BioShock 2 vs Vaporum: Lockdown
BioShock 2
BioShock 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to the popular BioShock game where you are thrown yet again back to the watery depths of Rapture but this time in the boots of the most iconic character of the BioShock franchise, the Big Daddy. The game also one-ups the previous game by introducing a more challenging opponent, Big Sisters, and another well-crafted and highly-acclaimed storyline that is as equally tragic as the last. In terms of gameplay, the game now allows players to dual wield a combination of plasmids, weapons or both.This time around the game also has a multiplayer option with unique multiplayer scenarios for players to experience and enjoy, including the opportunity to be involved in Rapture's civil war which had turned it into the creepy city that it is in the first game.
BioShock 2 retained most of what made the franchise so popular in the first place and yet added plenty more new features to change up the gameplay and appease its loyal and hardcore fans. This is a game that is highly recommended only after you've experienced the first BioShock game... seriously, don't jump the sequence!
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.