Revengence aside, PC players are about to get their first taste Metal Gear's classic brand of stealth this fall. In the interim, top-down isometric stealth game Volume seeks to fill that space with something meaningful.
Volume launched on Tuesday for every living platform except the Xbox One. The game is now available for the PC, OS X, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.
The indie game was developed by Mike Bithell, the guy who created Thomas Was Alone all on his own. Volume draws inspiration from Metal Gear Solid's stealth-based gameplay and from Robin Hood, a character not much unlike the thieving protagonist in Bithell's latest game.
The question remains: is Volume worth adding to your library?
The cone of vision, which tipped Metal Gear Solid players to visibility, is present in Volume. To get around the obstacles, the roving flesh variety and the stationary kind too, players are given standard issue stealth gadgets, such as noise-making decoys and trip wires.
There are 100 levels for players to work through and, according to early reviews, the gameplay is entertaining enough to make it through them all. The levels play quick, according to Polygon's Colin Campbell. As counter-intuitive as it may sound at first, that speed could give the game the longevity needed to avoid drowning as the fall and holidays welcome big budget AAA games.
"Speed-runs will feature on YouTube and Volume has obviously been tooled for just this purpose," Campbell wrote. "Even as I carefully made my way through certain levels, I could see the potential for significantly faster progress, for those with the skill and the grit."
As for the story, several reviews have deemed Volume's narrative solid and compelling. The game's protagonist, a hacktivist, is out to bring down a super evil mega corporation that controls a near-future England.
Kotaku's Chris Suellentrop describes Volume's story as being "mildly confusing," but rates the game a "yes."
"Yet while I was sometimes confused, only slightly, about what was going on in the story, I was never confused about what I was supposed to do in the game," wrote Suellentrop.
Volume appears to be a bit of an acquired taste. Those who love pure, unadulterated stealth should enjoy their time with Volume.
Here's a roundup of Volume's early review scores, all of which have been scaled to 10:
Polygon: 9
Game Informer: 8.75
GameSpot: 8
Destructoid: 6
PCGamer: 7.2
