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Indie VAPORUM - Steampunk Dungeon Crawler

Unkillable Cat

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Reached Level 5 (and Level 4.5?) now. This game seems to be a grower like Stonekeep, getting better further on.

# The first enemy encountered here is brand-new, the last time I've seen anything like this was in Aliens vs Predator back in 1999.

# Puzzles continue to be of the Soko Ban-variety, but arena fights are also getting more elaborate.

# At this point it's a good idea to keep in mind that bladed weapons do more damage against organics and hammers do more damage against mechanics. Plan accordingly.

# Regarding the puzzle I was stuck on - I was right. There was a hidden switch I needed to press, but due to 30 years of assumptions while playing dungeon crawlers I never thought to check that spot. This game is getting more clever.

# Like in Legend of Grimrock, I've found an optional "stash" where you pick one of three doors to open to get goods related to each "class".

# The puzzle that needs to be solved to get the key to the aforementioned stash is also borrowed from LoG, but IMO it drags on a bit (hint hint).

# Readables are starting to give away the plot now, nothing new there so I won't waste time on it.

# In case you hadn't tried, steam insta-kills you (wat). Don't try to cross it.

# The headlamp you have isn't gonna do you much good. There will be some really dark sections in this game. Freelook will be needed to spot some buttons/levers.

# In a secret room I found a shotgun with a most useful ability: Knockback! Now it's my turn to kick you tinheads around!

More later.
 

Sinatar

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I'm 10 hours in now, on floor 9 I believe.

Really fun game, combat got a bit easier once I found the life drain gadget and got the life drain talent, so I can finish most fights with full or near full health without blowing through repair kits. I'd say quality wise it's about on par with LoG1 (albeit with better and more challenging combat then LoG) but not as good as LoG2.
 
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Reapa

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there's a secret about secrets one should know about: to check how many secrets you discovered on each level you have to check the statistics in the game menu.
 

Unkillable Cat

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there's a secret about secrets one should know about: to check how many secrets you discovered on each level you have to check the statistics in the game menu.

Already figured that one out, I've found half of the secrets in the game already and I'm on Level 7 ("Little Creepy Things").

My latest find from a secret was a two-handed hammer that also has knockback, so I'm doing quite well on the melee front even though it's my weakest stat.
 

Unkillable Cat

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Stuck again. On the floor "Little Creepy Things" there's a room where I have to pull a lever to open a door, but on the way there's a pressure plate that unleashes a spiderbot that then steps on another pressure plate and closes the door I had just opened. I seemingly can't reach the spiderbot to kill it, and to be honest I don't have the patience to search the walls on this DARK AS CRAP floor to try to find any hidden switches.

To be honest this entire floor is just pointless filler, it does nothing but annoy me and give the devs chances to put in audiologs about how Lori Rike went insane.

I also discovered something else that I don't like: The enemies scale to your level floor. Really could have done without that one, game.

Finally the devs admitted that they don't like the sidestep-mambo, so they purposefully tried to come up with ways to try to counter it... yet add monsters that completely rely upon it to be beaten. There's a good chance that the sidestep-mambo is older than most of the devs of the game, so them trying to counter it is a fruitless effort. (The only monster I know of that completely nullified the sidestep-mambo can be found in the game Captive, it moves so fast that it can keep up with the best twitch gamer's reactions.)
 

*-*/\--/\~

Cipher
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909
Tried it too, first thing I noticed is that every damn note in the game reads something like "I have illegal weapon X / I did forbiden thing Y so I better write a note about it and leave it lying around with my name on it." :D
 

Unkillable Cat

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Tried it too, first thing I noticed is that every damn note in the game reads something like "I have illegal weapon X / I did forbiden thing Y so I better write a note about it and leave it lying around with my name on it." :D

Yeah, this is a subject I have spent many posts talking about over in the Thief Fan Mission discussions, about how readables somehow *magically* convey information that should be restricted to one's most private thoughts, when they absolutely shouldn't. This "Audiolog Syndrome" traces its origins back to System Shock, when Looking Glass Studios decided to make a game without a dialog system, yet needing a way to make the setting feel inhabited by people. Piles of e-mails from dead people to dead people is what we ended up with, but lazy writers and cheapskate devs quickly realized that this is a cheap method to convey tons of exposition without needing to write a two-way dialog, or a system to convey it.

