prisoner Stufe 0

0 0 0 0

Marktplatz

Vaporum

Plattform: PC Veröffentlicht: 28.09.2017

19,5€

Zum Shop

Preis Update 03.09.24

Vaporum ist ein grid-basiertes Dungeon-Crawler-RPG, in dem der Spieler einen Charakter im Einzelspielermodus aus der Sicht der Ego-Perspektive in einem einzigartigen Steampunk-Setting steuert. Inspiriert von Klassikern wie Dungeon Master 1 und 2, der Eye of the Beholder-Reihe und Legend of Grimrock 1 und 2. Mitten im Ozean vor einem riesigen Turm gestrandet, muss der Held herausfinden, an was für einem Ort er sich befindet, was dort passiert ist und viel wichtiger: wer er ist.

Echtzeitkämpfe aus der Ego-Perspektive
Rätsel und Level umfassende Ziele
Ein auf Gadgets basierendes RPG-System
Umfangreiche Erkundung, Beute und Charakteranpassung
Mysteriöse Geschichte voller Geheimnisse
Vollständig vertonte Hauptcharaktere
Immersives Steampunk-Setting

Kämpfe finden in Echtzeit statt. Jeder Gegner hat charakteristische Stärken und Schwächen, was bedeutet, dass du deine Taktik anpassen musst, um sie alle zu schlagen. Waffentypen besitzen einzigartige Boni und unterscheiden sich in ihrem Verhalten, wodurch Spieltiefe hinzugefügt wird und der Wahl der Waffen, die du anlegen möchtest, eine größere Bedeutung zukommt.

Du wirst viele verschiedene Gadgets finden: Direktangriffe, Gebietsschaden, offensive und defensive Verstärkungen ... Diese Gadgets sind mächtig, aber einige Gegner sind gegen bestimmte Angriffsarten immun. Du wirst also herausfinden müssen, wie du am besten mit den Herausforderungen des Spiels klarkommst.

Löse faszinierende Rätsel und Level umfassende Ziele, bei denen du sowohl Verstand als auch Reflexe beweisen musst. Während sich die meisten Rätsel in einem einzigen Raum befinden, können Progressionsziele ein gesamtes oder sogar mehrere Level umfassen.

An Stelle der Fähigkeiten deines menschlichen Charakters verbesserst du deinen Exo-Anzug, den du permanent trägst. Das Spiel verbindet ein Du-bist-was-du-trägst-Aspekt mit einer langfristigen Entwicklung deines Exo-Anzugs. Das auf Gadgets basierende System erlaubt es dir, deine Gadgets jederzeit zu wechseln, und gewährt dir somit größte Flexibilität, um mit verschiedenen Situationen umzugehen. Auf der anderen Seite schaltest du nützliche Schaltkreise auf deinem Exo-Anzug frei, während du im Spiel voranschreitest, wodurch du permanente Boni zu deinen Attributen sowie passive Fähigkeiten erhältst.

Auf einer kleinen Insel mitten im Ozean gestrandet, begibst du dich in einen gigantischen, mechanischen Turm. Nichts ergibt für dich einen Sinn, aber alles kommt dir merkwürdig vertraut vor ...

Wenn du in die Geschichte eintauchst und die Geheimnisse des Turms aufdecken möchtest, kannst du sofort anfangen zu graben, indem du alle Notizen liest, die du finden kannst. Aber keine Sorge, alle Texte können problemlos ignoriert werden. Alle wichtigen Punkte der Geschichte werden durch die Hauptcharaktere erzählt und sie sind voll vertont!

Es gibt viele optionale Gebiete im Spiel, die nur darauf warten, von dir erkundet zu werden. In der Regel stellen diese Gebiete eine Herausforderung dar, aber warten auch mit einer Belohnung auf! Der Turm ist mit Geheimgängen gespickt, in denen einzigartige Gegenstände sowie die Notizen seiner Bewohner zu finden sind. Durch sie erhältst du einen Einblick in ihr Leben und die Ereignisse, die vor deinem Eintreffen stattgefunden haben.

Minimum
Empfohlen

Setzt 64-Bit-Prozessor und -Betriebssystem voraus
CPU: 2.5 Ghz Intel® Core 2 Duo Processor or AMD equivalent
GFX: NVIDIA GeForce 400 series 512 MB video card or AMD equivalent
RAM: 4 GB RAM
Software: Windows: Vista SP1 (64-bit), 7 (64-bit), 8 (64-bit), 10 (64-bit)
HD: 6 GB verfügbarer Speicherplatz
SFX: DirectX compatible sound card
DX: Version 11
LANG: Englisch

Deutsch (2)
Englisch (53)

138 Produkte im Account

16 Reviews

Empfohlen

1024 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 30.11.19 17:52

Die Bilder zeigen einen First-Person-Shooter. Das ist es aber nicht. Die Bewegung ist etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig, da man nicht frei, sondern genau auf den Feldern geht. Aber gerade mit einem Controller geht das problemlos. Dafür ist das Spiel richtig angenehm einfach im Sinne der Rechenleistung und dem Schwierigkeitsgrad. Ich behaupte, für jede Spielerfahrung ist da etwas zu finden. Nun aber ein Wort zum zentralen Element. Den Rätseln. Das Kämpfen und Leveln und Aufrüsten ist eher nebensächlich. Es gibt im Laufe des Spiels immer wieder Räume mit einfach Rätseln. Mal Kisten zu schieben, mal Schalter oder Hebel, mal Spiegel mal eine Kombination von allem. Und auch die Rätsel sind immer mal anders. Das ist schon eine schöne Herausforderung. Für mich ein angenehmes Knobeln.

209 Produkte im Account

5 Reviews

Empfohlen

1030 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 06.10.17 19:58

Die Story und Gameplay-Features:

In Vaporum verschlägt es mich in die Rolle eines mit Amnesie versehenen Protagonisten, der in der Nähe eines riesigen verschlossenen Turms irgendwo im Meer aufwacht. Ohne jegliche Erinnerung an vorherige Ereignisse und irgendwie angezogen von diesem metallenem Monstrum, tritt er näher. Dieser seltsame Turm schien ihn jedoch irgendwie zu erkennen und öffnete die Zugangstür...

Vom Gameplay ist Vaporum klar an Klassiker wie Eye of the Beholder oder Dungeon Master angelehnt, daraus machen die Entwickler auch keinen Hehl. So durchstreife ich als Einzelheld in Ego-Perspektive schrittweise die diversen Stockwerke des großen Bauwerkes, um das Geheimnis meiner Amnesie und des Turms zu lösen.

Vaporum fährt mit seinem Leveldesign einen gelungenen Mix aus fordernden Kämpfen und ruhigeren und teilweise kniffligen Puzzle- und Rätselpassagen auf, an denen man teilweise auch mal länger knabbern kann. Gegen die anzutreffenden mechanischen (und menschlichen) Gegner, setze ich in Echtzeit diverse Nahkampf- und Schußwaffen ein, die ich beim Plündern des Turms finde. Die Kämpfe sind bereits auf Stufe Normal kein Selbstläufer und erfordern geschicktes Manövrieren, gerade wenn man mehrere Feinde vor sich hat. Durch die verstreuten Logs und Tonbänder ehemaliger Turmbewohner entfaltet sich die Story nach und nach, hier lässt eindeutig Bioshock grüßen.

Die RPG-Elemente:

Die gewohnte klassische Exp-Vergabe und Level-Ups gibt es nicht, das RPG-System von Vaporum funktioniert aufgrund des Technik-Szenarios anders: Mit dem Element Fumium, das besiegte Gegner hinterlassen, fülle ich mein Exo-Rig, eine Art tragbare Rüstung (mit diversen Stats-Werten, die Attribute ersetzen) und erhalte so nach und nach Upgrade-Punkte für dieses. So verbessere ich z.B. die Panzerung für mehr Widerstandskraft und schalte auf höherer Stufe dazu passive Skills mit neuen Boni frei.

Austauschbare Gadgets für mein Exo-Rig erlauben mir, spezielle Resistenzen/Schutzformen oder neue Angriffsarten (z.B. Feuer-Flächenschaden) im Kampf einzusetzen. Das gewährt mir eine hohe Flexibilität in den zahlreichen Gefechten und lädt zum Testen ein.

Audiovisuelle Eindrücke:

Optisch äußerst ansprechend gelungen - und im Genre der Dungeon Crawler so ziemlich einzigartig - ist das Steampunk-Setting, in das mich die Entwickler entführen. Grafisch auf dem Niveau eines Legend of Grimrock angesiedelt, bringt Vaporum die düstere und kalte Atmosphäre, die der Turm ausstrahlt, eindrucksvoll rüber. Geschickt eingesetzte, dezente Licht- und Schatteneffekte untermalen die jeweils mit einem anderen grafischen Thema ausgestatteten Levels harmonisch zu einem stimmigen visuellen Gesamtbild. Eine bedrohliche Soundkulisse rundet das akustische Erlebnis während des Erkundens und Kämpfens ab.

Fazit zum Spiel:

Die Fatbot Studios liefern mit Vaporum einen anspruchsvollen Titel für Genre-Fans ab, ein echt starkes Debüt des kleinen Indie-Entwicklers! Klasse auch, dass die Entwickler immer wieder neue Features mit Patches nachgereicht haben, wie den Time-Stop-Modus.

386 Produkte im Account

201 Reviews

Empfohlen

84 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 01.03.22 22:11

As far as dungeon crawlers go - not bad!
Great graphics, great sound, interesting setting, and so far - combat shows potential to be very cool. Puzzling also isn't too bad.
if I'd have to make a complain - its a bit basic. What you see is what you get, really, from the start. There (probably) aren't any innovations to the genre or mixed in interesting features. I've only played 1.5h so maybe things change a lot as I move forward, but so far, all mechanics seemed to be revealed up front, and they are few.

Nevertheless - worth playing a if you like dungeon crawlers.

1668 Produkte im Account

9 Reviews

Empfohlen

1237 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 14.02.22 10:40

Legend of Grimrock meets Bioshock. Well executed, doesn't outstay its welcome, puzzles are mostly fair and exploration is fun and rewarding. Atmosphere and graphics are on point. I really like the system that allows you to pause time when you're not taking an action, makes fights that I would have found frustrating or impossible into manageable ones, as I can take my time thinking about strategy instead of panicking.

688 Produkte im Account

23 Reviews

Empfohlen

1723 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 13.02.22 03:23

Decent story, good combat, agility based, kinda like Legend of Grimrock. I'm not a fan of steampunk but this one kept my attention till the end.

226 Produkte im Account

54 Reviews

Empfohlen

995 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 13.02.22 02:56

classic dungeon crawler with a lot of Bioshock inspiration, good enemy variety lots of secrets to discover and a good variety of play styles

376 Produkte im Account

22 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

201 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 05.02.22 05:08

Its clunky and for a game in this genre that is to be expected. Still I just couldn't shake it. The weapons don't feel good to use, everything takes tons of hits, face tanking is out of the question you have to dodge which is fine but the tight corridors made it near impossible especially when the enemies all have AOE attacks or ranged.

The combat, customization and resource management felt lacking. Weapons are beyond slow which the first enemies are lightning fast. I won't speak to the story since I didn't play long enough you really hear much of it.

The voice acting was fine but honestly not necessary at least it didn't add anything and the steampunk theme was neat but its so dark you hardly notice.

All in all, its dull. I hate saying that but that's what it is, the beginning explains little other than its a big tower with bad machines and no real drive from the player other than you have no choice. Normally that would be fine but after a few hours of left-clicking damage sponge enemies for a hour or made me no longer care. I don't need a power trip to enjoy a game but when every enemy takes 3 hits from my two-handed hammer I have spend all my skill points on it really just makes it feel like tedious.

Oh and did I mention the combat. but honestly that really is the problem here. Its the main thing in the game but all it is is left clicking while you have buff on. They allow you to stop time and think but for nothing, in other games like legend of grimlock that would make sense since you could judge mana levels or check ammo and health of your TEAM. Here its just one guy, and one button while sometimes remembering to activate your 3% fire prevention buff.

Not worth full price, maybe a sale but only if you like dungeon crawlers. If you dont know if you like Dungeon crawlers, go try GRIMLOCK either game is better.

362 Produkte im Account

15 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

815 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 13.01.22 12:52

Kept slogging through the first 3 levels hoping it'd get better but by level four I was over it. My main issue is that it's too damn hard. I ended up restarting on Easy and wishing I'd chosen Story mode.

Who wants bullet sponges from the get go? The armour, weapons, skills and abilities don't keep up with the difficulty of the enemies either. Well unless, unlike me, you can decode the secret sauce to the perfect combination that gives you a fighting chance.

The enemies are samey. You get introduced to a new automaton and then ground down by all the different flavors of them. Oh no here comes the one with acid/fire/electricity/a gun/a big bleeding hammer. Everything just feels... unbalanced to me.

On the plus side it's a reasonable looking game I guess. The lore and backstory are interesting and were the only reason I played it as long as I did. I did find it very hard to believe that anyone really lived/worked in any of these areas though. I guess you were expected to use your imagination here. The voice acting is good, especially our sardonic lantern-jawed protagonist. He gets a few good quips in. But the English in some of the narration was a little off. That sort of non-English speaker thing that always wrecks games for me.

I hope the prequel is better as I bought both this and it on sale as a bundle. It's definitely not worth full price unless you are a glutton for punishment.

Sorry, it just wasn't for me.

2148 Produkte im Account

61 Reviews

Empfohlen

910 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 06.01.22 04:20

Overall enjoyable but I largely agree with some of the main points cited by more negative reviews here, the combat just pulls some cruel tricks and you are gonna be quick saving/loading a bunch. Grimrock is definitely the more successful grid RPG of the two, but I still found myself engrossed. The art direction and sound design are largely great.

