Vaporum – Lockdown

Just finished the game, but I left a good chunk of the optional stuff. It's really good.
It's relatively close to Grimrock in its gameplay, except you have the ability to toggle pause mode so the game only move when you do (or when you press a specific key). Looks like a mechanic that would only make the combat trivialy easy? It's not, since the enemy behavior and the encounters has been balanced around it.
That aside, all you expect in such a game is there : sprawling maps, puzzles, secret doors, perk system on level up, loot, and so on and so forth.

Excellent dungeon crawler, if you enjoy Dungeon Master-style games like Grimrock, chances are you will love this. Only a slight evolution over the origianl Vaporum (which was already good), this offers more of everything, while keeping the formula intact. Difficulty has increased a bit, but it still strikes a good balance between combat and puzzles. 9/10

Vaporum: Lockdown is an amazing, beginner-friendly blend of a Dungeon Crawler and an "0451" game like BioShock or System Shock, and even I, having zero experience with the former genre whatsoever, managed to ease into its gameplay with no problems.
-Initial impressions
At the very start, the game offers a clearly-defined and easy-to-understand playstyle choice with the various Exosuit harnesses, while offering all sorts of weapons from the very start.
Melee? The game has you covered, offering a wrench at the very start (because of course, it's the law that an "0451" game has to have a wrench as a starting weapon) and a shield to get up-close-and-personal.
Ranged? A pistol and a blunderbuss are readily available at the very first stage.
There's something for every playstyle, and you can decide on your playstyle at the very start -- even then, your choice doesn't limit you to a certain selection of weapons; instead, the game gives you complete cart-blanche in your approach -- and you'll need anything you can get your hands on to survive the Tower.
-Gameplay
To preface this:
SAVE
OFTEN.
When you complete a puzzle, save. When you win a big encounter, save. When you haven't saved in a long time, save.
Though this game has autosaving, it's recommended that you manually save.
This game may be the most thrilling thing I've experienced in a while.
Exploration and puzzle-solving take up a major part of this game. Puzzles are pleasantly challenging, and it always feels rewarding when you finally solve them.
Exploring is greatly encouraged, as snooping around yields great items or peculiar lore-notes/recordings.
Then we come to the combat portion of this game.
It
is
a w e s o m e.
The tank controls of the game really add to the tension and suspense of combat, as you're not able to freely look around with your mouse.
You're only limited to turning with the Q and E keys which may sound unpleasant on paper, but in execution feels natural and simply great.
The enemies are very diverse and come in a lot of forms, meaning you'll have to adapt your playstyle to every encounter to take them down.
A Roach or a Rat may require simply strafing and hitting it, but a Watcher will be much more unforgiving if you use that same tactic on him.
When encounters go large-scale, the game kicks into sixth gear: being chased by several murderous cyborgs and an unkillable Nemesis-wannabe gets terrifying when you also have to wrestle with the controls.
The gameplay is definitely a 10/10 for me.
-Atmosphere/Story
The game looks really good. Even on my not particularly strong laptop, it runs very well, while looking great.
I cannot describe how much I love the aesthetic style. It hits the golden middle-ground of Dieselpunk and Steampunk, and the same can be said about the enemy designs -- it's what attracted me to the game in the first place, how simply great it looks. The sounds are very much decent, and do their job greatly, as does the voice acting.
Additionally, it's incredibly immersive.
The story follows the usual "0451" formula of coming into a foreign place and trying to find out just what even happened there. The small tidbits of info found in notes and audiorecordings are all interesting in their own right. Even though I haven't got to the very end, the story has kept me hooked.
CONCLUSION:
For the cost of this game, it offers way too much fun. The replayability, with the various playstyles you can pick, seems great, and Vaporum: Lockdown will definitely entertain both complete newcomers to the genre and its veterans alike.
In short, do buy this game, it deserves a lot more popularity.

pretty good could do with less block pushing puzzlez if you hate block pushing puzzles you aint gonna like it

Recommended? Yes, yes, and yes. Definitely yes. For any gridder/blobber fan. Especially if you liked original Vaporum.
This is a dungeon-crawler/gridder (classical European style - limited enemies, limited resources, no grind), a prequel to an already good game in the same genre (see Vaporum). Vaporum: Lockdown expands on literally everything that made Vaporum good (and made it stand out even a little among its peers). Its combat is made better, more fluid, more tactical. Build diversity is better, with some sick overpowered options available. Puzzles are immensely satisfying (albeit on a harder side).
Playing Vaporum is highly recommended to understand the lore (wait, did I mention worldbuilding and lore? There are tons of lore. Notes and audiologs about the events which preceded Lockdown and the original game - and ultimately led to them).
Expect to spend 20 to 25 hours on a first-time blind playthrough and complete it with a deep feeling of satisfaction.

This game is extremely difficult, the fights as well as the riddles (coming from someone who calls the souls-franchise his favorit games), but if you live with that and the oldschool grid-gameplay, you are in for quite an adventure. I especially liked the skill system. There are so many nice things to specialize in. Unfortunately you can't reset your skills, so for example if you focus on swords and gadgets you might as well leave all maces, guns, and so on, behind, because they won't help you. Something I also want to highlight is the lack of bugs, I didn't encounter a single one.

Very nicely executed grid-based crawler. If you liked the first Vaporum or any of Legend of Grimrock games, this one is a must buy.