Vaporum

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. PLAY! Zine
    Jul 8, 2019
    85
    Vaporum with its console port again proves that retro grid style dungeon crawlers aren’t dead yet. It retains core pros of its genre, while masterfully putting the player into eerie steampunk environment.
  2. 4P.de
    Apr 9, 2019
    85
    Steampunk dungeon crawler located somewhere between Legend of Grimrock and BioShock - with some newly added options on consoles.
  3. TrueGaming
    Apr 29, 2019
    80
    There are two things you need to know about Vaporum, first this is actually a great experience! second you need to overlook some issues to enjoy it completely, not a lot of games do what this game does, so why don't you give it a try, you may discover something you like more than you thought you will do.
  5. PlayStation Universe
    Apr 4, 2019
    80
    Vaporum slaps a fun Steampunk skin on an old-school grid-based dungeon crawler, and the results are engaging and fun. With plenty of customization for players to dig into, numerous puzzles to solve, and winning real-time (but pause-able) combat, Vaporum hums along on all cylinders. Though the overly complex control system could be substantially streamlined, the charms of the game overcome the struggle to control it.
  6. Destructoid
    Apr 17, 2019
    75
    As a full package, Vaporum is pretty great. A well polished and challenging dungeon crawler set within an exciting world. Although the controls can sometimes be a bit of a pain for the console editions, we see so few games in this genre today that the minor headaches are worth struggling through.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
4.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 15 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 15
  3. Negative: 7 out of 15
  1. ghostgate2001
    Jun 8, 2023
    8
    It’s very strange that this game’s User Score is absolutely hammered down into the red-zone by 7 negative scores, none of which “reviews”It’s very strange that this game’s User Score is absolutely hammered down into the red-zone by 7 negative scores, none of which “reviews” provide any reason to support WHY they arrived at that conclusion. I guess that’s on Metacritic for allowing people to blast a game with a negative score without providing a single line of critique to back it up. Shame, because it made me avoid this game, thinking there must be something broken about it, until it was 4 years old (on PS4) and on sale for peanuts. Sorry, devs.

    OK, review time… Vaporum is a “dungeon crawler” which means it’s all about nosing around labyrinthine levels in grid-based movement. Everything’s rendered in true 3D and you have a free look (and, yes, the camera’s Y-axis can be inverted unlike some I’ve played) so it doesn’t feel as static as old-school bitmap examples of the genre.

    I’ve mostly been playing Japanese takes on this genre recently, which tend to switch to turn-based RPG-style battles, but this one’s real-time, which means you can get assaulted by a nastie while poking around in your inventory if you’re not careful. (yes, you can pause properly if real-life intrudes on your gaming.) It does, however, have a mode that you can switch to at any time where the world only moves when you do, so you can time things with clinical precision if you want. It’s actually necessary for some timed puzzles where you can’t spare the time for a false move.

    The main difference between this game and the more stripped-down Japanese dungeon-crawlers is that it also has a mode where you bring up what basically amounts to a mouse-pointer to poke at bits of the scenery, push secret buttons, open cabinets, etc. Didn't realise how much I missed that extra layer of interaction until I got it back.

    It’s also … whatever the PC equivalent of “NES-hard” is. There’s no hand-holding and it’ll leave you on your own to work out some fairly evil puzzles. For example, I was stumped for a while at a bit where you enter a small enclosed space and the door behind you and ahead of you both close, so there’s no escape, and a ticking timer begins giving you only a few seconds before all the floor tiles open as pits and drop you to your death. Turned out the solution was a hidden switch on the door that closes behind you. But once you get into the mindset of how the game “thinks,” make use of that time-freeze mode, realize you’ve only got so many options so it HAS to be something that you can do in that small room, then solving such puzzles are just a matter of narrowing down your options. Personally, I found I enjoyed not being treated like a moron for a change.

    The game also has an auto-save function that you can use at any moment with a simple button combo, so cautious players can save-scum their way through most situations.

