Dungeon Crawlers are a genre that I love. They are one of the oldest genre of RPG video games and yet so much can still be done with them. From the D&D classics like Eye of the Beholder, Sega’s classics like Shining in the Darkness, and even Nintendo and HAL’s SNES classic Arcana, the genre has produced some greats. Now Vaporum shows why the genre still has plenty left to give us.
Vaporum was released on PC previously, but has received a decent reworking for its release on console. Playing it on Switch, I found no issue with the controls after taking a few minutes to familiarize myself with everything. The result is well polished controls that do not get in the way of the experience at all.
Vaporum is a sci fi dungeon crawler that sees you enter a mysterious labyrinth to discover your identity. I struggle to find a way to describe it in simple terms, but that is not possible. The game has a visual aesthetic that reminds me vaguely of the classic Fallout and Deus Ex titles merged with classic dungeon crawler elements. You will scavenge for weapons and cybernetic upgrades in the labyrinth while engaging in real time combat with various mechanical enemies at the start. You will pick an upgrade early one and make your journey based on that, and the choices offered need to be considered carefully. That said, there is a lot of potential for replay here.
Navigating the mazes is not too difficult as long as you maintain an awareness of your surroundings. There are dangers though, such as traps, and these must be dealt with before you can progress. As you gain more abilities, the situations you get into will change accordingly. This keeps the gameplay fresh but also opens up some new challenges that you must think your way through. Strategy is needed here, both in terms of combat and navigating your way, so be careful as you make progress. Getting new equipment and weapons is key, so make the right choices in what supplies you pick up as well, because everything has its own high and low points.
As the game goes on, the story takes a variety of turns. What are you really doing in this place? You will find a variety of audio logs and other hints as to what happened, and they will shed new light on the story. Vaporum doesn’t break new ground storytelling-wise, but the story it tells is well thought out. I have few flaws with the game, but I feel some narrative pacing should have been altered at the start.
Overall, Vaporum is a great game and there is a lot of replay value in going back and starting again with a different upgrade or making different choices. I like what the developers had in mind here and the conversion to the Switch was extremely well done. I highly recommend this.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided