Vaporum: Lockdown Reviews

Earlier this month, Fatbot Games released Vaporum: Lockdown – a prequel to their real-time dungeon crawler Vaporum, a game itself inspired by such titles like Dungeon Master and Legend of Grimrock. And if you’d like to know what to expect from this prequel and whether it lives up to its predecessor, you can now check out a few reviews below:

ScreenRant 2.5/5:

Overall, Vaporum: Lockdown takes an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach. Not much has changed since the original, and it doesn’t offer a different experience to Legend of Grimrock beyond a different setting and focusing on one player character instead of a party system. To anyone looking for more in this genre, or maybe looking to scratch a BioShock itch, the game will serve its purpose admirably. But for anyone who wants something new, didn’t love those games, or never saw the appeal of grid-based RPGs in the first place, there isn’t much that Vaporum: Lockdown has to offer that will change their minds.

Third Coast Review 3/4:

I really enjoyed my time with Vaporum: Lockdown. It’s a solid dungeon crawler, and the best example of the genre I’ve played since Legend of Grimrock. If you are curious, it’s definitely worth a look—and if you’re a fan of this subgenre, it’s a must-have. There are some uneven moments, but otherwise it’s steampunk dungeon crawling perfection.

Chalgyr’s Game Room 8.3/10:

While it may act as a prequel to the original, Vaporum: Lockdown is an excellent return to the Arx Vaporum tower. Capitalizing on the features of the original while also making some minor adjustments to how you interact with the environment, this was hard to put down as I tried my best to help Ellie on her journey to escape this scientific wonder turned deathtrap.

The Game Slashers Scoreless:

Vaporum: Lockdown tells a compelling story in spite of its predictable setup while reiterating on a successful gameplay formula. If you enjoyed the original game, this is a worthy prequel. But the lingering sense of déjà vu stemming from the multitude of striking similarities could lead to fatigue.

Save or Quit Scoreless:

I played the original Vaporum, and found it to be one of the best games of its type. So it was hard to not go into this one with some expectations. Luckily Vaporum: Lockdown more than lives up to those expectations. Combat is fast and fun, although ultimately very similar to the original game, but where Lockdown truly shines is with its puzzles. These has to be some of the most well designed puzzles in any RPG to date, and the balance between action and puzzle solving is really good. It’s only right at the very end of the game that this balance ends up feeling a little bit off, but even then it never ended up feeling tedious.