Indie VAPORUM - Steampunk Dungeon Crawler

[Zombra]

I am not defending RT combat, but if combat's shit anyway

Is this game going to be less than 90% combat?

 

[V_K]

Is this game going to be less than 90% combat?

Actually, a good DM clone is less than 90% combat. It's closer to 50% combat, 50% exploration/puzzles.
Personally, I don't have a problem with RT blobbers anymore - blobber combat has always been more about strategic resource management than minute-to-minute tactics, and with RT is just happens faster. As far as there's no HP bloat, it'll be fine.

 

[Jaesun]

Arcanum dungeon crawler could have been nice, but real time? Meh.

I actually would have liked that (Journey to the Center of Arcanum). As long as it was fully Developed by Troika. Damn shame though...

 

[laclongquan]

Story Introduction Video, biatch



Although, one of my fucking objection is the devoid of anything female. Sure it's the ruins so enemy is robot. And may be the character is alike an egge without gender serve some story purpose. But can you at least make some poster with some sexy nudes for marketing?

Because fuck asexual devs, is why.

 

[V_K]

Arcanum dungeon crawler could have been nice, but real time? Meh.

I actually would have liked that (Journey to the Center of Arcanum). As long as it was fully Developed by Troika. Damn shame though...

You'd still want it developed by Troika given how awful Arcanum's dungeons were??

 

[LESS T_T]

Dun-dun-dun: http://www.vaporum-game.com/2017/08/15/the-game-is-done/

But no release date yet.

The Game Is Done!

Hey guys!

We are very sorry for not posting for a while about the project, but the amount of focus we put into the game instead of writing about it was time well spent!

The game is done!

You can expect an announcement about the release date in the coming weeks.

These past two years have been a rollercoaster ride for us. We’ve fought on many winning fronts and it looks like the fight is nearly over. There are just a few slain foes who are, here and there, sticking out the fingers from their coffins:

• Fixing a few remaining bugs.
• Balancing the game difficulty.
• General polishing of the game.

These are basically done, but we are still vigilant to possible issues that might come at us from the dark depths of quality assurance.

We are also preparing the PR for the release in cooperation with pros in the field, which is, really, a new experience for us. We want to make sure everyone who might like our game will get to know about it — this is something you can help us with by sharing information about us.

There is a lot of organizational stuff that has still to be taken care of and since there are just 4 of us in the team + some help from external contributors, we ask for your patience. We are aware that we are hugely behind schedule, but we are planning to release the game ASAP, and September looks like a promising estimation.

To sweeten the waiting, we have prepared a couple of wallpapers that you can use to decorate your desktop in the meantime.

1920×1080 (Full HD)
2560×1440 (2k)
3840×2160 (4k)

1920×1080 (Full HD)
2560×1440 (2k)
3840×2160 (4k)

 

[CryptRat]

Coming on September 28th according to their facebook page.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

With those tiny legs, that mech looks like Obelix. :D

 

[vorvek]

Got a review key, but also an embargo that won't lift until the 27th. I'll just say I liked what they did to make just dancing around the enemies a tad harder.

 

[LESS T_T]

Steam page:

 

[thesheeep]

Well, that does look rather interes-

First person real-time combat

... kthxbye

I did enough dancing in Grimrock. Can only stomach that like once per year.

 

[Infinitron]

Looks like this is releasing today.



http://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/119694-vaporum-review/all-pages.html

Introduction

Vaporum is the debut effort from Slovakian developer Fatbot Games. It's being listed as a "Steampunk Dungeon Crawler," and that's pretty accurate. One could also call it "Grimrock Lite," and that would be accurate as well but perhaps not as complimentary. In any case, the game is a grid-based, real-time RPG where you explore a multi-level dungeon filled with monsters and puzzles, and where you slowly become more powerful so you can defeat a big, bad boss at the end.

As Vaporum opens up, you wake up next to a large tower, but you have no idea who you are, where you are, or what the tower is. However, the tower opens up to you, so with nothing else on your agenda, you decide to go inside. From there you have to explore the tower, evading and defeating its security measures as you slowly regain your memories and piece together what's going on and how it relates to you. Then it's just a matter of escaping, which is easier said than done.

Character Development

You only control one character in Vaporum, and that character has to be male. On the first level of the tower, you find three "exo rigs," and you're required to wear one of them as you explore. The exo rigs are basically how you choose your class in the game, with "combat" (DPS), "heavy" (tank), or "thauma" (magic) being your options.

