Vaporum

I liked this game very much. Compared to similar games of the past, I liked that there was an even easier mode called casual that allowed me to play without concern of the real time combat and put my attention on the story. The story was interesting and the many pieces of it collected as part of exploration made the exploration worthwhile. The secrets were reasonably challenging and there has been sufficient help in the communities around the internet to get help in the points that would stick me. What really impressed me was that I encountered no bugs and the game balance was very smooth for the difficulty I chose.

everyone who loves dungeon crawlers like in the early times (grid based) - this one is what you are looking for. I enjoyed Grimrock, Might and Magic Legacy and all the retro games from the 90s and early 00s. But this one is different, the setting is fresh and inspiring, the grafics and presentation is just top notch (better than grimrock). The riddles and combat are challenging but solveable on normal level. Go get this one, you wont regret it. I hope for more of such games in the future.

Vaporum is a well polished game similar to Grimrock with some clear distinctions. You are alone. This means that your play style is likely to be more specialized (tank, gunner, or glass cannon). Each style is distinct, but does not offer much replay value. After finishing the game, I looked up secrets that I missed on Youtube. It struck me that the Youtube character and mine where 99.7 % identical twins, even in late game. Skill sets, equipment, everything was the same. More than anything else, this should tell you how linear the game is and that there are no hard choices to be made. The story is interesting, but nothing special. Halfway my 10 hour playthrough, it was already so predictable that it held no surprises till the very end. Yet, 4 stars, you might ask? Yes, I really enjoyed the game. Vaporum is very atmospheric. The steampunk monolith you're in breaths noxious gasses. Enemies look harassing. The concept of finding gadgets and mechanical upgrades instead of growing big muscles in a single day, is not only more believable, it also opened up an interesting twist in gameplay. Secrets are real secrets. Not the basic lose stone in the wall type. Some are really hard to find, and most offer some really unique stuff. Combat is the main focus in Vaporum (e.g. easier puzzles compared to Grimrock). The typical "combat dance", like in Eye of the Beholder/Grimrock, is fun and shows some satisfying IA. Your and enemy's skills become a bit samey by the end of your playthrough, though. This was most noticeable with the end boss... (yes, off course there is an end boss! :), which/who basically borrowed all skills used against you in the game, but none unique. I really hope that the devs add some addition suits (classes), as the opening corridor suggests, and open up for mod-support/new campaigns. Vaporum desires this.

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.