The irony is that the dialog system Looking Glass Studios themselves used in Ultima Underworld has risen to become the de facto standard for dialog systems in video games, and can be seen in games like Fallout, Baldur's Gate, Arcanum and Mass Effect, though in the last example they switched out the numeric dialog options with a funky dial of non-importance.
 

Sinatar

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Well I just finished it. Took just shy of 14 hours. Really good game, end boss was a massive HP sponge though.
 

Lord Azlan

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Seven hours in and in the library level.

I had a quick look at Grimrock 1 the other night and I believe this game is an upgrade on that - depends on how long the game is.

I read someone finished it in about 15 hours so maybe I am halfway through.

An upgrade? Yes. Some things happened that make it stand out.

Stepping in between two firing turrets and then stepping out watching them blow each other to bits. Using doors to separate baddies to I can take them on one at a time, although the legendary killing baddies (from Dungeon Master) with doors still can't be done. I wonder why.

Quite pleased I managed to do the sokoban puzzle on my own. Maybe that is a sign of how crap I really am as I expect a lot was due to a process of elimination. Pleased also to note some of the floor traps release additional baddies so I watched my step and took them on one at a time.

The character levelling is interesting. Mostly gone with melee + shield plus shotgun but finding magic more intriguing as I go. Finding the interface not that intuitive regarding using those powers.

The levels have been visually different which is a positive beyond Grimrock 1 walls. Still, though, after all this time the square Morris Dancing remains in the background.

Best point so far was with the four doors on timers that released a bunch of soliders that killed me very quickly.

THEN I remembered the room with the fireball and managed to lure them all into there. Impressive in one way but retarded in a sense that baddie AI won't stop themselves.

One of the most interesting aspects is the lack of having to walk sideways along walls that I used to do in many games of this genre. That could mean there aren't many switches hidden that way, so far, or that I missed them all.

Still, many of the aspects of this genre remain. Would like to bump into fellow travellers or even another person to talk to. Maybe a shop or someway to trade away excessive loot - but there is no money or food mechanic.

Not found any vertical opportunities so far. I am sure DM and Grim allowed you to fall down a level and it seems that won't happen here. Found rope and used it for a very trivial reason. Was hoping rope could be used to drop down.
 

Unkillable Cat

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Well I just finished it. Took just shy of 14 hours. Really good game, end boss was a massive HP sponge though.

Congrats. Maybe you can give me a tip regarding my current predicament:

On the floor "Little Creepy Things" there's a room where I have to pull a lever to open a door, but on the way there's a pressure plate that unleashes a spiderbot that then steps on another pressure plate and closes the door I had just opened. I seemingly can't reach the spiderbot to kill it, and to be honest I don't have the patience to search the walls for hidden switches
 

Sinatar

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569
Well I just finished it. Took just shy of 14 hours. Really good game, end boss was a massive HP sponge though.

Congrats. Maybe you can give me a tip regarding my current predicament:

On the floor "Little Creepy Things" there's a room where I have to pull a lever to open a door, but on the way there's a pressure plate that unleashes a spiderbot that then steps on another pressure plate and closes the door I had just opened. I seemingly can't reach the spiderbot to kill it, and to be honest I don't have the patience to search the walls for hidden switches

If I remember correctly one of the lever positions will keep the spider locked in when you step on the floor panel.
 

Unkillable Cat

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And finished. Gametime logged at 8 hours, 15 minutes.

# The sixth and seventh floors are complete, absolute garbage filler. Nothing happens in those floors except traps, obstructions and exposition time. They go a long way towards killing the game.

# The Fumium Experiment (8th floor) at least tried some new things (and several old things) but only the radiation zone felt decent.

# The final two floors are just senseless running around from one end to the other to clear out the Main Obstacle to get to the Boss fight. Too bad the game has been running on this singular concept the whole time, otherwise it wouldn't be so BLATANTLY OBVIOUS and rage-inducing.

# The most interesting enemy in the entire game only appears a handful of times on the fifth floor. Instead of trying to do some more interesting things with that one, we get constant arena fights filled with the same annoying enemies ad infinitum.

# In fact, the cleverness apparent on the fourth and fifth floors all but disappears afterwards. It's like the devs came up with a lot of ideas, but by cruel fate they skipped out on implementing most of the good ones and went along with putting in all the bad ones.