Interestingly, you don't improve your character as you defeat monsters and solve puzzles; you upgrade your rig. So instead of having health, mana, spells and skills, you have integrity, energy, gadgets and circuits. You also quickly discover that the tower is a research center for an alien substance called "fumium" (which can energize, upgrade, and manipulate objects), and instead of earning experience for killing creatures, you collect fumium from their remains, and it's fumium that allows your rig to become more powerful. Sort of sadly though, since Vaporum is played using a first-person perspective, you never actually see your rig, and the game plays exactly like other RPGs, just with different words for familiar concepts.

There are nine circuits / skills for you to choose from: blunt weapons, blade weapons, handguns, rifles, dual wielding, armorer (which improves integrity), blocking, thauma catalyzer (which improves gadgets), and fusion conversion (which improves energy). Circuits have five ranks. Each rank improves the circuit in some way, but ranks 3 and 5 also give a special bonus. For example, with dual wielding the regular ranks simply improve your accuracy in that mode, but rank 3 also improves your dual wielding speed, and rank 5 either allows you to dual wield two-handed weapons or steal integrity with your attacks. You only gain about 15 circuit points in the game, so you can't learn everything. You have to focus on a few circuits.

There are also several gadgets / spells for you to choose from. You can equip two of them at the start of the game, and then if you invest in the thauma catalyzer and fusion conversion circuits, you can add up to two more. Gadgets do things like deal damage, improve your defenses, and improve your attacks. At the start of the game you only find "basic" versions of gadgets, but then eventually you uncover "advanced" and "superior" versions, which are more effective but require more energy.

I tried three different characters in Vaporum. For my main playthrough I used a "combat" character with blunt weapons, blocking, and armorer. Then I worked through the first few levels using a "heavy" dual-wielding swordsman and a "thauma" guns and gadgets expert. The three characters played differently but not wildly so, and since all of the enemies and puzzles in the game are fixed, that leaves Vaporum's replay value a little limited -- unless you want to go for all of its achievements, since many of them (like dealing 1 million damage) require multiple playthroughs.

Gameplay

Vaporum uses a square-gridded environment, and you play using a first-person perspective, so the interface has a lot in common with RPGs of old (like Wizardry and Might & Magic) as well as some newer incarnations (like Legend of Grimrock). You move and turn using the WASD and QE keys. You attack with the mouse buttons (and since you only have one character, it doesn't matter where you click). You switch weapons by pressing the Z key. Repair kits (for restoring integrity) and energy cells (for restoring energy) use the R and T keys. Gadgets are mapped to the 1-4 keys. And you can quick save and load by pressing the F5 and F9 keys. That is, the controls are pretty standard, and you're allowed to remap them however you see fit.

Vaporum is played in real time, and a certain amount of agility is required to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. Luckily, enemies do not respawn and they don't wander far, so you just need to prepare for certain battles and puzzles, and you can relax in between. Plus, you can save whenever you want, so if an action sequence goes poorly, you can just try again.

Of the RPGs I've played, Vaporum most resembles Legend of Grimrock. The two games have a similar interface and a balance between fighting enemies and solving puzzles, and in both cases you're tasked with exploring a strange tower while figuring out what's going on. However, Vaporum isn't just a clone. It tries to do some things differently.

Consider combat. In Legend of Grimrock, you could win most battles by performing the "Texas Two-Step." You'd wait for an enemy to most adjacent to you, then attack, then move to the enemy's diagonal, and then repeat as many times as necessary. Vaporum solves that sort of dance by giving its enemies lots of different types of attacks, and by almost always pitting you against multiple enemies. For example, some enemies have ranged attacks, or area attacks, or damage over time attacks, and some can turn invisible or teleport or leave damaging acid on the ground. Or they might have some combination of the above. So the fights tend to be trickier, although usually you just need to figure out a new dance that works.

Unfortunately, while Fatbot Games did a nice job with the combat, they weren't as successful with the puzzles. The puzzles are mostly straightforward, just requiring you to push buttons or throw bricks or push blocks in obvious ways. As an example, in one puzzle you find a room filled with trap doors. When you start the puzzle, a light shines over one of the trap doors, and you're given a few second to make your way over to it before all of the other trap doors open up, potentially dropping you into spikes of death. Then to complete the puzzle, you just have to repeat the process a half dozen times. This puzzle is sort of annoying because you have to be facing in the right direction to see the light, and even when you do spot it, it's sometimes difficult to figure out exactly where it's shining, which means you'll probably fail and die a lot before succeeding. Or at least I did.

