The Greedy Cave vs Vaporum: Lockdown
The Greedy Cave
The Greedy Cave , known also as Rogue’s Light, is a dark yet fun, roguelike dungeon crawler that managed to nail both the gloomy mood as well as the aesthetics which are among the main factors that had made Don’t Starve such a popular hit. The game puts you in the shoes of an aspiring treasure hunter who would brave any danger within the dungeon in hopes of getting the coveted legendary treasure.This game has seriously impressed us mainly because it has successfully merged the gloomy charm of Don’t Starve with a challenging yet somewhat idle-like dungeon crawler gameplay. Aside from having a robust progression system for both the character and the equipment he uses, the game rewards caution and yet encourages exploration as well. The developers also did a great job of balancing its freemium policy so that free-to-play players can actually do pretty well in the game without feeling like they are forced to pay in order to fully enjoy the game.
So, to sum up, The Greedy Cave is possibly one of the most innovative, though grindy… like most games in the same genre are and somewhat underrated, dungeon crawlers. It is a must-play in our books, especially if you happen to be a huge fan of dungeon crawlers.
Vaporum: Lockdown
Vaporum: Lockdown is a first-person, dungeon crawler featuring old-school grid-based dungeon-crawling gameplay with real-time combat, fun Sokoban-like puzzles, cool steampunk-themed setting, and an intriguing mystery to uncover. In this game, you play as a scientist, Ellie, who’s trapped within a locked-down facility called the Arx Vaporum filled with murderous robots and mutated creatures. Will Ellie be able to escape the place in one piece? What will she discover as she makes her way through Arx Vaporum?In terms of gameplay, you’ll be moving Ellie, the protagonist of the story, one grid at a time. Turning to face a certain direction before you can say turn a corner also requires an extra tap of the keyboard. However, this also means that you can actually move like a crab in this game if you’re sure of the path you’re on. Like most dungeon crawlers, Vaporum: Lockdown comes with devious traps, enemies and puzzles. Traps in this game can be rather easily avoided as long as you got the timing down right.
The interesting part about this game is that combat plays out in real-time here, unlike any other old-school dungeon crawlers we have experienced before. This means that it is entirely possible to loop a sequence of “move and attack” when facing something stationary so you can avoid getting hit at all. However, this also means that more mobile enemies can be trickier to slay – it all boils down to timing really.
There are also fun Sokoban-like puzzles in this game. Most of them involve having you to move crates around to fill holes in the ground, block danger from the path you want to take, or even to serve as paperweights on metal pressure plates. For hardcore treasure seekers, the game even has several hidden compartments that an inquisitive explorer might be able to find, each of these alcoves usually come with some nice rewards. There is a sufficient variety of loot, and you can get better gear as you progress.
Being a prequel of the highly-successful Vaporum, Vaporum: Lockdown definitely does the original game, and the Vaporum universe as a while, proud. Besides the few new features here and there, the gameplay is generally similar to the original title and hence, would be instantly familiar to fans of Vaporum. The storytelling here is great as well, offering so much more lore than before, and of course, the fantastic atmosphere here will pull you right into the fumium-obsessed world that Ellie Teller lives in.