# Also, devs deciding to make a game in a particular genre, then realizing that they don't like that genre and try to bend the game to suit to their likings isn't exactly a successful marketing move IMO.

# How to fail at Game Design, example 23: When making a game within a well-established genre, and you defy convention by saying that a certain Standard Concept does NOT apply to your game, you do NOT break that statement by creating a (plot-vital) exception to it. Case in point: There's a pit in the game that you MUST fall down through, even though every other pit in the game kills you.

# Speaking of pits, one positive note: You can use knockback to send enemies into pits to kill them instantly!

# Anyone else notice that XP gains were almost exactly timed to let you gain a level at the end of every floor?

# My tank was God-like by the end. For most of the end fights I just stood there spamming the Melee Speed gadget and carving everyone into little slices with that Life-draining sword. Boss fight wasn't even challenging, just annoying because the end boss has a million HP. They really did not think this game through, balance-wise.

# When I reached the sixth floor I just gave up on looking for the secrets, still ended up finding 16/28 of them in total, including the Super Secret.

Overall? I stand by my original statement. This is the third-best grid-based dungeon crawler (behind Legend of Grimrock 1 & 2) to be released since Legend of Grimrock revived the genre in 2012. It introduces several new and cool ideas to the genre, but sadly doesn't do anything with them.

When compared to the classics, Vaporum doesn't hold a candle to many of them and ranks somewhere down there with Anvil of Dawn: Enjoyable if you can stomach the poor design decisions.
 

*-*/\--/\~

Cipher
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The enemies seem level scaled, which is kind of a bummer. Unless it is just my imagination.
 

Unkillable Cat

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Overall? I stand by my original statement. This is the third-best grid-based dungeon crawler (behind Legend of Grimrock 1 & 2) to be released since Legend of Grimrock revived the genre in 2012.

Which ones have you played?

Heroes of Monkey Tavern, Ruzar, plus a few others I can't remember the names of. Note that I'm only speaking of real-time blobbers, not the turn-based ones.

One game that I haven't played due to its Early Access status is Dungeon Kingdom: Sign of the Moon. That one could amount to something, but they'd have to finish it first.
 

Reapa

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And finished. Gametime logged at 8 hours, 15 minutes.

# The sixth and seventh floors are complete, absolute garbage filler. Nothing happens in those floors except traps, obstructions and exposition time. They go a long way towards killing the game.

# The Fumium Experiment (8th floor) at least tried some new things (and several old things) but only the radiation zone felt decent.

# The final two floors are just senseless running around from one end to the other to clear out the Main Obstacle to get to the Boss fight. Too bad the game has been running on this singular concept the whole time, otherwise it wouldn't be so BLATANTLY OBVIOUS and rage-inducing.

# The most interesting enemy in the entire game only appears a handful of times on the fifth floor. Instead of trying to do some more interesting things with that one, we get constant arena fights filled with the same annoying enemies ad infinitum.

# In fact, the cleverness apparent on the fourth and fifth floors all but disappears afterwards. It's like the devs came up with a lot of ideas, but by cruel fate they skipped out on implementing most of the good ones and went along with putting in all the bad ones.

# Also, devs deciding to make a game in a particular genre, then realizing that they don't like that genre and try to bend the game to suit to their likings isn't exactly a successful marketing move IMO.

# How to fail at Game Design, example 23: When making a game within a well-established genre, and you defy convention by saying that a certain Standard Concept does NOT apply to your game, you do NOT break that statement by creating a (plot-vital) exception to it. Case in point: There's a pit in the game that you MUST fall down through, even though every other pit in the game kills you.

# Speaking of pits, one positive note: You can use knockback to send enemies into pits to kill them instantly!

# Anyone else notice that XP gains were almost exactly timed to let you gain a level at the end of every floor?

# My tank was God-like by the end. For most of the end fights I just stood there spamming the Melee Speed gadget and carving everyone into little slices with that Life-draining sword. Boss fight wasn't even challenging, just annoying because the end boss has a million HP. They really did not think this game through, balance-wise.

# When I reached the sixth floor I just gave up on looking for the secrets, still ended up finding 16/28 of them in total, including the Super Secret.

Overall? I stand by my original statement. This is the third-best grid-based dungeon crawler (behind Legend of Grimrock 1 & 2) to be released since Legend of Grimrock revived the genre in 2012. It introduces several new and cool ideas to the genre, but sadly doesn't do anything with them.