Another thing Vaporum has in common with Legend of Grimrock is that it includes a bunch of secrets for you to find. Conveniently, the interface tells you how many secrets there are on the current level, and how many you've found, so you can always stay on the current level until you've located everything. The secrets start out straightforward (where you're usually given a clue for where to look), but then eventually they rely on you finding small buttons on random walls (where the buttons blend in with the texture style), and unless you're way more patient than I am, you're probably not going to find them. Even when I knew roughly where a button had to be, I often had trouble finding it, so for me Vaporum failed the East Egg Hunt Rule, where you want things to be hidden, but not so well hidden that nobody find them, and you end up discovering rotten eggs in your backyard two months later. Fatbot Games was nice enough to send me a walkthrough for Vaporumalong with the game, and I used it a lot to find secrets, but I never needed it for the puzzles.

When you defeat enemies and solve puzzles, you're often rewarded with equipment. Characters can wear several items: helmets, gloves, body armor, boots, a main hand weapon, an off-hand weapon or shield, and at least two gadgets. I only saw one item set in the game. Otherwise, items are just "regular" or "magical" (with extra bonuses), and they pretty much only come in strict upgrades of your existing equipment. That is, the equipment isn't very exciting, and you're not given a lot of options for what to wear.

Helpfully, the interface contains an automap feature, so you're not required to break out a pad of graph paper to make your own maps (unless you want to; there's an old-school mode for anyone feeling masochistic). You're even allowed to annotate the maps -- at least theoretically. Annotations weren't working in the version of the game I played, but I'm guessing they'll be fixed in time for the retail release.

Unhelpfully, your exo rig regenerates energy but not integrity, so you have to be extra careful when fighting lest you run out of repair kits before an important boss fight. You might also have to do some saving and loading so you complete battles "well" rather than just getting through them. And waiting for your energy to regenerate after battles gets tedious, as you might have to sit around for a couple of minutes with nothing to do.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Vaporum are functional but not great. Weapons only have minimal animations -- for example, you only see the "swipe" of melee weapons, so they all look the same -- and you never see your character at all. Environmental textures are repeated all over the place. There aren't many enemies, and they re-use assets, but you can always at least tell what's coming, which is the important thing. For example, acid-dealing enemies always glow green.

There isn't much in the way of music or voice acting in the game. You mostly only hear the ambient noises of the level you're on -- the sound of your footsteps, the hum of a teleporter, the clang of a gate closing, and things like that. As you search through containers, you sometimes find notes and audio recordings (which is how Vaporum tells its minimalistic story), and your character sometimes comments on things, which is where the voice acting comes in. The voice actors are ok. They're only required to read their lines clearly, and they do that well enough. You never meet any NPCs or visit any shops or anything like that.

Conclusion

I liked Vaporum well enough, but I didn't love it. The game owes a lot to Legend of Grimrock -- both in how it looks and how it plays -- but it feels like a more simplified, minimalistic version of that game, with significantly easier puzzles. But since Legend of Grimrock 3 might never arrive, Vaporum fills a niche, and it's a perfectly reasonable way to spend 20 hours of your life.

 

[Infinitron]

Vapor no longer:



https://af.gog.com/game/vaporum?as=1649904300

 

[Sacibengala]

I want to get it, but only if it is as good as grimrock. Anyone that played can say what is it like?

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.rpgwatch.com/show/article?articleid=429

Vaporum Interview
by Farflame, 2017-09-28

Farflame talked with Matej Zajaèik, Technical Designer, Gameplay Programmer and Sound Engineer at Fatbot Sudios about their upcoming dungeon crawler Vaporum.

RPGWatch: Could you shortly introduce your studio? How did you get the idea to found a studio and start developing a dungeon crawler?

Matej Zajaèik: Our small studio, Fatbot Games, consists of 4 gamedev veterans, with about 43 years of combined experience. Most of us have known each other for a long time from other companies.

Tibor Repta (project lead) had a small working prototype of a dungeon crawler which his former colleagues helped him put together. It was still in its infancy, really, it barely did anything, but the uncommon steampunk visuals and Tibor's zeal fascinated me when I saw it for the first time.

