Bizarre Weekend
Weird Weekend is our common Saturday column the place we rejoice PC gaming oddities: peculiar video games, unusual bits of trivia, forgotten historical past. Pop again each weekend to search out out what Jeremy, Josh, Ted, and Rick have grow to be obsessive about this time, whether or not it is the canon height of Thief’s Garrett or that point somebody within the Vatican pirated Football Manager.
Vholume will not be large on waypoints or limitations, and I find it irresistible for that. Within the first degree, there is a naturalistic, moderately signposted “right” path to stroll you thru the tutorial. I instantly went the other way for shiggles to indulge my well-honed sense of childlike surprise and curiosity. I misplaced myself in a area of brutalist rooftops, wallrunning and mantling about with no signal of the overwhelmed path in sight. I unintentionally stumbled throughout the extent secret this fashion, unlocking a B-side bonus mission.
My wanderlust ultimately intersected with the essential path, and after wrapping the tutorial, I unlocked time trial mode for this degree. After my super-chill freeform exploration, white knuckling it to a gold degree time nearly felt like a totally totally different sport.
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 earlier work was an atomically pure area shooter, like Quake 3 by means of the Supply engine. It was all about lightning-quick rounds and motion mastery, with a dry, slapstick humorousness.
Vholume borrows Straftat’s surreal, dreamlike sensibility, and builds on its motion toolbox, including an insanely good wall run to the wall jumps and crouch slide. Even with the same DNA, it is a very totally different form of sport. There is a multiplayer mode, however the focus is singleplayer time trial and exploration amid desolate concrete cityscapes.
The vibes and music are mournful, however the platforming is pure goddamn velocity pressure momentum, all however blasting you again in your chair. Attempting to think about different video games that really feel this propulsive, what got here to thoughts for me have been F-Zero GX and Neon White. Counter-Strike surf maps and the defrag mod for Quake are additionally useful factors of comparability (and potential inspiration.)
Slide metropolis
The extra time I’ve put into Vholume, the extra defrag appears like essentially the most related comparability. You are able to do attractive cinematic parkour if you need, however the actual shit is crouch slide bunny hopping to get loopy momentum for PB degree instances. There are already speedrunners like Fobxx on YouTube exhibiting off blistering world report degree clears.
I like that Vholume does not put a mechanical damper on its motion instruments: I can crouch slide bunny hop until my coronary heart’s content material, and that is most likely one of the crucial beneficiant wallrun durations I’ve seen in a platformer. You understand how some video games say you possibly can solely wall leap so many instances earlier than your ft have to the touch the bottom once more? None of that right here.
As a substitute, Vholume limits your abuse of those mechanics via degree design. This sport was made with an insanely quick, cellular protagonist in thoughts. One trick I like is how Vholume will area out platforms or drops simply so to punish heedless hopping.
There can be irregular distances between a collection of platforms so that you danger overshooting one or falling simply wanting one other when you’re button mashing. Elsewhere, gaps you must crouch slide via can be intentionally positioned to convey a sloppy, mis-timed bunnyhop sequence to a standstill, forcing the humiliating ritual of slowly crouch strolling underneath as an alternative.
Velocity and precision are the secret. If that sounds too nerve-racking, I believe Vholume greater than affords full worth as an off-the-cuff, exploration-forward platformer and temper piece. However man, once you actually get shifting it’s positively thrilling. Despite the fact that it prices greater than Straftat’s hard-to-beat “free,” at $8, Vholume is firmly a “no duh” purchase recommendation in my e-book.
Hi, I’m Rishab. I’m a passionate pc gamer and an avid video game content writer. I have been involved with video games for over 2 decades now, and even today, after playing an astronomical number of games over the years, I’m still eager for more. In my free time, you will find me enjoying a hot cup of coffee and playing my favorite relaxing fishing game, Dave the Diver.
