My brief time with Absolum back in June left me impressed with what felt like a true mashing of genres. Flash forward to October, and Absolum is finally out, and I can say with confidence that the roguelike beat-em-up has taken the crown for best roguelike of the year.
Absolum features a medieval fantasy setting that Guard Crush and DotEmu have lovingly brought to life, imbuing it with elements and nods from gaming and popular culture, such as Golden Axe, LOTRs and fighting games in general. In terms of narrative, Absolum is set in the world of Talamh, in which the tyrannical Sun King Azra has begun to prosecute anyone who openly uses magic. Banning the arcane art throughout the lands, Azra and his minions have begun to syphon and harness magic in order to fulfil a dark purpose, one which requires two full playthroughs to uncover and thwart.
Absolum features four distinct playable characters, including the Dwarf Karl, a fast and frenetic fighter with ranged attacks, the Elf Galandra, a sword-wielding warrior, the ninja-like acrobat, Cidar, who comes equipped with a growing arsenal of traps and illusions, and Brome the Wizard, a primarily range-based DPS attacker with some fluid movement prowess.
With two-player co-op shenanigans, Absolum has a lot of roguelike action to sink your teeth into. With the first 10 or so hours of your journey in Absolum, players should dedicate themselves to empowering their party of Magic-equipped rebels, edging ever closer to taking out the Sun King on their quest to liberate Talamh. As the game is a roguelike on top of an excellent feeling beat-em-up, Absolum features plenty of skills to grow, magic permutations to level and modifiers to unlock, all of which add depth and variety to the game, while rounding out some of the harder difficulty spikes in the game, particularly during the final boss encounter.
Aspects of magic take the form of Rituals, which, generally, are rewarded to players after clearing a room. Some Ritual premuations include Wind, Bramble, and Necromancy, among others, that gradually unlock over time. Rituals can he levelled up via the starting hub area of the game, granting powerful bonuses the more you use a specific aspect during a run in Absolum. Rituals can dramatically change your character’s play style, such as lighting your weapon on fire, summoning the dead, or even stopping time, after a successful parry or dodge.
“Absolum encourages replayability to see what kind of crazy builds you can find on your run.”
In other words, like any good roguelike, Absolum encourages replayability to see what kind of crazy builds you can find on your run through the game’s handful of biomes. Finding the same type of Ritual during your run will also increase its star rating, which naturally increases its potency, encouraging players to try and build out a niche during every run, for maximum efficiency.
On the topic of levelling up, Absolum features a wealth of other upgrades, including an extensive (literal) tree of permanent upgrades, such as bonus lives, stronger mounts and opportunities to get rarer loot, on top of unlockable special attacks, which give each of the four playable characters a wealth of valuable skills that require meter to unleash.
“Absolum is not only the best beat-em-up of the year, it’s also my favourite roguelike.”
With plenty of secrets, including optional bosses and areas, a major difficulty spike after clearing the game, which unlocks the path to the true ending, Absolum is a lengthy game and one that is best played with a friend. Thankfully, if you do wish to make the experience less punishing, players can freely tweak the difficulty of the game at any time, during local play, making it possible to see everything the game has to offer without much effort.
Absolum is not only the best beat-em-up of the year, it’s also my favourite roguelike. From its satisfying and weighty hit detection to its gorgeous comic book-inspired aesthetic and tough but rewarding gameplay loop, Absolum is an absolute must-play for fans of either genre. If I had to nitpick, the difficulty spike towards the end of the game can be rather unforgiving. Still, with a good mix of skill and RNG, even the impossible will seem doable in time, with my final playthrough of the game taking around 23 hours, with most of it played via local co-op.
With so many great releases this year, it can be hard to pick a new game to play, but if you’re a fan of games like Hades, Streets of Rage 4, or beat-em-up and roguelike games in general, you owe it to yourself to check out Absolum. And with the promise of cross-play between console and PC, the two-player roguelike can be enjoyed by all, making it an essential pick for those who are up to the challenge.