We were long-time friends from Brazilian jiu-jitsu circles (wrestling) and often talked about how a gamedev company should work and how the respective companies we worked at back then were inefficient.

Being a code-guy, I thought, well, why not help improve a feature or two on the prototype. So I wrote some code to make the camera look more immersive and not so static. We also recorded an "in-exoskeleton breathing" sound to give it a more constricted, claustrophobic feeling, like you are really there, in the dark halls. We both liked it and I was hooked! We bit the bullet and made the leap, quitting our former jobs and going forward with our dream -- making our own game in our own company!

We created a 1-hour-long demo which we then presented to various financial parties. We clicked with one of them. They liked the demo and our principles, and I must say, they were quite unconventional. They gave us a much better offer we'd ever dreamed of, and so we founded a company together. Two high-quality, veteran game developers joined us soon after, and we started hammering away at this project full-time.


RPGWatch: What do you like or don't like in contemporary RPGs?

Matej: I like the modern controls and that most today's RPGs are a lot more accessible than the older games. I personally like original skills, mechanics, and if the game allows you to find and develop synergies in your character builds.

On the other hand, I don't like that 9 out of 10 RPGs re-use the same system of attributes and skills and whatnot that you've already seen a million times before. They rarely come up with a system of their own, one that would fit the story, the setting, and the unique mechanics of the game; they rather just slap your typical strength-dexterity-intelligence on it and be done with it.



RPGWatch: I assume you know dungeon classics like Dungeon Master, Ishartrilogy, Ultima Underworld, Wizardry, old Might & Magic etc. Which of them is your favorite and why?

Matej: To be honest, I might be the only guy on the team who came to love the crawling genre only thanks to Grimrock. The classics evaded me somehow back in the day. But I think I've made up for that by playing every single crawler that came out since! I love crawling!

On the other hand, our project lead Tibor has a wealth of experience in all the aforementioned classics, and we drew a lot from this when designing the game. His all-time favorites are Dungeon Master 2 and Lands of Lore 1.


RPGWatch: Story-driven games with strong narrative are trendy nowadays. How big a role does the story have in Vaporum? Do you have some NPCs and dialogues in the game?

Matej: For me, the story is always the force that drives me forward in any game, once the novelty of the setting, the mechanics, and the enemies fades. And yes, the story plays a major role in Vaporum. We always wanted it such. That's one of the reasons why Vaporumonly has a single character with a pre-defined history that you reveal, and not a party of anonymous heroes. With this setup, we were able to tightly involve the character in the storyline and make it, hopefully, interesting.

As for the NPCs and dialogs, yes, you will come to know a few via logs and recordings, with their own personalities and motives. The major ones are fully voiced by quality voice-actors so you don't even need to read that much.

Actually, you don't need to pay attention to the story at all if you just want to have a blast killing enemies and beating puzzles.


RPGWatch: Real-time combat in dungeon crawlers is often criticized if you can apply simple "hit and run" tactics. Did you try to prevent this tactics in Vaporum? Does your combat system or enemy AI have some notable difference or advantage compared to average dungeon?

Matej: Oh yes! We are fully aware of this classical issue most real-time crawlers suffer from. We looked at the classics, we looked at Grimrock, and we realized that most enemies in them worked the same way, just had different appearance, damage, and health. We wanted our combat to be a lot more involved, interesting, and not suffering from the dreaded issue.

We spent a lot of time designing each enemy type so that each has something special or different than the rest. Some basic enemies are slow, and yes, in some situations, you can still apply the hit-and-run tactic. But most enemies are a lot faster, more unpredictable, and usually have maneuvers and attacks that prevent you from just waiting for them to come into your "line of fire".

You can also find ways to manipulate the enemies, either by pushing them away to make room, to force them to attack other enemies, and more...

Our experience with play testers (both in-house and at game conferences) is that they did not want to stop playing as they found the combat interesting and refreshing. So I hope our game doesn't suffer in this regard.



RPGWatch: Did you consider using turn-based combat system in Vaporum, something like the upcoming Bards Tale IV? If you have to compare both systems, what are their advantages and disadvantages according to your opinion?

Matej: No, we never considered that. The major mechanics must be clear from the start. We knew we were making a real-time dungeon crawler, with action combat, brain-wrenching puzzles, and dangerous hazards. It's not that we don't like turn-based or that we don't want to make a turn-based RPG; rather we had a clear idea of the game we wanted and we stuck to it.

