Vaporum is a brazen-faced, grid-based dungeon crawler steeped in old-fashion real-time action. By old-fashioned, I don’t exactly mean retro-inspired. More akin to old-school games like Dungeon Master, the Eye of the Beholder series, most recently Legend of Grimrock, Vaporum is something of a wayward time-traveler, having found itself plunked in the current year and adapted to more modern sensibilities.
Vaporum looks and plays a lot like a game my younger self played in the early 90’s. I recall a seven-year old me being bored at a family gathering and mentioning to my uncle that I like video games. So he proceeded to dust off a neglected PC and booted up a game from DOS. While I cannot remember the title of the game for the life of me, I do remember traversing through claustrophobic dungeon corridors, one grid space at a time. These days, dungeon crawlers remain a niche genre of which even the most ‘successful’ titless aren’t mega blockbusters. Regardless, Vaporum left a lasting impression on me, and I don’t imagine forgetting its title any time soon.
In Vaporum you take the role of an amnesiac who finds himself in a giant tower in the middle of the ocean. You select one of four Rigs/Power Suits (or your Class to put it plainly) and bash, smash, and shoot your way through the mysterious tower. If those BioShock vibes haven’t intensified yet, they are about to. You also come across new magical and elemental abilities along the way. As you rummage through abandoned lockers and storage chests, you’ll find old notes and audio logs from scientists and engineers who were apparently harvesting a miracle power source from the bottom of the ocean. As you might expect, early tapes are full of naive optimism and later tapes hint at something more sinister at play. The player character also repeatedly makes reference to an eerie sensation of deja-vu and that the tower seems so very familiar. Even the machines which are now running a muck and the monsters that are flooding each floor seem like something you’ve seen before. But there’s no time to think about that now – it’s combat time!
The real-time combat mechanics are appropriately old-school, playing out on a grid system. It’s old-school roots does mean a decent amount of old-school clunkiness, however. You can move in four directions and turn 90° at a time, which means if you want to stop enemies from punching you in the face or stabbing you in the chest, you’ll need to move one space away from them. As they pursue you, you’ll want to get in a bash of your own and step away again. Think of it like kiting on graphing paper; dungeon crawling aficionados refer to this as ‘square dancing‘ combat. (The More You Know!)
Combat can feel especially clunky to modern gamers who are spoiled by fluid three-dimensional action. Developer Fatbot Games insists that the movement is clunky on purpose, likely to challenge players to be more creative with each of the game’s unique Character Builds. Speaking of those builds, it’s not just the Rig you choose at the beginning of the game that defines your play-style. There is also a Skill Tree that further lends to your character’s customizability. This is the modern sensibility I spoke of earlier and it really shows how the developer is putting their own new twist on the classic formula.
Along with the combat, Vaporum’s puzzles are similarly old-school to a tee. Just having the right key in your inventory won’t open a door, you have to open the inventory, select the necessary key, and apply it to the keyhole manually. This is where the console version of Vaporum begins to show its ‘port symptoms’. Hitting “I” to open the Inventory and click-dragging said key onto the keyhole is effortless with a mouse and keyboard, but on the PS4 you have to hold one of the trigger buttons to make the cursor appear and clumsily move it using the Left Joystick. Additionally, not only is the combat in real-time, but the puzzles are as well. One puzzle tasks you with hitting a button to open a door, hitting another button to close the pitfall trap between you and the door, and then running through the door before time runs out and it closes again.
Because turning takes time, it’s best to hit the button and keep facing the same direction as you ‘run’ to the other button, press it, and still facing the same direction, finally run through the door. This comical imagery repeated itself as I, in another puzzle, blindly ran down a hall sideways dodging fireballs by their sound alone. I don’t think it’s possible to do puzzles like these without taking damage your first time through, but fortunately save scumming makes the whatever frustration you may feel ultimately fleeting.
With all that being said, do NOT let Vaporum’s old-school design keep you away. If the game sounds interesting to you but you find the archaic, nostalgia-laden game design unappealing, the developer has made a few concessions.
There are options for continuous movement that makes the movement between grid spaces feel more like a first-person-shooter. There’s also a simpler game mode for those like myself who find it tedious to keep save scumming, even if it seems to be an intended mechanic of the game. This makes combat less punishing, so you’ll be less tempted to reload an encounter. There’s apparently also an option that removes all timing-based challenges in puzzles, which I didn’t use but could see myself doing so in late game puzzles that get presumably more demanding.
All in all, Vaporum isn’t for everyone. If you end up not liking the game, it’s likely due to its genre. The game is a genuine passion project and the developer is very active on the game’s forums. The game is a decent length designed for about 12 -20 hours, so replay-ability depends on going through another run and perfecting your combat skills. It’s asking price of $24.99 on the PSN Store, may turn off most players. $14.99-$19.99 would be the perfect price range for the amount of content Vaporum has to offer. However, if you enjoy these kinds of games – and you know who you are – Vaporum definitely worth the long, winding climb up its sprawling tower of old-school inspired dungeon-crawling mayhem.
A review key was provided by Evolve PR for the PlayStation 4.
