We return to the sprawling steampunk tower in the middle of the ocean to live out the origins of the disaster brought on by dreams of greatness, progress, and supreme bureaucratic control. True to real life, we are all under a bit of a lockdown right now, but I think the people working their 9 to 5 at the tower have it an itsy bitsy worse. If you remember Vaporum, (Check Out my Xbox One review!), it takes on a Legend of Grimrock feeling, which is essentially moving one tile at a time and solving puzzles while fending for yourself against ever-increasingly dangerous enemies.
We play as a young prodigy, Ellie, who was recruited directly from the Supreme Bureau’s college, and we immediately regret our unpaid internship in the bowels of this marvelous mess of gears and steam. She is motivated by the memories of her father, who himself came to work on this fumium project. Fumium is a strange resource of many properties and may be used in several human riots violations. Our story begins in what could easily be seen as a routine experiment, but suddenly hell breaks loose and fumium-imbued rats and fumatrons are killing everyone.
The environments are just as dark, dank, and trap-infested as the original title. For a facility built by the best minds, nothing seems to work here. There are plenty of locked doors that can be unlocked through levers, hydraulic switches, electrical switches, strange beams of energy, and timed switches that may or may not be triggered by projectiles. What idiots built this place?! No wonder everything fell apart. The majority of our time is spent navigating the level, mapping out the floor, and trying to find keys so we can keep moving on. There are plenty of obstacles and you will often need to think about how you will proceed. Thankfully, you can press CAPS LOCK to pause the game and continue looking around.
When it comes to combat, we have weapons to spare. We have blunt objects, swords, guns, and energy weapons to name a few. Because everything is on a tile/grid, it can be easy to get corned by multiple enemies. You have 2 slots to switch between when fighting for your life. You also have special abilities that can be swapped out, having 2 equipped at a time. Our health/integrity is modified by what we have equipped, too. This could change based on the armor you are wearing or even if you have a shield equipped.
I think this world is more fleshed out with the addition of a voiced-protagonist. Just like the original game, there are notes and audio recordings spread out across the facility. The introduction is well done and eases us into this deathtrap. Ellie even comments on her own recording you find in questionable places. There are definitely themes of children trying to live up to their parents’ expectations as well as sacrificing everything you love for humanity to progress. This is compounded by the propaganda on the walls that proudly supports collectivism and revolution.
Overall, if you are big puzzle person or have been craving a game with the same style as Grimrock, then you will thoroughly enjoy putting on one of these rig suits and getting to smashing robots to pieces. I think a fair rating for Vaporum: Lockdown should be an 8.5 out of 10.
Check Out the Vaporum: Lockdown Trailer:
Vaporum: Lockdown is available for $17.99 for Windows PC via Steam.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Steam Review
I like to think of myself as the average Joe who grew up alongside video games. I have fun playing strategy games, RPGs, shooters, sandboxes, the whole shebang! Every game provides an experience whether it strikes you as profound, mundane, or someplace in between. I'd like to weigh in my two cents before you spend a single penny.
More Stories
My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery Releases for PC and Consoles
Arena Breakout: Infinite Closed Beta Impressions
Indika Review for PlayStation 5