If you're looking to scratch that itch, I'd recommend, but maybe on a sale.

2004 Produkte im Account

322 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

412 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 22.12.21 17:23

This game has been around for awhile now so wont spend time describing mechanics. Instead i will keep this extra short. So here goes.

Shortly explained: 'Emphasis on combat and constantly being trapped with enemies in tight spaces combined with limited healing capability pushes the game in the longer run towards reloading/memorizing/minmaxing based game play'

And i must say i really don't like this. It saps my motivation to once again push forward towards the next trap instead of thinking about puzzles until i my head spins. I did not get that 'fix' from this game and i won't waste time telling here people what games provide that. You all know them already.

1886 Produkte im Account

18 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

737 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 12.12.21 13:39

As others, I really wanted to like this game and actually finish it but I just can't. The biggest grip that I have with this game is level scaling. It just doesn't make any sense to have a level up system if in the end is just pointless. I leveled up Rifles to the max and it required the same amount of bullets (give it or take) to kill the same type of enemies that you faced for the first time. What's the point? The combat is already bad as it is (especially when they lock you in a room and you have to face 3 or 4 enemies that can basically lock you in a grid and kill you in seconds), it really doesn't help that it will remain like this for the rest of the game. Why level up? Why pick better equipment?

What about the rest of the game? I would say that it's OK. The story is intriguing and I still want to know how it ends (I'll probably check on youtube) but the exploration is mediocre. Everything looks the same, dark and bleak, and to make things worse, for you to find the secrets, you have to scan every inch of the walls since the switch can be a simple dot on a column.

I'm glad that others are enjoying it but I feel like I wasted my money on something that in theory I should enjoy (Steampunk dungeon crawler).

135 Produkte im Account

15 Reviews

Empfohlen

410 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 25.11.21 10:20

If u like legends of grimrock u will like this

300 Produkte im Account

118 Reviews

Empfohlen

1389 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 21.11.21 17:09

Fun Grimrock-esque solo variant with a lot of puzzles and tight combats. I did not go for completion in this game as it was nice but seemed a bit repetetive but I had fun up until that point.

765 Produkte im Account

26 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

333 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 20.11.21 19:01

Loved the puzzles, loved the exploration and dungeons, hated the combat.

Enemies have huge pools of HP, and since you only control one toon, you will need to kite them for a good while before they go down. Add to this multiple 'arena' rooms, where you are trapped fighting more than one enemy, most of them with AOE attacks. Feels like a chore.

Ends up feeling like a more tedious version of Grimrock. Even the things I loved here were better in Grimrock.

431 Produkte im Account

17 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

95 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 14.11.21 17:50

Right now after playing a little and taking a closer look at the negative reviews I think I can explain what is just wrong with this game. But from the beginning - I started playing using a controller if a dev says it has 'Full controller support' this should mean that using a controller should feel great and the truth is - it is not. In the first minutes the game just floods you with loads of strange shortcuts assigned all around the board - quicksave(LT + MENU) and quickload(LT + BACK) while those two options could have been added to the menu screen 2 clicks away while making sure you won't reload a save when all you wanted to do was save. On top of that strange combinations like triggers plus directional keypad, With strange button assigns like putting MAIN HAND action on left bumper. Then game throws more shortcuts at you like actions and time pause... And it get's more confusing with each new little thing.
Now there is a point where you should start meeting your first single enemies. Of course we know that they will be somekind of slow snails in pretty big rooms or corridors and they will signal their attacks well so you will be able to get familair with combat, skills, healing, energy, right? Well actually no. You will be thrown into a cramped space with fast enemies, multiple enemies, ranged enemies and AoE enemies and then when you think you can start getting familiar with all this they will just slap you with 'Time pause' and don't even explain how to properly use it adding another shortcut on already cramped button map. So in the end you will be fighting not only with fast enemies in tight spaces but also keybindings and piss pour decissions like throwing multiple enemies at you at once. And we are still on level 2 of the game!
Then you will meet the 'boss', get your ass served to you a few too many times and you realize you are playing on 'normal'.
And I must say I am impressed. Even Dark Souls was more pleasent to play when my ass was served back to me once and again. Mostly because I knew that those were my own mistakes since game did it best to learn me how to play it before I met a first boss or first stronger enemies. Those were MY mistakes not using gained knowledge in a resonable mannor. And here? You are teached a shitloads of shortcuts, mechanics are introduced too fast, game expects you to utilize them without getting properly familiar with them and then throws you to a boss fight with additional mob to backstab you. If you played darksouls just imagine fighting Taurus demon with a dog as a first boss in a game.
And then there is a fact that this game will not respect your time by achievements like 'finish a game a few times with different modifiers, speedruns and urealistic challanges so we are sure you did not have fun with our game and we made you finish it at least a few times so your hour count will be higher :^)'
But on the side not I enjoyed the atmosphere and exploration even if I did not get much out of it. I still must decide if I will give it another go or just refund it.

96 Produkte im Account

147 Reviews

Empfohlen

114 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 05.11.21 16:36

Retro steam punk grid based dungeon crawler
For an indie game, Vaporum has a really high production value
dungeon crawler, RPG elements (levels, skill points, Gear/item rarity, and different builds), Puzzles, and strategic combat.
worth picking up the bundle as well.

409 Produkte im Account

78 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

648 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 05.10.21 13:48

Im a fan of these games, and id enjoy this one more...if it dident feel like alot of the game was bullshit.

To the dev: Next game you make, stop making almost EVERY room an encounter arena, those get super old very fast and only serve to burn the players healing inventory.

Also, timed puzzles with instakill features are annoying too.

Finaly: Autosave after major fights would help make some of the deaths more managable; as theres nothing like beating a giant enemy force or boss...to have you suddenly fall out of the arena becuse you took one wrong step.

735 Produkte im Account

156 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

102 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 26.08.21 22:46

Not completely terrible by any means, but I didn't enjoy this very much. It really feels like every aspect of this game is blown out of the water by Grimrock. The levels are very uninteresting and the encounter design hasn't been fun. Progression does not get me excited and loot has been boring so far. Maybe the game gets better later on, but it didn't manage to keep me playing.

349 Produkte im Account

248 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

500 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 19.07.21 01:12

7/10

I found this game to be a big disappointment. Not my kind of game I guess. After a few hours in, all I did was die die die die. It just gets old. Feels like you have no control over how much damage you take or if you die regardless of skill or strategy. Kinda like playing a game of dice where you only win the roll if you get 1s or 2s and the opponent wins on 3-6s, snake eyes, pairs, and if the dice add up to 3. Tons of good games out there, I'm passing on this one early.