When compared to the classics, Vaporum doesn't hold a candle to many of them and ranks somewhere down there with Anvil of Dawn: Enjoyable if you can stomach the poor design decisions.
you say you became overpowered by the end of the game, what difficulty did you chose? did you try to change the difficulty to make the game more challenging? if no, why?
i, for one couldn't wait to become overpowered to stop having to run around every enemy. but i was playing it mostly for the secrets, exploration, the magic of a new dungeon crawler. not for the challenge of grid based, real time combat. and the secrets are very well hidden. so well, that i never knew what to search for. the buttons rarely look the same. they are almost never in the same place on the walls, if they are on the walls at all, and not on the background decorations or pillars or doors.
and the super secret is not a secret at all, it's just a memory check for the notes you find. i was surprised they called it a super secret.
The enemies seem level scaled, which is kind of a bummer. Unless it is just my imagination.

I think they scale with the floor, not your level.
But since
XP gains were almost exactly timed to let you gain a level at the end of every floor?
it's the same thing.
do you even mathematics, bro? 9 or 10 floors for 16 levels = 1 level per floor??? it's not even close, bro.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/119728-vaporum-reviews.html

Bonus Stage 9/10:

Vaporum is such a refreshing return to form that I completely didn’t know I wanted nor was expecting. By taking two different gameplay ideas – dungeon crawling and steampunk – and marrying them without too many ridiculous offshoot tactics, you get something that’s distilled to a truly solid concept. I can’t tell you how many “steampunk” ideas have been hokey, or how many Bioshock “inspired” games might as well be called “Not Rapture.” And, rather than just be a straight Grimrock variation, Vaporum adds a huge twist on the leveling and combat system without giving up completely on the formula. For a first game, this is an incredibly impressive endeavor, and I’ve invested hours, yet I’m certain I haven’t found everything. By all means, step into your own exo-rig and prepare for an incredible journey, Vaporum deserves your full attention.

GameSpace 8.5/10:

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Vaporum. The developers did a great job of updating a genre that has been buried by the sands of time. They took an old-school dungeon crawl, added a fresh coat of paint (no crappy 8-bit graphics here), dropped it into a fresh Steampunk setting, and added some modern mechanics while staying true to the genre. The story was well told, but it would have been better had it been as unique as the setting.

Invision Community 8/10:

While this game is a solid package, it will do nothing to draw you in if you do not like grid-based games. It’s understandable, they have disappeared out in favour of vast open world games and instant-gratification FPS action games. But the game knows its audience and targets accordingly. This even though at points it felt like the game was at juxtaposition to grid-based gameplay, as though it was a last minute change from a more open movement design.

Nonetheless, Vaporum is an interesting and good new addition to a thin market. The demographic, which you may be part of, will eat this game up. It ticks all the boxes and adds a few nice unique steampunk flavourings as well as options for the old-school players to sink their teeth into. Nothing is wrong with this game, and it earns a strong 8 for it, but this game is not going to turn you to the genre if you are apprehensive.

GeekNifty 7/10:

The elements work fine in their own respect, and even cross over to make for fun gameplay. Exploration meets combat when you frantically try and remember how much hallway is left behind you as you blindly back up. Puzzles meet combat as you frantically try and pull the right lever while dodging sledgehammers. Exploration and story go hand in hand to reward you for paying attention. Exploration is often the key to finding the solution to puzzles. Vaporum does a lot of stuff right in a genre that, as far as I can tell, has been largely untouched for years. Popular in the early days of computer gaming, the grid based RPG has only just started to make a resurgence. I like how Vaporum isn’t randomly generated. I like how they put in specific set pieces that are well timed and well done. I like how they modernize the movement controls and combat timing. I like how they experiment with abilities in the form of swappable modules. I like how they experiment with the engine to make clever puzzles that feel rewarding to solve.

Overall I would recommend Vaporum as the first person grid-based dungeon crawler to play if someone asked me about the genre. Now, my experience with the genre is a few hours of Legend of Grimrock I, but I like Vaporum better than Grimrock, and that managed to be popular enough to get a sequel, so maybe that says something.