Nonetheless, even if you're not a fan of real time, you can still enjoy Vaporum for its puzzles and lore on the lower difficulty levels, making combat a breeze.

Real-time combat has one major advantage over turn-based: adrenaline! The immediacy of danger that just won't stop coming at you until you beat it. You cannot just pause to think of your best next move. You got to be on the move constantly, making quick decisions. And then, when you do beat it, the pleasant feeling of peace and safety comes in. This can be quite addictive if done right.

On the other hand, turn-based combat can definitely be a lot, lot more tactical and involved in terms of your decision-making and "resource" management. Your mechanical player skills won't help a bit here; only your brain and intelligence can help you overcome the obstacles. And that's a big draw for many players.

I personally love both types of combat, for different reasons.


RPGWatch: Could you describe your character development? To have only one hero is some limitation compared to other dungeon crawlers. How do you try to make up for it?

Matej: Yes, having a single character may seem to be quite limiting in terms of development, and we were always aware of that. To make up for it, we employed a combination of "you are what you wear" principle and a long-term development of your exoskeleton. You don't improve your human character, instead you upgrade an exoskeleton that you find very early in the game.

So, what you normally call skills in most RPGs, like fireballs, poison novas, etc., come in the form of gadgets in Vaporum. Gadgets are just items you can put into your exoskeleton and use them right away. Gadgets do all kinds of stuff, like direct attacks, area attacks, buffs, debuffs, combat manipulation, etc. So, instead of locking you in a certain skill path of a character class, the game allows you to change your loadout at any time, to adapt to the situation, or to just try out different combinations of gadgets and other gear.

This is very flexible and we found out that especially on higher difficulty levels, some situations require you to fiddle with your loadout and change your approach to beat them.

A little side note: when you beat an enemy with special skills, they sometimes drop a gadget that enables you to use the same special skills against other enemies. So when you see some enemy do a cool attack, chances are you will be able to do the same.

We also found out that the "you are what you wear" alone would be shallow and uninteresting in the long run. So we added a more typical, long-term development of the exoskeleton. As it takes in energy from destroyed enemies, it becomes more powerful, allowing you to unlock and upgrade circuits on it. These give you statistical boosts in certain areas (weapon damage, defense, gadget-usage, etc.), but at certain ranks, you also gain modules (or perks) that are kind of like passive, permanent skills, which can significantly change your playstyle.

Another thing is weapons. We didn't like how weapons in most RPGs are basically the same thing only with different appearance and damage numbers. In Vaporum, each weapon type does something different from the rest. For instance, swords are strong against organic enemies, maces are strong against mechanical enemies, rifles are precise and powerful, but take a long time to reload, shotguns have short range, but deal damage in a cone and can stun the targets, etc.

Add to this a plethora of armor types, plus the rare weapons and rare armors with unique behaviors, and you have a large amount of customizability.



RPGWatch: Did you use steam-punk settings for puzzles? I mean something like big strange devices that take a lot of space in a level and player would have to inspect them and find out how to operate them.

Matej: Perhaps not as big as you picture them, but yes, we have some steampunky devices you have to figure out to make progress. Some of these objectives span a whole level or even multiple levels where you need to get individual parts to the whole puzzle.


RPGWatch: Could you shortly describe process of making levels in dungeon? Do you have some core idea what is purpose of each level? And do you use some tool or method that makes it easier for you?

Matej: We always have a core, level-wide mechanic, puzzle, or idea that dictates the flow and look of each level. We start with the core mechanic and then build the rest around it. We had initially created a large database of puzzles and ideas that we can always draw from, to fill out every part of the level with something interesting.

We created a tool (Prefab Painter) where you set up a "tileset", you know, floors, ceilings, walls, pillars, etc., and then you just paint the hallways and rooms with mouse and it all adds all these prefabs automatically. Then we add all the mechanics, level logic, and actors, and playtest the thing if it feels right. The tool is priceless as we can quickly whip up raw levels, change the layout in an instant, and test until the gameplay feels good.

When we are content with the raw architecture and gameplay, the artists put some love in it, decorating with all sorts of nice things to look at, lighting, atmospheric particles, and props. Then we make several more passes, adding sounds and little details until it's up to the audiovisual standards we set for the project.


RPGWatch: Is there some form of magic or some kind of replacement?

