I have a pet theory about roguelikes: The play-die-repeat loop has been fused with almost every genre imaginable, but the ones that pair best are genres that have always revolved around repeated play. Balatro’s gonzo approach to poker or Hades’ riff on the isometric action game took the core of games that had been built from the start to accommodate repeated runs and then added the incentives of stacking, iterative power-ups and progression on top of them.
Absolum is a game that is fundamentally built around the classic beat-’em-up. That genre is among the earliest, virtually a cave painting in video game history–the classic quarter-muncher. Beat-’em-ups were built for repeated fun because they needed to keep attracting you back to plunk in another coin, but they were also built to be remarkably hard. These qualities, which developers have sometimes struggled to modernize, make the roguelike element fit like a glove. As a result, Absolum is an absolute blast to play, over and over again.
It shouldn’t be surprising that Absolum hews so closely to its beat-’em-up roots. This is an original world from Guard Crush Games, the studio behind Streets of Rage 4. But rather than cleaning up the mean streets in a retro-modern setting, Absolum borrows liberally from swords-and-sorcery classics like Golden Axe. This is a fresh fantasy world in which a cataclysm resulted in the outlawing of all magic in the land of Talamh. A totalitarian ruler, the Sun King Azra, rules the land with an iron fist, and he hypocritically instrumentalizes magic to keep rogue wizards in check. As a small band of rebel wizards, you wage war on the Sun King, making your way to his imperial tower with the blessing of the Root Mother Uchawi, who revives you after each unsuccessful run.
The underlying structure of the story–a scrappy band of rebels against an oppressive regime–is fairly standard, but Absolum excels at the details. The worldbuilding and culture of this magical society is both broad and deep, and it treats magic with a sort of wistful air of mystery. These are forces that are strange and incomprehensible, and the way characters talk about it reflects that they don’t fully understand what they’re tapping into. That accentuates the contrast between your band of freedom fighters, who are innately so tied to nature that they’re practically a part of it, and the steel-ribbed techno-magic of Azra’s forces. Where Azra wants to cage and control this force, your rebels want to let it run wild and free. You get the sense that this is inherently dangerous, which makes your freedom fighters not entirely in the right.
That visual language, shorthanding your struggle as wild and potentially hazardous natural beauty against the suffocating weight of metallic subjugation, is just one way that the beautiful 2D art makes Absolum shine. Characters and enemies have smooth and sometimes comical animations. The environments are lush and drenched with fall colors and wood grains. In fact, the whole game has a very autumnal feeling to it–not just in the setting but the vibes: the sense of something ephemeral and unknowable residing in the changing of nature and the passage of time.
However, this is far from a reflective stroll through the autumn leaves. It’s a beat-’em-up, so you spend the majority of your time knocking heads. Each land you explore on your way to Azra’s tower has its own distinct cultures, enemy types, allies, rideable mounts, and hazards. Your base of operations is permanently affixed to the first area, a woodland filled with hostile goblins, so you’ll get plenty of experience taking them down repeatedly as you progress to later areas filled with lizardmen, living plants, skeleton warriors, and of course, imperial soldiers.
As you might expect from this pedigree, the battle mechanics are rock-solid, with a fighting game level of precision. You’re not just mashing the attack button as in classic beat-’em-ups. Your combo meter rewards you for differentiation, and some enemy attacks need to be dodged or parried to maximize your effectiveness and manage crowd control. As you start to customize your character through a run, you can even purchase Trinkets that will grant you bonuses for Punish (counter) damage or well-timed dodges, so it’s worthwhile to practice the full suite of skills.
Your class selection is a familiar mix of classic archetypes. You begin Absolum with a choice of just two fighters–the well-balanced swordfighter Galandra, and the rough-and-tumble, blunderbus-wielding Karl. As you explore deeper into Talamh, you meet and eventually befriend the two other playable characters: the agile Cider with her clockwork prosthetic parts, and the ranged frog-wizard Brome. I had suspected I would play mostly as Brome, as I tend to prefer glass cannons, but after experimenting with the different characters, I gravitated heavily towards Cider. Her ability to dart around the battlefield just clicked, and I always enjoyed hearing her hilariously boastful voice lines.
Unlocking characters is just one of many side quests you’ll discover as you explore the branching lands throughout Talamh. Sometimes you’ll be able to complete an entire side quest in one run, but more often than not, characters you meet will hint at exploring in a particular direction to find something new. These could give you even more branching paths, big loot rewards, or even other characters who make home back at your base camp and help you between runs. It’s all very intuitive, as once you start mapping out the branching paths of Talamh, it’s easy to tell if you should take the high or low road out of a stage to reach your intended destination. And even aside from side quests, there’s a steady occurrence of random surprises to keep you on your toes. Absolum nudges you just enough in new directions to constantly be discovering new things and keeping your runs fresh. After several hours I was still discovering new things, and even having completed it, there’s still more I left unfinished.
During a run, you’ll gather gold for buying gear and crystals for unlocking more abilities at camp, but the most-prized treasures are Rituals. These are the power-ups of Absolum, infusing your abilities with magic, and letting you mix them as you please. One ability might create a fiery trail when you dash, while another could build up electric static that bursts across the battlefield when it gets full, or catch enemies in a mini-tornado and lift them off the ground, or summon an army of undead to fight for you.
You never know exactly what you’ll be offered in a given run, but you’ll certainly find some you prefer. My absolute favorite was a Bramble build, which would spawn powerful, throwable daggers and rose-thorn turrets. When mixed with Cider’s agility, dashing away to create distance and then quickly flitting daggers through a gaggle of enemies was just spectacular. And of course, you’ll naturally mix and match some abilities. Later unlocks start to combine Rituals together, letting you summon, for example, a fire-tornado. Some Rituals are gated behind side quests or story progression, giving you that much more reason to explore in different directions.
Gallery
Once your run has finished, you’re revived by Mother Uchawi and tally your Radiance, aka your experience points from the previous run. Those in turn unlock items that can be used for permanent upgrades, along with the crystals you gathered from your last run. Then it’s time to do it all again, perhaps this time making a few different path choices if you want to pursue a particular side quest, until the Sun King is defeated and beyond.
It’s a joy every time. I didn’t want to put Absolum down, and I slightly resented when life would make me. By tapping into a primordial part of gaming history, Absolum has created something that feels revelatory. The beat-’em-up genre feels changed, now, and I don’t know if there’s any going back.