The Overpowered Noobs 6/10:

Looking back, Vaporum is a good case against reviving games that play like Eye of the Beholder or the newer Legend of Grimrock. It felt repetitive at times, but not like it failed in achieving any of the goals it set out to conquer. Combat is fun and challenging, puzzles were varied and interesting, and the graphics did bring a nice, modern-day look to a forgotten genre. Looking at the same assets over and over for most of the game didn’t give me a lot of incentive to look forward to the next level, but I didn’t feel like quitting either. The game had an interesting story, which made me feel excited when I found new notes or recordings [EN: Sounds familiar again, for those keeping score at home], and finally finding out what happened to the main character was interesting [EN: I mean, you know what I’m gonna say]. Ultimately I think Vaporum deserves a sequel. A sequel that doesn’t need to fix anything as much as it needs to have a larger scope: the number of levels was enough, but I really would’ve appreciated maybe ten, or even eight, levels that felt more in-depth and detailed — as opposed to repetitive.

Hey Poor Player 2/5:

Which reminds me: the biggest disappointment with Vaporum comes in that for all its ambition in visuals, it fails to gel that with an interesting narrative. Yes, the amnesiac narrative is the correct approach: with the concept of a steampunk dungeon crawler being entirely new, having the protagonist share our awe provides a natural segue into the experience. But as voice diaries are uncovered and the protagonist’s memories return, it sadly devolves into a tired mess of horror cliches. This is difficult to describe without diving into spoiler territory, but while Vaporum‘s story does have the tools become interesting — we uncover mentions of a war and how the mysterious fumium substance has a life of its own — they either fail to make themselves relevant or have their buildup wasted in a limp climax (this particularly revolves around the antagonist, although I’ll leave for the audience to discover). It doesn’t help much of the voice acting is below-average, filled with flat delivery and rushed, unnatural dialogue that wouldn’t be out of place in a flawed localization (think of the hiccups in Zelda: Breath of the Wild).

There are other things I could harp on — I think of a certain book-collecting puzzle, which felt unprompted and unnecessarily complex — but really, all this leaves Vaporum feeling, well, just there. The concept is interesting, but that inspiration doesn’t apply to the gameplay, and so we’re left with something that can only be bogged down by its missteps. It’s hardly terrible, but it’s not much of anything outside its initial premise. Only the hardcore dungeon crawler need apply.
 

Reapa

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Overall? I stand by my original statement. This is the third-best grid-based dungeon crawler (behind Legend of Grimrock 1 & 2) to be released since Legend of Grimrock revived the genre in 2012.

Which ones have you played?

Heroes of Monkey Tavern, Ruzar, plus a few others I can't remember the names of. Note that I'm only speaking of real-time blobbers, not the turn-based ones.

One game that I haven't played due to its Early Access status is Dungeon Kingdom: Sign of the Moon. That one could amount to something, but they'd have to finish it first.
you didn't mention stonekeep. if you didn't play it, get to it!
 

*-*/\--/\~

Cipher
Joined
Jul 10, 2014
Messages
909
Finished it yesterday... the unslayable feline summed it up quite well, an okay game with lot of unused potential - decent if you need a blobber fix after finishing Grimrock, but I doubt I will ever replay it. Sequel could be good, if the small team behind it learns from its flaws.
 

Wolfenswan

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Jun 17, 2015
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Poisoned Halls now (Lvl 7?).

I'm surprised of how much finding secrets has an influence on the game. Iirc most if not all uniques I have are from secrets and they made the game a lot easier. Of note here is a spell that allows switching places with an enemy in front of you. That sounds like something you'd put in an obvious spot to encourage players to mix up the side-stepping combat but what do I know...

Most secrets so far have been satisfying to find, as others have pointed out they are almost all if not all unique in some way. The Grimrock-mindest of finding that one spot once and then staring at it for every consecutive wall won't apply here. That said, hardly any secrets are hinted towards (somewhat weird in a place where people are very happy to keep a lot of notes...), so you can except to spend a lot of time wall-staring if you want to find all of them.

I went all mage gadgeteer and between the ability to restore 7% hitpoints integrity on kill, two hard hitting AoE spells and mindcontrol fighting has become fairly trivial.

All in all it's as others have said good Methadone and I hope the devs get enough dosh and the proper feedback to make a better sequel.
 
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Fenix

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I played Stonekeep for a wile back in the 96, and later have read walkthrough - what a interesting game passed me by.
So if anyone want to gift me that game (only if you are from Russian region lol) - welcome, I'm little low on money now, and game looks interesting.
 

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