STEAMIN' WITH OLD-SCHOOL MODERNITY
Also for: Linux, Macintosh, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One
Without a memory of what happened, you wash ashore alone on a small rocky island in the middle of the ocean. On that island, a colossal, metallic tower
looms over the sky, inviting you with an alluring light. What game am I
describing? Is it Bioshock? Is it Soma? No, it's Vaporum,
a trademark Steampunk Dungeon Crawler with some survival horror elements
and good RPG mechanics. Created by Fatbot Games, it's sadistic in its old-school approach to trial-and-error, executed in a way that
teeters on the edge between unfair and challenging.
Although it replicates the tile-based movement of dungeon crawlers of yore, it
doesn't quite remind me of any particular one. First, the setting is obviously
steampunk (as it says on the cover), whereas they traditionally were fantasy
or, in rare cases, sci-fi. Second, the movement is not instantaneous. Instead
you float from tile to tile, and the same floatiness goes for turning. Third,
you only control a single character whereas these games traditionally were
party-based.
Entering the tower, you quickly discover it's on full alert, as the security
systems and robotic servants attack at first sight. Fighting your way upwards
through the twelve levels, you find documents and audio logs of previous
events, including the truth about your own identity as well as your part in
the disaster. Vaporum has a nice mix of story, combat and devious
puzzle-solving, although the combat scenarios are by far the ones that engage
me the most. Sometimes, they're just ridiculously unfair, but other times very exciting.
Right at the start you pick your choice of rig. Four different ones exist,
focused on attack, defense, speed or tech. You soon start running into
enemies, enemies and more enemies, moving around through elaborate animations. Their way of lying in ambush gets aggravating pretty fast. Spider droids, flying droids, sentry guns,
big droids, small droids, droids that fire electricity, droids than spew acid
- and the occasional crazed human in a combat rig like your own.
Combat in dungeon crawlers is unlike any other genre I can think of. It feels
like something akin to real-time chess, where you move your character
back-and-forth and side-to-side, trying to avoid getting hit, whilst getting a good hit in every now and again. The sluggishness of the movement, when
combined with attack cooldowns, forces you to evaluate and re-evaluate every
situation constantly. Do you have enough space to move around? Should you
retreat to a better location? Is there a pit on the floor you must mind?
Fighting one enemy at a time is usually no bother, but it can get overwhelming
when they gank up on you.
Enemies have varying attack patterns. Some can only attack one tile in front
of them. Others can spit in a straight line across the room. A flame-thrower
dude can spray in a wide arc in front of himself. The Big Daddy-inspired
minibosses can hit to the side. On it goes, with different damage types and
lingering effects limiting your available safe spaces. It's hectic, fun and
requires quick strategic thinking. A semi-"turn-based" option exists, which
feels almost like cheating, but it's a welcome lifeline when you're stuck on a
particular fight.
What frustrates me the most is that the healing possibilities are so limited.
You cannot rest to restore health. Reparation kits for your rig is the primary
health source, but they're in short supply. This, when combined with the
save-anywhere feature, makes for an awkward situation. You can save yourself
into an impossible situation with low health and no healing possibilities. For
that reason it's sometimes better to retry a fight that went poorly to
conserve health. Later on, you find a handy module that allows you to drain
health from enemies to add to your own. But that's of limited use unless you
spec your character right.
Vaporum's finest feature is the wide range of character builds, combined with
a vast amount of weapons and gadgets. By killing enough enemies, or
progressing through the main quest, you gain upgrade points to funnel into
your skill branch of choice. And they're plentiful. Blunt weapons, shields,
swords, firearms, gadgetry - the possibilities are numerous. There's even a
dual-wielding option, allowing you to attack almost without cooldowns.
The gadgets are placeholder magic. Without the right build they're still
useful, but unfortunately not available very often. Your energy recharges
slowly, and their cooldown essentially limits them to one use per battle. Some
temporarily buff your stats, while others cast elemental attacks. Against
larger numbers you can drop a decoy or charm enemies to turn against their
peers. They're essential both in filling blank spots in your build or
enhancing it.
I've focused on combat so far. That's because the rest isn't really up to the
same standards. The story is both kinda generic and predictable, especially if
you've played the stories that inspired it. I skimmed through most of it, except
the stuff related to puzzles, and felt like I didn't miss much of interest. What shines, though, is the claustrophobic setting, creating a creepy
atmosphere through darkness and the clanging sound of your footsteps echoing through the
corridors. Tension rises as you hear something approaching behind the corner,
or whenever you see the poisonous green of an acid-spitting spider reflecting
on the blank, metallic walls.
I'm all for keeping antiquated genres alive, but I'm not convinced the
modernization does Vaporum much good. The floaty, tile-based movement feels like a
compromise to draw in a new audience, but the effect slows the game down, and
enemies hopping from tile to tile looks ridiculous. Being able to look around
freely, as if it was a first-person shooter, adds nothing.
When progress is
halted by the cumbersome box-sliding puzzles - also slow due to the floaty
movement - I begin to despair. They are used for goddamn everything; filling holes in the ground, activating floor switches, blocking light-sensitive switches from being hit by a sphere, etc. I don't mind the other puzzles that are timing-based, or revolve
around pulling switches or pressing buttons. They're your traditional dungeon-crawling fare. The optional puzzles that lead to secret rewards are often kinda fun and really challenging.
For the good, albeit mixed quality of the combat challenges I'd give Vaporum a
modest recommendation, at least for players who already know they like dungeon
crawlers. If you're not convinced, I'd say first play a demo (if one's
available) or watch a playthrough of the first level. As a dungeon crawler
it's solid, with a few memorable moments and a sense of gangrenous hazard to
its rusty setting. But as a whole, the game kinda falls between two stools. It
might be too modern for old-school gamers and too old-school for modern
gamers.
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