778 Produkte im Account

78 Reviews

Empfohlen

234 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 05.07.21 23:02

After playing a few hours, I'm already hooked on this game. If you played Legend of grimrock previously, then you would surely enjoy this game. It has a lot of similar aspects such as being a dungeon crawler, RPG elements (levels, skill points, Gear/item rarity, and different builds), Puzzles, and strategic combat. The only difference is you play as a solo character and not multiple in your party and the theme being steampunk of course.
Looking forward to finishing this, probably worth picking up the bundle as well.

215 Produkte im Account

10 Reviews

Empfohlen

1601 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 24.06.21 00:56

While not a veteran in these kind of games, I played the old id software's dungeon crawlers for phones (namely Doom RPG and Orcs & Elves) and thoroughly enjoyed Vaporum. Amazing setting and narrative. 10/10 never engage in marriage.

659 Produkte im Account

65 Reviews

Empfohlen

224 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 16.06.21 00:30

Bioshock and Grimrock had a baby!

430 Produkte im Account

17 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

881 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 22.05.21 15:00

Pros:
- story is ok, if we ignore cliche twist in the end;
- enemies are beautiful visually and interesting from gameplay standpoint. It is not as simple to dance around them as it is in LoG1 as they move faster, have AoE and ranged attacks;
- overall atmosphere is nice;
- game has some decent puzzles;
- some enemy encounters and bosses are well designed.

Cons:
- progression system. There are not enough levels, most levels give you % improvements (and this is boring). By the end you will probably have 4-6 perks, so that means 4-6 interesting upgrades during 14 hours of playtime. Enemies in this game scale with your character. So on different stages of the game you will fight the same enemies but with more health and damage. This makes levelling up meaningless as you do not feel more powerful.
- boring armors and weapons (5 sets of the same items where each new set brings better effects). The only ones with interesting effects can be found in secret rooms (and I found very few of them, if I tried to find more I would probably spent much more time). Enemies also do not drop interesting loot (they drop only healing items and bullets).
- repetitive, dark and visually boring locations. Mess of the same metallic corridors with a bit different lighting on different levels.
- some secrets are easy to find but some others are almost impossible as in-game headlight shows well only center of the screen but triggers to open secrets can be at the edges where you see almost nothing.
- enemies have too much health on hard difficulty, making lots of fights too long.
- over-reliance on arenas, where game closes doors behind you and throws at you enemies.
- there are some places where game deals damage to character in cutscenes with no way to evade. Such things should not exist in a game with no auto HP regen.

For me dungeon crawlers are about exploration, progression, encounter designs and puzzles. Encounter designs varied from bad to good, puzzles were average (worse than LoG1), exploration and progression were bad so I cannot recommend this game.

267 Produkte im Account

24 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

187 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 08.05.21 18:57

I am unable to play this game because it has head movement that you cannot disable. When standing still, your view will tilt slightly back and forth, and occasionally your character will look at slightly different angles. This combined with the camera shifting downward every time you're on a tripplate or standing on an item made me feel very sick after just a couple hours of playing. Turning off head bob does not fix this issue.

I've played through just about all of these kinds of games since the original Dungeon Master, and none of them gave me the same problem. From when smooth movement first started with Lands of Lore, Anvil of Dawn and Stonekeep, through Legend of Grimrock II, I had no problems. But having the camera tilt and move without my control is pretty much guaranteed to make me feel sick.

Sorry, I cannot recommend this.

423 Produkte im Account

53 Reviews

Empfohlen

918 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 09.04.21 12:00

Overview

Vaporum is a dungeon crawler with real-time combat developed by Fatbot Games. It tried and successfully lifted a somewhat archaic genre into a more accessible and polished form without too much compromise in complexity.

Gameplay

The tower of Arx Vaporum is divided into several levels of increasing complexity as players scale it. The dungeon isn’t as vast and sprawling as Grimrock 2 or older games, but as a location it’s well fleshed out and fun to explore. Movement is strictly confined to grids that make up the entirety of the level’s layout. In Vaporum, The combat uses its grid-based map creatively. Vaporum also features a pause button that really helps give some room to breathe during combat and puzzles.

Cheese Free Combat (almost)

One simple addition that Vaporum implements is giving enemies various attack patterns. Enemies can attack with AoEs, swipe their sides or pull you into their range. This makes the 2x2 grid cheese impractical. Mobility and strategizing become an integral part of your deadly dance with the hostiles inside Arx Vaporum.

The pause button gives players time to assess their situation and position. Pausing doesn’t mean you can dodge every attack. Time only stops if you don’t do anything. Moving and even changing direction will resume all movement, and you cannot evade everything forever.

Don’t Need Party To Be Cool

Unlike typical dungeon crawlers, players only control one character in Vaporum. That doesn’t reduce the game’s depth because it gives players immense freedom and a variety of tools at their disposal. At the beginning of the game, players are given a major choice of their class archetype presented by 4 types of exo-suits, which will determine the core of their build. Generally, they determine your defense, attack power, energy and HP. it’s not locked however, as players are allowed to diversify and wear any equipment they want

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2451347841

Your main instruments of damage dealing will be the weapons that come in many shapes and forms. One or two-handed, blade, blunt or ranged weapons. Any of these can be combined as you like. Wielding a giant hammer, a pistol with a side shield or dual swords are all equally viable. The main character’s proficiency with these weapons can also be upgraded from their respective skill trees. The progression is linear depending on what type of weapon you pick. You might decide to specialize in guns by simply upgrading the gun tree.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2451347026

The highlight in my opinion are the gadgets. They are essentially magic spells that come with various different effects. Some effects are played as a straight offense, others lets you manipulate the battlefield by laying traps, creating decoys or switching positions with the enemies. Using gadgets expends your energy, which slowly regenerates or can be restored by consumables in a pinch.

The result of these permutations are highly varied builds that factor into an already engaging combat and it might be the best combat system for this genre that /I have ever played.

Solve ‘n Loot

There isn’t a wealth of new ideas presented here, but most of the puzzles are well executed. You push boxes, find hidden switches or use teleportation pads to navigate a labyrinth. It is overall a lot less reliant on Grimrock-style “find slightly different textured piece of brick for hidden buttons” that usually would end up as an annoying pixel hunt. It’s still there, but the levels still contain good number of secrets and riddles that are presented naturally.

Exploring and solving puzzles are worth pursuing because it gives you unique equipment or tools to upgrade your stats permanently. There are equal amount of unique equipment for each type of the playstyles. They are also placed with careful consideration so you don’t go on too long before getting an upgrade.

Story

Vaporum tells the story of recycled tale of hubris and arrogance. The tower conducts science experiments that is bound to fail. It did fail in a predictable way. What Vaporum did right is adding a personal angle for the character you’re playing. He found himself shipwrecked, amnesiac and the massive tower of Arx Vaporum invitingly looms in the mist in the middle of the ocean. The tower calls to him, it seems familiar. Once he reaches the tower, he will uncover the answers to his questions.

