The interface is clunky at first, at least with a controller, and for the first time in nearly 20 years I might have to admit I found a game that played better with a mouse and keyboard. You have four exo rigs that all factor into your stats as well as multiple builds that let you equip weapons and gadgets to presets that you can instantly call up, making it easy to go from a ranged shotgun to a sword or mace. You get to customize Ellie, which in turn dictates the way you play the game. The ability to stop time plays a critical role in numerous puzzles and combat encounters and helps even the odds since many encounters find you outnumbered. The level of difficulty can be scaled by choices you make when setting up the game as well as various tactics chosen while playing, but the default difficulty is above average so expect a bit of a challenge. You can mix up melee with ranged combat using a variety of weapons and objects, and quaffing some healing elixir as needed. Most combat basically consists of strategically lining up the enemies then trading blows until dead. There are over 30 puzzles in the game and nearly all of them are optional but will reward you with some of the best items in the game if you can solve them. Puzzles are smart and nicely balance the combat portions of the game that can get a bit tedious. You’ll uncover lots of audio recordings and reading material that not only embellishes the story but also helps you in solving the overall challenge of escaping the tower with cleverly integrated clues and tips. The game is around 20 hours with nine large areas to explore once you have repaired the mini-sub. Additionally, you have the ability to freely move your cursor around the screen to interact with various hotspots or perhaps discover a secret.
You do have the ability to free-look but only while standing still. I often found myself just sliding sideways rather than turning to line up with a door or object. The grid system limits your peripheral vision creating a few moments of surprise when a creature appears before you after a 90-degree turn. We’ve become so used to smooth gameplay and fluid framerates that it was certainly odd playing Vaporum: Lockdown with its jerky linear movement and pop-up boxes for tool-tips, inventory, and other menus. Creatures become more varied and more deadly the deeper you go and later, multiple enemy types will combine forces against you. You collect loot and gadgets, some of which can be used as weapons to fight off various sentry drones and glowing rats, at least in the early levels. You’ll slowly figure out the grid-based movement system that hearkens back to the days of D&D with dungeons drawn on graph paper, an option you can actually choose when starting your game if you disable the auto-map. The game eases you into the experience with a basic fetch quest for some batteries to power-up the nearby teleport pad. I’m a sucker for steampunk and Vaporum: Lockdown makes the most of that genre in design and atmosphere while crafting an engaging tale fleshed out with some quality voice acting. This all leads to several hours of traditional dungeon-crawling with plenty of real-time combat, puzzle-solving, and classic inventory management that fuels the RPG-system and character development. Naturally, bad things happen and Ellie gets trapped inside the tower of Arx Vaporum and will need to survive and escape. This prequel opens with a pleasing and informative narration set to some gorgeous sepia tone story panels where we find that we will be playing as Ellie Teller, a scientist working on a mysterious project on a remote island. If I had to make a comparison to a game I have actually played it would be Operencia: The Stolen Sun, another grid-based RPG.
Logic would dictate that I probably shouldn’t be playing this game, but I did and I didn’t hate it. Its design is inspired by games like Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, and Legend of Grimrock…none of which I have played. This is a prequel to Vaporum, a grid-based dungeon crawler that I never played. Vaporum: Lockdown is the perfect example of why I don’t like to use other games as comparisons in reviews.
0 kommentar(er)
