Game News Steampunk Dungeon Crawler Vaporum Released

[Infinitron]

Tags: Fatbot Games; Vaporum

Vaporum is a steampunk-themed real-time dungeon crawler by Slovakian indie studio Fatbot Games. Although it has a different sort of setting, the game proudly wears its Legend of Grimrock influence on its sleeve, although unlike Grimrock it's not party-based. I usually ignore these clones, but this one seems polished enough to make an exception. We first learned about Vaporum back in March 2014 (long enough to start making jokes about its title!) but after a successful Steam Greenlight campaign earlier this year, today it's finally out. Here's its launch trailer and description:

Vaporum is a grid-based, single-player & single-character dungeon crawler RPG seen from the first person perspective in an original steampunk setting. Inspired by old-school games like Dungeon Master I and II, the Eye of the Beholder series, and the most recent Legend of Grimrock I and II. Stranded in the middle of an ocean, in front of a gigantic tower, the hero has to find out what the place is, what happened there, and most importantly, who he is.

Key Features

• First person real-time combat
  
• Puzzles and level-wide objectives
  
• Gadget-based RPG system
  
• Lots of exploration, loot, and character customization
  
• Mysterious storyline filled with secrets
  
• Fully voiced main characters
  
• Immersive steampunk setting

Vaporum is available on Steam and GOG for $20, with a 10% launch discount until next week. Is it any good? GameBanshee of all sites have posted a launch day review. Their reviewer seems to think that the combat is better than Grimrock's but that the puzzles aren't as good, but I'm not sure how much I trust that. Maybe somebody here can give it a try?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Goddammit must it be real time? But overall like the looks. Is there a demo I can play?

 

[Durandal]

Brandish: The Dark Revenant did single-character real-time dungeon crawling quite well, but in an isometric perspective, so I don't see why real-time single-character dungeon crawling would be an inherent failure.
Nonetheless this looks rather interesting.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

i get enough real-time events in meatspace alone; i need time to figure out shit when i play gams plus im stoned off my tree 24/7

so there

 

[Lord Azlan]

Bravo - downloading it now.

Video trailers on Steam sufficient to open my wallet.

 

[Roguey]

What's the point in making this grid based when it's both real-time and with a single character??? (other than nostalgia)

 

[Lord Azlan]

What's the point in making this grid based when it's both real-time and with a single character??? (other than nostalgia)

Personally I don't see that much difference between single v party in grid and real time combat.

I am assuming the focus on having the single character means the story will be more immersive than the typical DM clone. The legend of grims were lacking in that area although hard to see how much story they can do with this genre.

Having the main character chat away is an interesting concept and I see that a few combats already can't be beaten using the normal step dance routine.

There is a definite Bioshock feel here and I am hoping to see a "Man chooses a Slave Obeys" moment.

The guy reads the odd note as he travels the dungeons so maybe one of the characters he reads about is himself.

Shame there is no food mechanic though - dead NPCs sort of dissolve away...

 

[Sinatar]

I put 5 hours into it. Seems very very good so far (assuming you can stomach real time combat). Most enemy encounters are designed to make square dancing really hard, in fact in general the game is a lot more challenging then other games in the genre.

Puzzles have been good too. I'm currently stumped real hard in the Library map.

 

[Bocian]

Looks like it wasn't Vaporum Wareum after all.

Spoiler

Get it?

 

[slowtard]

Looks like Bioshock stuck in a K-hole that puts everyone inside cubes.

 

[MicoSelva]

I like the look, and it seems to be getting positive reactions from people who actually started playing it - I am definitely interested.

 

[Grunker]

I am pretty open-minded to all sorts of RPG styles but real-time, grid-based dungeon crawling is nonsense. What's the argument against turn-based? I guess it makes more sense than with Grimrock since it's single character, but still

 

[Grauken]

Not that open-minded after all

 

[Lord Azlan]

I am pretty open-minded to all sorts of RPG styles but real-time, grid-based dungeon crawling is nonsense. What's the argument against turn-based? I guess it makes more sense than with Grimrock since it's single character, but still

Dungeon Master?