The story is just there give you a reason to move through the dungeon, but it has its moments. Players are asked to play along anyway, and it can be fun. You’re essentially an outsider detective piecing out events and the role of each character in that mess, including the character you control. At least for me, I still got AHA! moment when I figured out the plot twist halfway before the game actually tells me.

Bugs and Technical Problems

Specs: GTX 1080, Ryzen 3700x, RAM 16 GB, 1440p

I did not encounter major problems in the game. I did experience FPS drop during a certain boss that can summon minions and there were a lot of objects on the screen. with that section as exception, the game ran perfectly.

Graphics and Visuals

Arx Vaporum is defined by its practicality. The tower is deprived of decorations and aesthetics, leaving only nondescript hallways made of metals and concretes. It reinforces the culture they are living in, which worships scientific pursuit above all. Dedication towards their work above their own well-being.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2451349436

The game can look boring because there aren’t much variety of tiles textures they use. There are subtle differences between each sections especially in their usage of lighting. For example there is a section of the tower that is flooded with poison. The metals hallways reflects the green glow of the toxic waste and changes the ambience of the section. Technically it’s quite impressive. The limited palette allows the developer to paint more detail than is expected from a small indie team. The textures, shaders, and lighting are on point.

Audio and Soundtrack

The game does sound pretty well. Your boots stomping on iron tiles have real weight to it. The hissing of massive steam-powered pistons, grinding steel gears and the buzz of electricity is omnipresent. The skitters of hostile mutant insects or the whirring of patrol drones haunts you thoroughly in Vaporum’s concrete walls. It’s quite a rich experience to listen to with headphones. The soundtrack is sparse and mostly you’re just accompanied by the ambience of the tower.

Conclusion

Vaporum biggest strength is its combat and exploration. It tried to work around combat exploit that exist in older dungeon crawler games, and successfully made the whole experience more engaging. The game is obviously made out of love for the genre. The game is also made to be accessible while retaining depth. Whether you’re a fan of the genre looking for a new game or just curious about dungeon crawler, it’s a title worth trying.

513 Produkte im Account

268 Reviews

Empfohlen

2807 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 02.04.21 17:25

Vaporum is a great grid-based dungeon-crawler with beautiful and detailed steampunk aesthetics.

It has a deep and interesting story and the voice acting fits perfectly.

Compared to other games of this genre the game feels a lot more combat focused. The puzzles are fun but overall not very challenging (I am just used to the Legend of Grimrock kind of difficulty).

I enjoyed the part where you had to travel through a location without fighting. It was a nice change and a lot of fun luring enemies into traps.

310 Produkte im Account

5 Reviews

Empfohlen

1069 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 11.03.21 22:40

A solid dungeon crawler in the vein of Dungeon Master and later Legend of Grimrock but with a steampunk theme. Feels polished and well executed, with good graphics and sound.

The difficulty level was just fine for normal mode. The enemies of Vaporum are likely the most challenging and creative enemies I've seen so far for this type of grid-based crawler. The normal strafe-turn-attack movement (so effective in Grimrock) is not enough here - many enemies both strafe and can attack to their sides. Some also have special area-attacks that can hit multiple squares in front or around them. Others have guns that hit you at many steps away. Each enemy thus feels interesting. Your own arsenal involves both melee weapons, guns (which uses ammo) and area-of-effect specials (that uses energy). You also have a skill tree for improving various abilities and open up more possibilities.

An interesting thing is that the game allows you to 'pause' so the world only moves when you do. This becomes more and more useful as the game goes on since it allows you to rummage in your inventory without stress etc.

There were some puzzles (but nowhere as many as in e.g. Legend of Grimlock 2). Buttons could be hidden in pretty creative places at times and there were a few death-traps that I had to try over and over a few times before I figured them out. Nothing that had me overly frustrated though; it seemed pretty logical most of the time.

A critique of the game is a penchant for 'arenas' in many places - it's not uncommon to enter a large room where the door closes behind you and you have to handle a carefully selected set of enemies. The advantage is that the designed could customize each encounter for the terrain, the drawback is that it feels a little rail-roady at times - in other games you could often back out of the room to try various tactics to draw out or snipe the enemies in your own way - here you are often stuck until you win the encounter.

But overall, probably one of the best modern crawlers since Legend of Grimrock. Recommended.

458 Produkte im Account

19 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

158 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 08.03.21 00:09

I REALLY liked it at first, but then the puzzles turned into this cryptic bullshit thing to the point where I had to pull up a walkthrough every 5 minutes, despite looking around carefully. Awesome gameplay, shitty puzzles.

166 Produkte im Account

28 Reviews

Empfohlen

828 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 28.12.20 23:49

its good

468 Produkte im Account

60 Reviews

Empfohlen

631 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 22.12.20 18:28

not as good a s grimrock but still worth a playthrough

442 Produkte im Account

116 Reviews

Empfohlen

1213 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 16.12.20 19:10

I admit it. I used a lot of sleazy tactics to weasel my way through Legend of Grimrock. It was utterly reprehensible. I'm ashamed of myself. For those of you who did likewise, this game is our just reward.

They've beefed up their anti-sleaze defenses quite a bit here in what I can only assume is a deliberate effort to stop scumbags like me. You can forget about pulling monsters back to a gate one by one and then opening and closing the gate to avoid damage when the doors slam shut and lock you in a small room.

Remember the good old run-around-a-2x2-square-so-they-can't-hit-you routine? It still kind of works, but it's a lot harder to pull off when you're in the aforementioned small room with two or more monsters who can do things like spit acid on the floor and drop AOE attacks. Get a little lazy and before you know it they trap you in a corner and it's over. F9.

While the punishment may be well-deserved, that doesn't make it any less of a drag. There's a general formula to this game which goes: enter room --> door closes --> fight monsters --> door opens. You can see it coming, and after a while it evokes only a sigh of resignation as each new ordeal, much the same as the last, draws near.

There's not much variety or progression to the enemies and they can absorb a ton of damage, which made the battles a real grind; and that was with a more dps-oriented character, too. Not to mention, I was playing a rifle spec because I had big plans that involved running away a lot, and it turns out that ammo can be pretty scarce until the very end. So much of the time I had to switch to some lousy melee weapon I barely knew how to use just to conserve bullets. No respec-ing, either.

Even the environments are kind of dreary and monotonous, although technically speaking it does look really good for an indie. Maybe that comes with the territory in these steampunk sort of worlds; but it doesn't seem like they explored the potential of the environment very enthusiastically. I mean, it's a big tower on the ocean, yet they never take advantage of this dramatic location. Once the doors slam shut, you could be anywhere. Would have been nice if they showed you a little more variety as you went along to liven things up.

Don't mean to come down too hard on this game. It's not so bad; and to be fair Legend of Grimrock had some of the same issues. There's a story, too, by the way. I put off mentioning it because (just between you and me) I wasn't really paying attention to the logs you find until they actually started to seem important later in the game, and at that point I wasn't going to go back and read them all to catch up. The part I did see near the end seemed ok, though.