Matej: Well, yes. There's a mysterious substance that you will hear a lot about in the game. It has some very interesting qualities and it powers some of the more advanced technology in the tower. The most immediate thing that looks and feels like magic are gadgets, which are advanced technological toys that are able to produce various "magical" effects.


RPGWatch: It seems that you collect crafting material from killed enemies. Could you shortly describe your crafting system? Is it possible to craft something unique what can't be found in game world?

Matej: The material you collect from killed enemies is the substance I mentioned above. It makes your exoskeleton more powerful, but doesn't allow you to craft weapons or armor. Although you will get to craft some quest items at least. We strongly considered a crafting system early in the development, it never made it to the game due to mostly schedule issues.



RPGWatch: Dungeon crawlers are pretty niche products. But nowadays some developers try to make them a little more appealing for the masses, for example by adding party banter like in RPGs. Do you think that it really pays off to try to sell dungeon to the masses or its better to use your time to make the game better for your core audience?

Matej: That's a tough one.

I would rather make the game the best it can be for the core audience than make it super-accessible to everybody. This does not mean I don't want other people to be able to enjoy the game, though. But we want to give the players who regularly buy crawling games what they expect -- a solid dose of crawling fever, lore, and challenge.

From our experience during focus tests and game conferences, people who never played crawlers always struggled with the controls, but they got a hang of it eventually, and most of them actually liked Vaporum, even though they were quite shocked about how you moved on a grid instead of free analog movement.

Yet at the same time, veteran crawler gamers were right at home in the game, but still found it interesting and fun to play.

So I guess there may be a sweet spot somewhere. Only time will tell if we got it right.


RPGWatch: Puzzles (that are common in dungeon) are not really popular nowadays. Even modern adventure games put much more emphasis on narrative than puzzles. What do you think about that? Do you think there is some way to change this trend?

Matej: I think when people play a game, they want to have fun, and for most people, puzzles aren't fun. It's hard to tell whether 10-20 years ago people found them fun, or it was always like now, but a different kind of people and the number of them plays games nowadays.

Trends are usually changed by big, major events, or successes, or just evolve slowly over time. I don't think in these terms though, like how and why to change a trend. Especially if you're making a niche game -- niches don't usually conform to trends. That's why they are niches I guess.



RPGWatch: Recently I heard that it's better to have dungeons in underground as usual than make them in the open (like in Legend of Grimrock 2). I have some doubts about this idea. What is your opinion about it?

Matej: I personally like the combination of both. Indoor dungeons can be very well structured and can give you a specific experience in a well-controlled environment, while outdoors provide a feeling of freedom, breathing fresh air, moving around a living world.

So, Grimrock 2 hits the nail in this regard for me.


RPGWatch: Do you have some dream project for future?

Matej: I personally have quite a few. As a former Doom fanatic (both playing and making maps), mine has always been a first-person shooter in the veins of the original Doom, heavily focused on gameplay, fun, environment manipulation, and speed. But now I'm more inclined to create role-playing games as they tickle more brain cells. :D

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I checked out a short playthrough video and have a gut feeling that this will be gud... so I bought it and will be trying it out tonight. Will post impressions.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

First impressions:

# Start by reading the interview linked above, it gives a very good description of the basic attributes of the game.

# Shortest description I have of this game? Bioshock on a grid.

# You choose from three exoskeletons at the start of the game: Offense-based, Defense-based or Gadget-based (read: magic). This sets your basic "class". Various armor pieces then fall within one of those three classes, so you can wear an all-tank outfit and be almost untouchable, or you can mix and match to try to get a better character balance. Neat and simple, but seems to lacks some of the versatility of standard-fare equipment.

# Enemies are all the ambushing type, I've yet to come across any wandering monsters. Worse yet, the game doesn't give a shit about spawning in monsters (a short distance) behind you to make combat "challenging". Respawning monsters, however, have yet to appear.

# Very dark, grey and gloomy. I'm hoping the level appearance changes.

# Light is not an issue (exoskeleton comes with a headlamp), food and water is not an issue, and encumbrance is not an issue (but the inventory has limited space). Pits are an issue, but it's actually quite hard to use Freelook to look into them (the first one contains insta-killing spikes).

# Secrets are a thing, on the first floor it's just a matter of keeping your eyes open and exploring the entire level once you have the proper gear. The second floor adds hidden buttons.

