Combat takes place in real time. Each enemy has a distinctive set of strengths and weaknesses so you have to employ different tactics to beat each one. Weapon types have each a set of unique bonuses and behaviors which adds more depth and thought when choosing what weapons to equip.
Solve intriguing puzzles and level-wide objectives where you have to use both your wits and reflexes. While most puzzles and riddles are contained in a single room, progression objectives can span an entire level or even multiple levels.
Instead of increasing the abilities of your human character, you will improve an exoskeleton rig you wear. The game combines a "you are what you wear" aspect with a long-term development of your exo-rig. The gadget-based system allows you change your loadout of gadgets at any time, giving you a great deal of flexibility to deal with various situations. On the other hand, as you progress, you get to unlock useful circuits on your exo-rig, gaining significant permanent attribute bonuses and passive skills.
Stranded on a small islet in the middle of an ocean, you enter a gigantic mechanical tower. Nothing makes sense to you, but it is all strangely familiar...
Posted on: December 7, 2017
nedobrak
Games: 302 Reviews: 5
Solid but fails to reach stardom
Thanks to the recent ressurection of the genre we are now getting some interesting dungeon crawlers to conquer and Vaproum is a quality title, make no mistake. The steampunk environment adds unique atmosphere, the storytelling is nicely done and for a dungeon crawler game is very good. The graphics are also spot on. Now to the specifics - you control a single character, which is a refreshing take and also makes the story telling more personal. You don an exo suit of choice (three builds available) and embark on an suicidal exploratory mission into the depths of a foreboding tower, where you will learn more about a strange substance called fumium and yourself, solve puzzles and fight with various enemies... acutally mostly just fight enemies rather than solve anything but more on that later. The character progression is implemented via upgrading your exosuit (similar to e.g. The Surge) and is quite straightforward where you just get flat percentage bonuses to your chosen ability. Nothing too complicated and it gets the job done. Puzzles seem to be innovative at the start and are quite enjoyable, however, they run out of steam (or fumium) fast and get quite repetitive IMO. Most puzzles... ah well... most actions you perform lead to combat. Usually in an enclosed space from which you cannot retreat forcing you to deal with multiple enemies at significant disadvantage. It basically comes to a DPS race where you either manage to kill one enemy faster to get some chance of maneuvering or just die in a corner. While this might be touted as hardcore, in my opinion this gets old fast, as you just accept that every room is a deathtrap where enemies spring from several hidden places. TLDR: good title, however I feel its potential was wasted in some aspects. My advice is grab it on sale. Hope there is an improved part 2 coming in the future.
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