Maybe I'm just bitter because they shut down my slimeball combat tactics. Can't they just unlock the doors and free me to be the man I was meant to be?

Come on, give me a little breathing room and four contiguous tiles and I'll take on the world!

You can find more indie game reviews at oddlittlegames.com or visit my curator page. Thanks, and enjoy!

107 Produkte im Account

32 Reviews

Empfohlen

723 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 29.11.20 19:11

Good weekend game. Not sure I'd say it's worth a 20 dollar price tag, but if it's on sale from there then I'd recommend picking it up. I beat it in 12 hours - it's short. Still, I'm looking forward to the next one when it goes on sale!

447 Produkte im Account

14 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

221 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 12.11.20 05:53

The game could have been excellent, but for some reason the dev decided to have enemies scale with you as you progress though the levels. This made it so you never feel any stronger. This is terrible for a dungeon crawler, every level you should feel stronger and fight more enemies or new strong enemies. Fighting the same enemies that just become damage sponges is not fun.

65 Produkte im Account

9 Reviews

Empfohlen

1061 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 16.10.20 03:39

A masterpiece. Thumbs up!

Comparable to other dungeon crawlers :
-more combat oriented
-interesting and fulfilling story
-relatively easy puzzles
-no super hardcode elements like hidden button on level 3 opens a door on level 7
-relatively relaxing gameplay (for a dungeon crawler)

Be warned that I completed the game in 17 hours, after that there is pretty much nothing to do. But these 17 hours worth it.

381 Produkte im Account

135 Reviews

Empfohlen

856 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 11.10.20 21:08

Pretty good dungeon crawler. (But it's not in the same league as LoG.)

Obviously the big pull with Vaporum is the steampunk element, and I'd argue it pulls that off quite well. There's a bit of eldritch lovecraftianism mixed in, which certainly doesn't hurt. The atmosphere is great, with good music, for the most part awesome voice acting, and just enough darkness mixed in.

The combat is fun and rewarding and with a bit of situational awareness and decently quick reflexes you can easily get through most fights without being slapped around like a combat dummy. There's also an abundance of bullets, so you can comfortably get through the whole game with just using guns without worrying about running out of ammo, which is pretty nice. Beyond guns the melee weapons do either slash or blunt damage, each having bonuses against one of the two types of enemies you'll fight, but with each type having its own separate talent tree, you should probably stick to just one. (There's only enough points to max out three and a half skill trees.)
Beyond weapons you also get gadgets, which are a pretty powerful addition to your arsenal, even if you're not speccing into them; also most of them are useful, so you'll find yourself using them often enough, which is exactly how auxiliary items should work in games.
The skill trees offer plenty of interesting options and you're pretty much forced to level up at least two at once, as each skill has a level requirement, which I don't find particularly pleasant, but it works here.

There's also a couple of puzzles and some secrets (some of which are very sneaky, but most of them are not too hard to find, once you know what to look for) sprinkled in, as you'd expect. Not nearly as much as LoG, but that's probably a good thing... (PSA: you can check the statistics before leaving each level to check if you've found them all so you don't have to backtrack later, if you're a completionist...)

The story is alright, nothing too exceptional, but not a poorly written snoozefest either. You slowly put together what happened as you progress, with notes left by previous inhabitants helping to paint the picture of how things got to where they are when you arrive... I would've liked if the game answered a bit more questions about the whole situation, but what we got is mostly fine. [spoiler] What exactly is fumiun? Does it really have some sort of consciousness? What is it's goal, given the plot twist at the end? [/spoiler]

987 Produkte im Account

27 Reviews

Empfohlen

1310 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 27.09.20 18:38

A solid grid based dungeon crawler akin to Legend of Grimrock. One of the major differences form the latter one, is that you are not controlling a party but a single character. This in turn, limits how many varied builds you'll have chance to play in single playthrough. But don't get me wrong, that's the only “con” I can list from top of my head.

671 Produkte im Account

3 Reviews

Empfohlen

654 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 23.09.20 08:16

If you liked the first Legend of Grimrock and aren't put off by the Steampunk setting/aesthetic, then you'll be able to enjoy this game; though you will be frustrated by the wasted potential here. Unlike Grimrock, Vaporum completely lacks any creative puzzles, and amps up the difficulty through random enemy spawns and traps which will insta-kill you because they lack any indication that they exist.

If you love dungeon crawlers, I would give it a shot; if this is your first, give the Grimrock series a shot and come back later.

14 Produkte im Account

3 Reviews

Empfohlen

1507 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 20.09.20 21:10

Fun game, good puzzles, only thing is to adjust the lighting of the game, many of the secret buttons were difficult to see on the regular settings due to shadows.

394 Produkte im Account

17 Reviews

Empfohlen

1096 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 13.09.20 12:13

I don't actually remember ever playing a dungeon crawler before... However, this game was definitely worth it, and I believe that both newcomers and old school fans of the genre might agree.

It's not a long game, if you don't find it necessary to check every bolt and screw for a button, though I think you will enjoy it more if you do like looking for secrets. I found the story captivating enough and the setting interesting, and I would like to see more of the outside world and learn more about its politics. If you are familiar with the genre, you have the option to disable both the automap and manual saving.

It is the kind of game that I finish and instantly want more. I should feel quite lucky having played this game now, as a prequel is scheduled for release the day after tomorrow - yay!

195 Produkte im Account

14 Reviews

Empfohlen

1159 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 23.08.20 17:51

Vaporum is an real-time, grid based dungeon crawler in the vein of Eye of the Beholder and Grimlock, with a steampunk motif. I love old dungeon crawlers, but I've never been too into these types of games because I find the real-time combat to be too difficult to manage effectively. What makes Vaporum different is two things: First, you're only managing one character rather than a party of characters, simplifying everything, and secondly, they've included an option to automatically pause the game when you are not inputting commands.

These differences greatly improve the quality-of-life playability of the game in my opinion. The real-time pause functionality in particular makes combat (and environmental puzzles) more deliberate and less frustrating while still being challenging, and this really helped my enjoyment. If the real-time aspect of the game was scaring you off, then I'm here to tell you that you can safely buy this game. Of course, if you desire the extra challenge, you can always opt to not use the pause ability.

Besides that, the game has great puzzles and secrets, and tons of atmosphere, and character advancement is very well-paced and satisfying. Easy recommendation.

553 Produkte im Account

177 Reviews

Empfohlen

609 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 05.08.20 01:57

It's Grimrock Bioshock.

You only play a single character, and the passageways are a little more congested so square-dancing is harder, and the game relies more heavily on puzzles as part of main play rather than as a way to get neat optional secrets---but it's very much Grimrock 1 with a dystopian steam vibe.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. The writing for the intro cutscene is a little iffy, but the voiceacting is generally good, and the game does wonders with sound design. Everything is rich and atmospheric, even if the enemy mobs are all a little samey.