# Biggest detractor so far is that all items placed on the ground look the same (like a lootbag). This is a huge departure from... every single grid-based dungeon crawler ever made since Dungeon Master.

# Exposition is delivered via pages and pages of written notes, audiologs and protagonist commentary.

# Lots of options present to allow players to tinker with the game's performance and settings.

First play-session ended after five minutes because the default graphic settings crashed my game. A quick reload later and disabling some of the graphic features gave me a 20-minute playing session that ended in a similar crash. I don't have that bad of a graphics card (I think) so besides the fact that the game is made with Unity I'm not sure what's causing this.

If asked right now what I think of Vaporum, I'd say that it looks like a game that falls into line behind Legend of Grimrock 1, ahead of every other Grimrock-inspired game released in the past 5 years, but comes up short compared to the "classics" of 20+ years ago. Hopefully it has a few surprises in store later on.

 

[Shackleton]

Cheers for impressions, was close to grabbing this one but glad you took one for the team first. The 'one character' gave me pause, can stomach RT combat but I'd be surprised if it had too much depth with just one character. Bioshock on a grid is not exactly pushing me towards the buy button either!

 

[Lord Azlan]

First impressions:

# Shortest description I have of this game? Bioshock on a grid.

.

Yep. I was thinking the same thing. Was hoping Captive but Bioshock will do. Even down to audio diaries.

Also like that the character speaks and comments as he goes.

Liked also that one of the first light 'puzzles' involved dropping something into the ground to cover up a hole and walk across.

Lots of options to tweak the game for old geezers like me and idiots guide on how to play makes it Azlan proof.

There is even an automap (which you can turn off) which allows you to add notes.

Not seen much of that since Ultima Underworld about 100 years ago.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Another play session finished, I'm done for tonight.

Level 3 changes the walls to a red brick layout, then Level 4 changes it again to some fancy wood paneling, so the visuals do improve in that regard. The game still reeks of Bioshock in virtually every conceivable way, the only things missing is being underwater, music playing and a disembodied voice bossing you around.

Puzzles have upgraded a notch, now we have Soko Ban-esque puzzles where you must push and pull crates around to get things done. One thing about that bothered the fuck out of me, though. Just before the aforementioned puzzle there's a room where you can push a few crates around... but you can't pull them. I'm not kidding, every crate up to this point has been unpullable, and suddenly you reach a room where the crates are pullable, just a stone's throw away from the previous room! If you think this is due to these being different crates, think again! Only one of those pullable crates looks like it has any handles on it. Either have all crates pullable, or none of them. Anything else is just stupid game design.

Beyond that it's just been a case of "Main Objective of each level -> Needs 2-3 things to be unlocked -> Each thing is down its own seperate path of the level -> Winding Corridors -> Each path has at least one room that closes the doors behind you and forces you to fight monsters in a makeshift arena -> More winding corridors -> Container with item needed -> Backtrack to Main Objective." Repeat with every path until all parts are assembled, then prepare for a boss fight of sorts against a tough enemy towards the exit.

Speaking of the enemies, I've run into a bit more of them. To give you an idea of how interesting they are, the most fun one to fight is the stationary turret that only turn towards you if you're facing it from a cardinal direction - meaning whacking at it while sidestepping quickly is quite tense as those turret guns are BIG. Virtually every other enemy in the game so far has a secondary attack whose sole purpose is to limit your movement. Shocking attacks stun you and slow you down, acid attacks deny you squares to walk into, bleeding attacks do more damage when you move, and then the game jumps the shark with the stomp attack that blurs everything so you can't see where you're going. Combine this with the game's absolute dependancy upon spawning in enemies in areas you've already explored (and that the favorite enemy to spawn in is the little super-fast spiderbot that loves to block your exit paths) and you start to see where the "true challenge" of this game lies: The dev's almost zealous ambition to defeat the infamous "side-stepping mambo" that has been a mainstay of grid-based dungeon crawlers for 30 years.

The game has five difficulty levels, and I picked the middle one that's aimed at seasoned dungeon crawlers and makes the game challenge the player. The way Vaporum goes about it is to cripple the player, which simply isn't fun in a real-time dungeon crawler. And here's where I get to the worst aspect of it all: Healing your character. Simply put, you don't. You can get repair kits that take 10 seconds to do their stuff, followed by a 45-second cooldown. Except for being fully healed when a new level is gained, I have not found any other method of healing damage in the game. Health does not regenerate on its own, I've yet to find a healing gadget, and there's no Camp option. And those repair kits? I've had 6 at the most, and by the time you're at the end stages of Level 3 you'll start to feel that the game has given up on playing nice and just throws more and more monsters at you in a closed space until you can't really move and are slowly ground to dust.

I'm honestly starting to wonder if this game had turned out better if it had been a turn-based dungeon crawler. The game's hard-on for pinning down the player in one place, and the only way enemies are deployed are variations of "trap and ambush"... that's what turn-based mechanics do!

At least it might be fun to trudge through the game if the story was interesting, but so far it's been Mr. Amnesiac Protagonist entering a colossal tower on tiny island and heading upwards for... seemingly no reason. Yawn.

More later.

 

[YES!]

Shortest description I have of this game? Bioshock on a grid.

And with chardev and other rpg elements.

Thanks for the impressions.

Is there any npc interactions? I bought it and played a bit and the graphics are very good, combat is as shitty as its ever been in these games, chardev seems lite but sufficient, the voiced main character is dumb but at least I don't hate it even if he says stupid shit that a character I created and want to play never would. I liked that there is somewhat seemingly significant choice in choosing one of the three exoskeletons but is pure guess work in how significant each will be without knowing how important gadgets are or how are are heal kits, etc. I only fought 3 things so far and have been trying to see if the old shitty RT hit and run tactics work with mixed results. It certainly works with ranged on melee, but my mixed results are from melee versus melee.

But the big question is npc interaction. Are there people I talk to, a shop keeper, quests, something? If its combat and puzzles only I am out. If it is more System Shock 2 than gay as non-rpg shit Bioshock I'm in because at least that had shops.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Are there people I talk to, a shop keeper, quests, something? If its combat and puzzles only I am out.

Bye then, because I haven't found a single NPC to talk to, and there's no in-game currency to suggest there's a shop.

 

[DemonKing]

I just finished the first couple of levels with mixed feelings.

Pros:

* Decent Atmosphere
* Nice SFX especially ambient sound
* The usual Dungeon Crawler Combat Dance is not so easily done (might be a con if you find the combat difficult)
* Monsters have a variety of interesting attacks and AI approaches in combat
* Lots of skill options and equipment

Cons

* Story told by notes/recordings - this is lazy and annoying
* When you leave an item in the environment it looks like a sack - whether it is a sword, brick or suit of armour
* So far damage can only be healed by rare health packs or leveling up, which means you have to be ultra conservative in combat
* If I try to click on an interactive with a firearm equipped I inevitably fire off a round and waste ammo, which is annoying. It would be nice if there was the option of clicking only on the weapon icons to fire them.

No NPCs, Merchants or interactions of any kind so far (doesn't worry me but obviously important to some).

I'm not digging it quite as much as Grimrock (so far) but that may be more to do with me liking more than one party member and fantasy settings over steampunk ones.

You can easily finish the first couple of levels in under 2 hours so no reason not to buy it on Steam and then refund it if you don't like it.

 

[Reapa]

i see casual people. they post around just like normal people. they don't know they are casuals.
secrets in this game are huge! if you find them you get unique gear, xp boosts, some more enemies for even more xp boost, skill points and even unique spells. one of which is a heath steal gadget with 20dmg and 75 health regeneration per hit.
happy hunting!

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Update: Progressed further on Level 4. After a couple of quite tough fights (and a more elaborate Soko Ban puzzle) I now have a life draining gadget which evens the odds considerably. I also got my hands on better gear so now I'm a much tougher nut to crack. Unfortunately I'm stuck with spamming that Life Drain gadget to keep myself in the fight, but at least this is much better use of my Tech than the previous gadgets.

Hint: You get the Fumium (read: EXP) for enemies that are killed by environmental damage, like fireball launchers. You can use a fireball launcher to make one of the aforementioned tough fights MUCH easier.

Except now I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I'm stuck. I'm trying to get into Marcus Rike's office, but the only way in seems to be through a 4x4 room that's filled with pit spikes and a door. Pulling a nearby level opens the door and closes the pits, but the way to Rike's room then immediately closes, followed by the door, and then eventually the pits open again, killing anyone unlucky enough to be inside (like me). I'm guessing the key to this is a hidden switch somewhere, but I'm not finding it.

Any pointers?