GB Feature: Vaporum Review

We’ve witnessed the release of quite a few grid-based, fantasy-themed, and Dungeon Master-inspired titles over the last few years, but today we bring you our full review of Vaporum, a new title that breaks that mold by going with a steampunk theme. Technically, Fatbot Games isn’t releasing the game until tomorrow, so this is one of our rare “day one” critiques:

There are also several gadgets / spells for you to choose from. You can equip two of them at the start of the game, and then if you invest in the thauma catalyzer and fusion conversion circuits, you can add up to two more. Gadgets do things like deal damage, improve your defenses, and improve your attacks. At the start of the game you only find “basic” versions of gadgets, but then eventually you uncover “advanced” and “superior” versions, which are more effective but require more energy.

I tried three different characters in Vaporum. For my main playthrough I used a “combat” character with blunt weapons, blocking, and armorer. Then I worked through the first few levels using a “heavy” dual-wielding swordsman and a “thauma” guns and gadgets expert. The three characters played differently but not wildly so, and since all of the enemies and puzzles in the game are fixed, that leaves Vaporum’s replay value a little limited — unless you want to go for all of its achievements, since many of them (like dealing 1 million damage) require multiple playthroughs.