Unfortunately, Vaporum is less forgiving than Grimrock. All pits are instadeath, and you can 100% lose progression-essential items down them, and stones are handed out very rarely, so be careful what you throw.

Healing is also a limited quantity, and depending on your build you can back yourself into no-win states.

There also seem to be right and wrong builds, and I'm not sure yet which of those dual-wielding is.

If you don't mind some frustration, and you're careful with your saves, and you're willing to consult a guide every so often, this is a pretty fun and polished dungeon-crawler.

However, if anything in this review sounded like an element you do not like, probably give this a miss or wait for deep sale.

101 Produkte im Account

11 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

602 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 13.06.20 14:34

If you don't level the right way you will realise on level 3 or 4 that your character is useless, must start over. Enemies are way overpowered damage sponges. Great visuals and mechanics but the game basically suffocates the player with artificial difficulty.

150 Produkte im Account

6 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

1984 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 11.06.20 23:29

The level design and storyline are good, however, the creativity regarding enemy placement and artificial difficulty kills any good features of this game for me. Every encounter boils down to getting trapped in a room and hidden enemies spawn or enemies teleporting in behind you randomly. The games entire difficulty revolves around trial and error of knowing when the game will spawn enemies directly behind you. You will lose hours of restarting over and over to insta kill traps/spawns that only work when you don't already know it's coming, and the game gives you no way to tell aside from walking face first into them. It's incredibly off putting design.

If combat is not important to you then this is a fantastic setting with a nice story and environment. However for someone like me the stale combat has discouraged me from continuing, despite being intrigued by the story.

562 Produkte im Account

14 Reviews

Empfohlen

3541 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 07.06.20 15:43

Excellent game in this genre. With the addition of Stop Time Mode, you can play it more like a turn based game. Going through it now for a brutal ninja run, and I can't imagine doing this run without it. Respect for anyone that got that done before stop time was put in.

610 Produkte im Account

208 Reviews

Empfohlen

5728 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 30.04.20 01:20

It's a good grid-based RPG in a cyberpunk setting. It's fun and challenging but the puzzles are incredibly difficult. I am going to save you some time and link you the walkthrough with level maps. 8/10

https://www.oldgames.sk/dungeon-mapper/map.php?map=613

648 Produkte im Account

46 Reviews

Empfohlen

950 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 27.04.20 16:50

Vaporum does justice to dungeon crawlers showcasing to a younger audience the beauty of a now dying subgenre. I definitely recommend this to everyone who is looking for this kind of gameplay experience in preparation for a prequel that seems even more ambitious.

Pros:
+ Well paced albeit predictable story
+ The graphics hold up
+ Great atmosphere
+ Intricate level design full of cool puzzles and deadly traps
+ Solid progression system
+ Engaging combat

Cons:
– Overreliance on ambushes
– Pixel hunting
– No health bar for enemies

Read the full review at:
https://www.thegameslashers.com/vaporum-review.html/

529 Produkte im Account

11 Reviews

Empfohlen

594 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 27.04.20 04:27

If you liked the Grimrocks, you will like this game. Some enemies are overwhelmingly strong while others are more of a nuisance, but the combination of the them is what makes some of the fights great. Secrets are pretty damn hard to find without a guide, but the final handful of fights are a ton of fun and absolute slug fests. Story isnt bad either, tho not the highlight imo.

528 Produkte im Account

8 Reviews

Empfohlen

667 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 03.04.20 14:40

Really enjoyed my time with the game. The notes and the audio logs really pulled me into the story. Felt encouraged to try out various combat styles and cannot imagine getting through the game without it. Most of the puzzles were interesting and they weren't repetitive. Was pleasantly surprised when I noticed audio logs play without issue across load screens. Will gladly play Vaporum 2 if and when it comes out.

358 Produkte im Account

7 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

2493 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 01.03.20 23:14

Such a shame... a great game let down badly by the last couple of levels being reduced to nothing more than an endurance based slogfest. Made it this far using your guile and deduction skills? Tough... Put those to the side and get ready to spam your health-packs and quick saves, because the puzzles are dead and gone. What a waste.

262 Produkte im Account

8 Reviews

Empfohlen

706 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 29.01.20 19:07

Yeah this was a good time. Great visuals and claustrophobic atmosphere. None of the puzzles were exceptional; and the timing on some of them was downright harsh. Combat was mixed bag. I think what carried it through was personality. Nice story and novel concept.

So, nothing amazing but a very well made game that I enjoyed for 11 hours.

7734 Produkte im Account

138 Reviews

Nicht Empfohlen

776 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 19.01.20 06:29

Unlike both Grimlock games which I massively enjoyed I'm done here. Grimlock for the most part let you retreat when required. Vaporum has a bad habit of locking you in rooms and springing multiple enemies on you. Additionally, the game makes heavy use of elements.

You have 4 slots for abilities to counter but to start you only have two and to add slots takes time. Energy takes literally forever to replenish so even the two slots you get to start are functionally severely limited. These factors make portions of the game difficult. Theoretically you can drop the difficulty but I'm looking for strategy here not constantly getting stuck with my thumb up my ass waiting for Vaporum's game systems to be available.

The developers must have heard it loud and clear, and they put in a time stop system where the game becomes almost turn based with time accelerating only on certain actions like attacking. Time stop is bullsh*t and it's not what I expected of the game. It is a tacit admission of game design gone wrong. Visually the game rocks and the overall concepts are there. Vaporum could have been a real winner but game-play wise it's no where near the top games of the genre.

308 Produkte im Account

6 Reviews

Empfohlen

2388 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 10.01.20 22:59

I like grid-based dungeon crawlers. I like Steampunk. I like finding secrets and solving puzzles. It should come as no great surprise that I really like this game.

There are parts that I didn't like as much. The frequency of 'enter room, doors shut, commence getting attacked' was too common. Some of the aforementioned puzzles/secrets had pretty awful triggers, but thankfully there was the Stop Time effect that could make at least SOME of them less head-explosively-aggravating. These issues weren't nearly enough to diminish my overall enjoyment at exploring and using all the tricks the game gives you in creating your character build and using gadgets and skills.

I look forward to Fatbot Games improving on their dungeon crawl creations, as it astonishes me that this is their first attempt at any game seeing as how well it was put together. I will certainly be buying their future games if they keep this up.

702 Produkte im Account

20 Reviews

Empfohlen

1960 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 22.11.19 22:38

One of the best dungeon crawlers i have played, just buy it.

136 Produkte im Account

7 Reviews

Empfohlen

996 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 06.11.19 22:56

If you like legend of grimrock 1 and 2 you'll enjoy Vaporium. Having more audio narration really helps one feel more immersed in a story.