How many turn based games have been better?

 

[Azrael the cat]

I am pretty open-minded to all sorts of RPG styles but real-time, grid-based dungeon crawling is nonsense. What's the argument against turn-based? I guess it makes more sense than with Grimrock since it's single character, but still

Dungeon Master?

How many turn based games have been better?

If we limit the question to games that invite direct comparison to Dungeon Master, I can think of 8 starting with the letter 'W' alone.

 

[Lord Azlan]

I am pretty open-minded to all sorts of RPG styles but real-time, grid-based dungeon crawling is nonsense. What's the argument against turn-based? I guess it makes more sense than with Grimrock since it's single character, but still

Dungeon Master?

How many turn based games have been better?

If we limit the question to games that invite direct comparison to Dungeon Master, I can think of 8 starting with the letter 'W' alone.

It's nice we all have our different opinions here.

I remember buying Bane in the shop because of the box cover art thinking it was like Dungeon Master. It was a huge disappointment.

Sorry to say Wiz 6 + Wiz 7 + Wiz 8 < Dungeon Master

Decent games but not fit enough. DM was one of the two games I can think off that made me upgrade my hardware. The other was Ultima Underworld.

 

[Grauken]

Apples and oranges, its a matter of taste, the real question is, how good of a DM clone is Vaporum?

 

[Lord Azlan]

Apples and oranges, its a matter of taste, the real question is, how good of a DM clone is Vaporum?

Very good question. Only reached floor 2 so far. Hopefully by end of weekend would have played enough to forge a decent opinion and review.

So far, maybe up to cleaning DM's boots.

At this stage in DM you would have explored the various characters and possibly killed something with the door and found food.

I need to play it in the dark with the sound right up to really compare though.

I get the feeling it's not up to Grimrock 1 standard - but happy to be surprised.

 

[felipepepe]

I get the feeling it's not up to Grimrock 1 standard

You're saying it's crap then. Grimrock 1 did very well in starting a genre revival, but IMHO it's quite dull next to blobbers from the 80s and 90s... :/

 

[Lord Azlan]

I get the feeling it's not up to Grimrock 1 standard

You're saying it's crap then. Grimrock 1 did very well in starting a genre revival, but IMHO it's quite dull next to blobbers from the 80s and 90s... :/

Didn't really like Eyes of the Beholders or Lands of Lores. Grimrock was okay in my opinion for bringing that genre back to a modern audience. I certainly enjoyed it and its second version too.

This one is different because it's single member and voiced protagonist. We also have steam punk and spiders, which gave me the heebie-jeebies by the way.

I have the feeling it is shorter than Grimrock, but I have just got to the second level only!

 

[Glop_dweller]

...real-time, grid-based dungeon crawling is nonsense.

So it's like Stonekeep then? (I liked Stonekeep)

What's the argument against turn-based?

I talked to (corresponded with) the guy during development. While we didn't talk about turn based mechanics, we did talk about RNG behavior, and I got the impression that it was more important to them to please the crowd (with fudged RNG) than to have accurate RNG... and I would guess that their argument against turn based is that a lot of players get frustrated by it... and let's not do that.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Oh this one looks interesting. Been a while since i played a decent blobber.
Eh its a real time dancing simulator?
Never mind.

 

[Jaedar]

Looks like a grimrock clone. I'm interested.

 

[Lady_Error]

the real question is, how good of a DM clone is Vaporum?

It's a Dungeon Hack clone. DM was party-based.

 

[Grauken]

There were so few single character DM clones that most people would disagree with your assessment, for basic gameplay whether single char or party makes less difference than whether its real-time or TB combat. Also Dungeon Hack had randomized levels, which makes it even less applicable, should have said Anvil of Dawn