For consistent readers of the site, you notice that I reviewed Mike Bithell’s breakaway hit, Thomas was Alone, earlier this week. How much did I enjoy this game? Well, I liked every related Facebook page, “creeped” Bithell’s twitter, and signed up for Thomas action figures–a little manic, right? However, in my research I can across Bithell’s upcoming game, Volume. And from the brief snippets I read, the game launched from the unknown to one of my most anticipated games of the year.

 

 

Volume has somehow managed to sneak this far into the year without making a sound. Amassing only 200 Facebook likes in the 6 months it’s been announced, very little has been heard about this game since it’s August debut. So the question is: What do we know?

 

 

 

 

Imagine a mixture of Thief, the Robin Hood stories, V for Vendetta, and Beat Hazard. Throw it all together and you come up with Volume. Let me explain.

 

The story revolves around a near-future retelling of Robin Hood–the game mostly, if not fully, taking place within a simulation. Volume’s “Robin Hood”, Robert (the bloke with mask on), wishing to help the poor more than his usual efforts, decides to Live-Stream his heists as an instruction manual to the impoverished–this is how you steal without getting caught. Meanwhile, Gisborne (the antagonist) is desperately trying to locate the source of Robert and these instructions which are set to overthrow society as we know it. Bithell is set up to provoke many philosophical questions, much like the AI’s from Thomas was Alone. However, instead of compassion and friendship, Volume looks to have the player consider revolution, the rights of the rich, and how long non-violence can survive in a desperate world.

 

 

The game is stealth based, focused on making noise to get around the guards without “dirtying your hands”, so to speak. Volume, as per its name, will focus heavily on sound. While it is unclear how the music of the game will play into it, the trailer (below) features Robert tossing stones to distract the guards. Its a mechanic that, while not new in stealth games, has never seemed so artfully done. The game will be voiced by the talented Danny Wallace (Narrator of Thomas was Alone) as the computer’s AI [really seems to be typecasted in these games, doesn’t he] and starring Charlie McDonnell (charlieissocoollike on YouTube) as Robert.

 

 

Further Volume will feature 100 individual levels, while also allowing for level designing and sharing. Building your own levels and being able to share them among friends of the Internet as a whole will lead to hours upon hours of extra play time while also fitting in to the “simulation” setting of the game.

 

 

 

The game is slated for release at an unknown point in 2014 and will release for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita before hitting other consoles. It will hit PC’s and Macs about a month later.

 

 

Check out the awesome trailer’s below and like Volume on Facebook to drum up some enthusiasm!