486 Produkte im Account

47 Reviews

Empfohlen

1234 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 02.09.19 19:07

A dungeon of brass and steam

Dungeon Crawler is a different take on classic pen&paper RPG. Playing out in a highly restricted place (say, a dungeon) it puts emphasis on combat and solving puzzles rather than the story. In the classic software adaptations, dungeons are viewed from the first perspective and the player controls a team of adventurers who slowly traverse the map, one field at a time. While Dungeon Crawlers have a venerable history in gaming, dating all the way back to the early ‘90s, they were at large forgotten. That is until Legends of Grimrock brought the genre back to the attention of modern gamers in 2012. Vaporum is up to the very same task. The game aims to deliver a modern take on an old-school formula, but at the same time, it squarely sets itself apart from the competition – with a steampunk setting.

The game takes place in Arx Vaporum, a gigantic tower that reaches high above the clouds, risen in the middle of the sea. The protagonist is a lost man devoid of memory, who somehow happened upon the structure’s front door. With a choice between a bare rock amidst the waves and slowly opening doors to the behemoth ahead, it would be a very short game if the main character didn’t choose the latter. The story starts off as very mysterious and slowly gains, err, steam as the player slowly pieces together the events that took place within the tower. Without getting into details, the story is okay at best, as once it starts spilling the beans things get highly predictable.

Fear not though, as the setting is the true meat of the game after all. Vaporum is easily the best looking game made with Unity engine I have seen thus far. Visuals of the inside of the tower along with enemy designs are what really drive the steampunk home. Brass and wood, cogwheels and valves, a maze of pipes delivering steam to power the curious machinery, every section of the game has a different visual theme, and it’s great. The atmosphere is completed by all kinds of automatons that roam the tower – helicopter drones, spider walkers or steam golems, all nail the steampunk feel of the game. For diversity’s sake, there is also a selection of organic enemies who while don’t fit the aesthetic so well, are a vital addition to the game’s mechanics and have a solid grounding in the story.

Dance with me
The gameplay of Vaporum is quite something else. Curiously, it manages to be sluggish and frantically arcade at the same time. Movement in the game is highly restricted – in a turn-like fashion your character moves one field at a time, and even simple turning your character is a separate action. The same rules apply to all the enemies, and each one of them has a specific pattern to their movement and attacks. Learning those is absolutely vital, as the only effective way to fight the opposition is to outmanoeuvre it. One field at a time you circle, sidestep, and lunge forward – everything to avoid getting cornered. It is no easy feat, as often you will face entire groups of enemies while having a very limited space to work with. Bear in mind, that even a single foe can handout a serious punishment when fought face-to-face. Vaporum features a tactical mode that lets you freeze the time, allowing for a breather and more thought-through play, but even then to survive is to dance, dance away for your life.

Of flintlocks and pressure plates
While nimble footwork is a crucial skill, it won’t get you too far unless you squeeze a warhammer-sized bash over the head between the dodges. The arsenal is acceptably diverse - there are blunt and bladed melee weapons followed by one- and two-handed flintlock firearms. Those are complemented by gadgets – absolutely-not-magic as it doesn’t exactly fit into steampunk. Regardless of the principle behind it, those technological marvels allow you to spew fire and cast lightning. Admittedly though, there is a wide variety of utility ones as well. They range anywhere from temporary stat boosts and shields to tricky ones, such as decoy or swapping places with an enemy.

On the very start of the game, you will get to choose 1 out of 4 rigs - highly advanced exoskeletons that will turn a squishy human being of a protagonist into a killing machine that can face the dangers of Arx Vaporum. Said rig is essentially a character class. While each rig has a uniform skill tree available, they come with specific passive effects that encourage developing certain skills over the others. Alas, there is a bulky Tank, a hard-hitting skirmisher, a thaumaturge (not-mage) and a jack of all trades. Choose wisely, as during a full run you can only max out 3 skill trees and there are 12 available.

True to dungeon crawling roots, the game is as much about combat as it is about the puzzles. Making up roughly half of the game time, the player is facing all sorts of brain teasers of varied complexity. Many of them are environmental, pushing crates around to access a hidden button, toying with pressure plates or careful observation to figure out inner workings of a mechanism are commonplace in Vaporum. The game does get a little bit more combat-oriented towards the end, nonetheless, there is a unique riddle on every level. On top of that, there are many secrets in the game, most of them are opened by pressing a hidden switch, and some are hidden in truly ingenious places. Being on the lookout is exceptionally worthwhile, as many of the best items in Vaporum are in secret chests.

A cracked pipe
For all its old-school goodness there are a few grains of salt Vaporum has to be taken with. The developers gained intimate knowledge of how to use the game’s restricted movement as an advantage. Vaporum is a difficult game, a meticulously built maze designed to allow the enemies to approach you from an unexpected angle and at an adverse moment. The creators know very well how to make the game as much of a pain as humanly possible, and at times, it really shows. Some of the puzzles and fights can be exceedingly frustrating and really get you stuck indefinitely. Exactly at third of the game is a level that makes for a turning point in that regard. Up until there, Vaporum teaches you that secrets yield optional extra rewards. On level 4 you need to find secrets to simply progress the game, including shoving your face into a blatant death-trap to try poking on the inside of it. The game doesn’t ever go this batshit crazy again, but if you were ever to drop this title, this is the moment.

Addmitedly though, it’s about the only major complaint I have. Vaporum is otherwise a brilliant indie title that tackles an obscure genre and looks good while doing it. True to the old-school design, the game is unrelenting in its difficulty, so use that quick save as you will be dying, a lot. Based on your skill, Vaporum takes about 12 hours to beat. The game encourages you to do several runs, though the replayability isn’t so great. Nothing in Arx Vaporum is randomly generated and the puzzles can be solved only once, then they are just roadblocks. You might be tempted to try other rig or build, and there are options to make the next run extra spicy. No map? Only a single save at the beginning of the level? Brutal difficulty to make the weakest of enemies hit like a truck? If you enjoy your games hardcore, Vaporum will gladly provide. Ultimately, I highly recommend this title to any fan of steampunk aesthetic, and should you happen to enjoy indie games at the same time, Vaporum easily becomes a must-play.

- ePrison

- Online-Magazine

Rating auf Steam Sehr positiv

87.55% 443 63

show ePrison Steam Database

Release:28.09.2017 Genre: Rollenspiel Entwickler: Fatbot Games, s. r. o. Vertrieb:keine Infos Engine:keine Infos Kopierschutz:keine Infos Franchise:keine Infos

Einzelspieler Mehrspieler Koop

0 Prisoner haben dieses Spiel schon

Kein Prisoner hat oder wartet auf das Spiel

59 Steam-Errungenschaften

Alle 59 zeigen

Vaporum

Sammlung

Über das Spiel

Systemanforderungen

Steam Nutzer-Reviews

Die Story und Gameplay-Features:

Die RPG-Elemente:

Audiovisuelle Eindrücke:

Fazit zum Spiel:

Overview

Gameplay

Story

Bugs and Technical Problems

Graphics and Visuals

Audio and Soundtrack

Conclusion

A dungeon of brass and steam