement. Essentially, you can run, jump, climb, and gently caress the air in a wide variety of creative ways. And, for the most part, that’s what you’re doing in the game: breezing through the environment, experimenting with your surroundings, and mastering the fundamentals of parkour as the world shifts in tempo and the challenges become more complex.

Thankfully, Vholume isn’t “just another” shameless imitation of a free-running experience with gamified components. True to the spirit of the sport, it captures the essence of flowing through the world incredibly well, with buttery smooth animations, oily transitions and a stylish execution that, while challenging at times, is surprisingly satisfying to watch unfold as you gradually meander through the motions. Again, its world might be lacking in original artwork and visual effects, but it does lean into its derelict roots well, with a great deal of concrete and vacant spaces to frame its bureaucratic exterior. Though, the visuals are there for additional padding, if anything; the gameplay is where its heart is.

As I said, there are quite a few hurdles to vault over in Vholume. Given that you can easily miss a beat, fall to an uneven platform or miscalculate a jump at the touch of a button, the game does ask that you test a wide variety of combinations in order to achieve your desired results. At times, it can feel a tad intimidating. That being said, when it all begins to string together and form a coherent line, it can feel great—satisfying, even. And that’s something that’s worth holding out for here: the perfect line.

Again, I can’t say that there’s a brilliant story to all of this, because at the end of the day, it still seems as if the plot was intentionally designed to be more of an afterthought than a fleshed out aspect of the overall experience. Still, with there being a depressingly low number of parkour games on the market, I’m willing to give it the credit it deserves. Vholume might not provide the wow factor with its narrative, but it does deliver a well-rounded parkour experience that’s both thrilling and oddly challenging. More to the point, it fills a gap in the market. Because let’s face it, if there’s one sport that needs more recognition, it’s parkour. It seems that IronEqual is simply giving people what they want.

Verdict

Vholume blends the high-stakes, free-flowing parkour of Mirror’s Edge with the concrete jungle aesthetic of MOTORSLICE to deliver a melancholic collection of fist-in-mouth sequences that will get your heart racing and your trigger fingers fluttering. Although without a solid plot or a cast of well-scripted characters, it holds its own as a perfectly serviceable, entry-level parkour experience that not only fills a huge void in the field, but also provides a slippery smooth, satisfying, and surprisingly challenging deep dive into a politically dubious archipelago of asphalt and dirt.