    Just so it’s not all praise, there are a few things that I wasn’t so keen on, like the way turning counts as moving in the time-freeze mode, leading to some unintentionally amusing situations where you have to run past hazards with your ass to them because there isn’t time to turn :)

    I’ve also been slightly spoilt by one of the Japanese dungeon-crawlers I played recently, which had an “auto-walk” function where you picked a spot on the level-map and the game auto-walked you there, pausing if you encountered any hazards. No auto-walk here, so you’re manually backtracking through labyrinths (with frequent checks of the map) if you want to get back to a specific spot.

    It's also ridiculously dark by default, with no "calibrate your brightness" screen before beginning play. The opening bit is supposed to be fairly dark but it's not supposed to be so dark that you can't see a thing. So use that opening bit for calibration and bump up the gamma in the video options until you can just see where you are, and you'll be good for the rest of the game.

    In summary, it’s a really good dungeon-crawler with some old-school difficulty, puzzles that require actual thought, and a general lack of handholding. If you’re up for that, then you’ll enjoy Vaporum. I’m only about halfway through the game, but I’ve already bought the follow-up prequel.    … Full Review »
  2. bersi84
    Dec 28, 2019
    9
    I had Vaporum on my list for quite a while now but didnt do the grab, until the recent PSN sale. Classic dungeon crawlers are pretty rareI had Vaporum on my list for quite a while now but didnt do the grab, until the recent PSN sale. Classic dungeon crawlers are pretty rare nowadays and on consoles the situation is even worse. So I took my adventure within Vaporum and its steampunk-ish world of attacking robots, deadly traps, harsh puzzles and amazing artstyle. I rated this 8.5 and finally gave it a 9 in here but 8 would be also considerable.

    First of all the game ran perfectly smooth on my PS4 Pro SSD. No hiccups, no slowdowns, no bluescreens, no loading issues (2-6 seconds per load or area swap). The engine itself provides an amazing artwork quality with nice special effects. The developers did an outstanding work by capturing the heart of steampunk and putting it in a scenario that reminded me a little bit of oldschool horror movies like Cube. The atmosphere overall is spectacular and provides a dense feeling with some nasty surprises here and there. The sound is pumping and delivers a supreme feeling to the good base quality of the game but could use a little more variety.

    Controls have been critized by a lot of people but I do not really see why that would be a point. This game is grid based and you move via stick or cursor taps to the left, right, back or front. Actionable pieces are shown when you trigger the shoulder button and the cursor is already snapped in position. Some menuing could be optimized but in my opinion there is absolutely nothing to worry when it comes to console controls, something that is for myself really important.

    The story is interesting and will develop as you wander deeper and deeper through the dungeons by textbooks or voice tapes that are found by the player. I mostly click these away but I enjoyed it quite a lot in Vaporum. The voice acting is very good. Character development follows different mixable possibilities from dual wielder, to gunman or mage-like types. Level points are a bit scarce in my opinion. In ended up with level 15 at the end which means 2 of maybe 8 (or even 10?) talent trees can be completely maxed and one by half. I read somwhere that 16 is actually max but I m not 100% sure of that. Puzzles are sometimes a bit hard, depends on how good you are with these types of stuff. Enemies vary a lot and are interestingly matched to weapon types or magic, providing a decent paper-stone-scissors principle.

    I was unsure whether to give it 7, 8 or even 9 points. The game has some flaws and is in my opinion really hard at times depending on your playstyle and chacter build. The final fight and some rooms are considerably hard. You find ammo and health packs but I feel that a casual player on normal will probably run into problems here. Some backtracking passages I didnt like either which is why I reduced the score in general by 2 points but I really think this game deservs around 8.5

    After all Vaporum is a considerably well made dungeon crawler that provides an outstanding steampunk-ish horror-esque experience that is worthwhile for 6 to 15hrs depending on playstyle and experience. Vaporum Lockdown will hopefully feature some more variety and game length but keep on with what they did well on this one.

    I would definitely buy this one again but would advise to wait for a decent sale.    … Full Review »
  3. Bulbotrax
    Dec 13, 2019
    8
    Since Dungeon Master, i always liked the dungeon crawlers games. I like the way these type of games feels.
    Vaporum is pretty cool, but it's    Since Dungeon Master, i always liked the dungeon crawlers games. I like the way these type of games feels.
    Vaporum is pretty cool, but it's way too short, and it lacks of puzzles moments, i hope the prequel will be much longer. With more monsters and enigmas.    … Full Review »
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