Absolum – Review

Rogue-likes have a certain kind of magic to their design: this stationary threat at the end of the road that sits, patient and menacing, for you to walk into its lair and claim victory over the game’s greatest challenge. The final boss in a rogue-like is often the thing you think about the most, and actually encounter the least. In a game like Nightreign, you plan which locations to strike and what kind of build to work toward based on your knowledge of the Nightlord you’ll be facing at the end of the cycle. In Hades, you repeat the path through the rest of the game so frequently and with such speed that you can reach a flow state wherein you start thinking less about what’s happening in the immediate present and more about how everything you’re doing is going to save or condemn you later on. Hades himself is at the end of the line no matter what, so it’s best to have a plan. Through a more narrative-centric lense, The Binding of Isaac puts the game’s primary antagonist not only at the heart of the game’s loop but at the heart of its story. Mom is a vicious, unpredictable threat in the literal text of the game and in the ways that the runs themselves are so incredibly chaotic and deadly.

These are games that really test the player, forcing you to repeat sections over and over and over again, to grind your blade to dust against the bosses until you break through just once, then again, and then again to the point of it being a foregone conclusion. They are often brutally difficult and punishing to those who do not think tactically, but by necessity they need to be pleasant to look at, hear, and play because the nature of the game demands an incredible amount of repetition.

So along comes Absolum, a fantasy beat’em up rogue-like from developer Dotemu, and a game that not only understands the concept of the “run”, but heightens the enjoyment of each run to a degree I haven’t felt in a long time within the genre.

There is so much about this game that brings me immense joy, from the intense and driving soundtrack (with a few extremely catchy tracks), to the delightful aesthetic that calls to mind various fantasy comics and cartoons, and the deep wealth of randomized and systematized events which can curve a run in unique directions or give the player special goals to try and achieve.

Perhaps most noteworthy is the option to use what is called the “Active Assist” mode. This function allows you to raise or lower the amount of damage each player both outputs and receives, meaning that if you just want to goof around and experience the story you can drop the threat all the way down to zero and just have fun. The game features online and couch co-op, and Active Assist can be set to effect the players to different degrees for a truly custom experience.

Absolum takes place in a somewhat typical fantasy setting: a vast and magical land overtaken by the shadowy forces of an evil ruler, this time being Azra the Sun King. Each run, you pick from between your available characters, select a special move, and set off on a quest to defeat two of Azra’s top soldiers before storming the capitol. You know, assuming you make it that far.

What makes each run special is the amount of variety. Not only are there multiple branching paths to take on your journey (the first phase of the game offers almost a dozen unique combinations of levels to reach the first major boss) but with subsequent runs, new paths will open up and new events will play out in levels you’ve already passed through. One of the early levels is a dense forest full of scarlet trees and a horde of goblins to fight your way past. Standard fare, yes, but once I’d gone through it two or three times, an NPC pointed out that a new path had been cleared away by some loggers and a secret level was unlocked. Excited and intrigued, I took that path and found an alternate route to the Underking, the first of Azra’s most loyal subjects. Pretty neat on its own, but what really sealed the deal was that when I came back on another run through the secret level, a new NPC appeared with a special side-quest that took us to new parts of the level with some fun secrets to be found.
It was, in a word, delightful. And if I had to pick one word to describe this game, that’s what I’d go with: delightful.

There are so many secrets to uncover, new characters to unlock, skills to master, alternate routes and random events that’ll mix things up in exciting ways. Perhaps most important for Dotemu to nail was the combat (I mean, it’s what you’re doing basically the entire time) and nail it they most certainly did. Combos flow nicely together and characters feel agile and strong. Launching enemies into the air before unleashing a series of aerial attacks makes you feel like a god. Gaining a power that spawns throwing daggers when you successfully deflect an enemy attack and then hurling those daggers at your foes like an M60 machine gun at full force is one of the greatest beat ‘em up experiences I’ve ever had. Take into account that the Active Assist function lets you increase and decrease the difficulty to fit your preferences and this game oozes satisfaction.

Perhaps my only real criticism is that it is occasionally a little buggy. I encountered two rather nasty glitches in my time with the game, one being when a group of chickens launched my character into the air and suddenly the framerate dropped to about 2 per second and it couldn’t seem to recover. On another occasion, talking to one of my other characters in the game’s central hub opened a dialogue box that was completely empty and impossible to escape, resulting in me having to reload the game. I didn’t lose any progress, but I can’t shake the feeling that I might be missing out on one of the few hidden questlines I have yet to unlock.

The few nitpicks really aren’t worthy of much discussion though. Playing this game co-op is a frenetic rush, and the pure tactile joy of fighting through hordes of enemies was enough to keep me coming back until I snagged that platinum trophy. Not to mention, the game is nowhere near the cost of big releases, so there’s really no excuse not to make what will likely make my top ten games of the year.

Absolum is, in essence, the primary reason why we play games. It’s just so damn fun.