by Nathan Grange, Léonard Lemaitre, Niels Tiercelin • August 21, 2026
VHOLUME is a melancholic first-person parkour run through a brutalist, overgrown capital where bureaucracy turns a ration-ticket errand into an odyssey. Movement is the point: jump, climb, slide, and chase momentum until shortcuts feel like cheating the architecture. Solo time trials, live multiplayer races, and ghost runs keep routes alive after the story beats; Steam Workshop adds community maps. From part of the team behind Straftat — expect sharp feel, not AAA spectacle. Best if you liked Mirror’s Edge or liminal concrete playgrounds and want melancholy over neon hype.
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01 / Exact Steam split
Steam recommendations: 3,592 positive, 99 negative (3,691 total)
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Melancholic first-person parkour in a Ministry-ruled brutalist city. Momentum and shortcuts matter more than set pieces. Best for Mirror’s Edge fans who want mood over neon.
VHOLUME sells a quiet contradiction: a simple bureaucratic errand — restore revoked ration tickets — stretched across a derelict Afro-Eurasian capital that treats concrete like a jungle gym. The tone is closer to lonely synth and footsteps than breakbeat parkour fantasy, and that is the point.
You jump, climb, slide, and learn the city’s grammar until a wrong line through a plaza becomes the real route. Early levels teach freedom; later ones reward players who think in momentum and angles instead of checklist jumps. Ghosts and live races turn every corridor into a conversation with someone faster than you. Workshop support is the long-tail promise: the base campaign can end, but the concrete playground does not have to.
It is not trying to be Straftat with parkour bolted on. Expect small-team ambition, mood, and mastery loops. Buy it if movement fantasy and brutalist melancholy beat spectacle; wait if you need a dense narrative RPG under the parkour. At 8.0, VHOLUME is a sharp, distinctive runner for players who care how a city feels under their feet.
The strongest part of VHOLUME is how often a route problem becomes a movement problem. Ghosts and races keep you hunting cleaner lines long after the Ministry quest is done.
It is not trying to be Straftat with parkour bolted on. Expect small-team ambition, mood, and mastery loops. Buy it if movement fantasy and brutalist melancholy beat spectacle; wait if you need a dense narrative RPG under the parkour. At 8.0, VHOLUME is a sharp, distinctive runner for players who care how a city feels under their feet. Our score: 8.0/10.
VHOLUME earns a score of 8.0 out of 10 from BestOfGames.
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