Absolum Review: A Great Beat-em-Up with a Terrible Structure

I wasn’t planning on this. Truth be told after the Dead or Alive 5 review wound up being as long as it was, I was planning on taking a break for a little while until the Doom movie review. Which is still coming by the way, I will absolutely be doing that one in time for Halloween.

That isn’t to say I wasn’t going to look at Absolum. I was, but my plan was to look at it alongside the upcoming Marvel Cosmic Invasion as another comparison. Since the last one actually did ok for me and I like doing those so I thought it would be fun. Plus, both are DotEmu games so it would have tied into the last comparison nicely.

But Cosmic Invasion still does not have a release date at the time of writing. It could be another month or two before it comes out so it might be too late by the time I got to this. I still wanted to talk about this game though because I have never been this split on a game in a good while.

The game in question being Absolum; a new beat-em-up developed by Guard Crush Games and published by DotEmu. Both of which also worked on Streets of Rage 4, one of the finest beat-em-ups ever made.

Guard Crush Games were the ones behind the combat design of SOR4, while Lizard Cube, who recently worked on the new Shinobi game I looked at a little bit ago, worked on the art and animation. It’s weird that the two studios behind the new Streets of Rage both have games coming out in the same year, but I’m not complaining.

I was looking forward to Absolum due to the pedigree of its developer. That and the fact that it was taking clear cues from Hades, which is one of my favourite games of all time. It seemed like a game I was going to absolutely adore.

As you can imagine, that didn’t happen. Which is frustrating because I want it to happen. Absolum has so many things I love, but the overall design just doesn’t come together like it should. You can probably guess what my issues with it are based on the title, but before I dive into what put me off about this game, let’s talk about what it does right.

For starters the presentation is excellent. Much like Streets of Rage 4 it goes for a hand drawn aesthetic. Although since Lizard Cube isn’t involved, it doesn’t quite have the same scratchy, gritty style their games have. Instead it goes for an art style based more on French comic books, or Bande dessinée as its traditionally called in native France.

Admittedly I am not that familiar with the world of Bande dessinée, but if you look up French graphic novels, or just even independent graphic novels like Hilda and Bone, you can clearly see the influences it took. The style is very colourful and cartoony but with harsher shadows to give it a darker edge.

I mean one level has a dead dragon in the background and at one point you fight through a mine filled with zombie dwarves. It definitely has much more of an edge to it than its cartoony visuals let on.

It’s also a very well animated game. Whether it’s the main characters, the enemies or the NPCs everything is animated incredibly well. It isn’t as smooth as Lizard Cubes efforts and it can look a bit choppy on occasion, but it is still quality stuff overall. Add on a moody but still vibrant colour palette and some very nice-looking special effects, and Absolum doesn’t do a lot wrong in the visual department.

Audio wise it’s also pretty good, for the most part. I say that because the voice acting is a bit on the weak side. Not bad, at least not for the main characters, but nothing all that good either. It’s perfectly serviceable but that’s about it.

The rest of the audio slaps though. The sound design is excellent. The hit effects sound suitably crunchy which makes combat feel satisfying, and there’s a nice amount of ambient sound to go along with the music. Makes the whole thing a lot more atmospheric and immersive.

Speaking of music, it’s great, but not my cup of tea. It’s well composed for what it is, and it is intense enough that it helps add to the action, but it leans more into creating tone and atmosphere than being particularly catchy. Which is how I prefer my action game soundtracks.

That’s not a slam on Absolum’s OST or anything, it’s just a preference. Absolum’s music is very good and suits the game perfectly, but none of the music immediately sticks out to me and I have a hard time remembering a lot of it. Still, it is a good soundtrack. It works for what the game is going for, and I can’t really fault it for that.

So, presentation wise I don’t have many complaints. Nor do I have many complaints with the core gameplay. Because as far as the combat is concerned, Absolum is peak beat-em-up action. It doesn’t do much to shake up the core beat-em-up formula, at least as far as mechanics are concerned, but everything is done incredibly well.

Every character has a robust move-set of attacks and moves to pull from. Aside from the standard attack combo, dash attacks, aerial attacks and grabs common in most beat-em-ups, each character also has a Skill and Arcana.

Skill’s acting as a heavy attack which works differently for each character, and Arcana acting as this games version of special moves. Every character has six Arcana to pick from, but they can only have two for every run, the first one being picked right away and the other given to you after beating the first area.

Arcana can be very powerful, especially when added to combos, but they require magic to pull off. You have a magic meter with different stocks you use for Arcana, and you fill it up by attacking enemies. This isn’t hard to do either because the game is all about making big combos.

Characters can chain moves together easily, and the combo system is open enough to allow for a lot of creativity in how combos are constructed. On top of that, it’s also possible to keep combos going even after enemies are killed, and doing so will still increase the magic meter. So you’re to combo for as long as possible even after the fights have already been won to keep magic stocked.

The amount of freedom you’re given with the combo system makes this one of the most fun I’ve seen in a beat-em-up. Streets of Rage 4’s combo system was already really good, but Absolum improves on everything by giving you more options to play with.

The Arcana alone give you a lot of different ways to experiment, and since the game gives you bigger rewards for using certain Arcana in runs you’re encouraged to try each of them out at least once. There’s nothing stopping you from sticking to the ones you like, and there is bound to be some Arcana you hate using, but it’s nice the game gives some incentive to try each of them out.

There is one caveat to the combo system however. Attacking enemies doesn’t just damage them, it also builds pressure, and when you build up enough pressure the enemy is sent into an Overpressure state where they’re sent flying, and you can’t hit them again until they finish recovering.

This sucks, but it is necessary. If the game didn’t have this it would be far too easy to combo enemies into oblivion. Plus, Overpressure is here to get you to diversify your combos more since using the same moves repeatedly builds pressure faster and does less damage.

It’s a very cleverly designed combo system. It gives you a lot of freedom and creativity but has systems in place that make you explore that creativity. It isn’t hard to make big combos at all, but trying to get the biggest combos and damage possible will require a lot of experimentation and practice.

That’s not all, you also have access to throwable items. You need to find these in the levels, but they can be very useful as a ranged weapon. There’s a good variety of these with different effects and throw arcs, with some being quite devastating, so you’ll want to pick these up if you see them.

The game gives you a ton of different ways to destroy your enemies, but the game doesn’t just give you offensive options, there’s plenty of defensive options too. You have a dash which can be used as a getaway tool or a block. If you dash into an attack, you can deflect it which negates any damage.

There’s also a dodge which let’s you avoid attacks, and if you time it right you can swoop in for a counterattack that opens them up for a combo. I didn’t use this as much as the deflect. It’s useful but I find deflecting more practical, and I will admit when it comes to defence I usually stick with one mechanic since I tend to play aggressive.

There are incentives to learn the different defensive options though. Certain attacks can’t be deflected, so you need to learn to dodge to avoid those. The game does a great job of keeping all the main mechanics relevant throughout the game, so nothing ever feels wasted.

My only issue with these is that, while attacks that can’t be deflected are telegraphed well, there are attacks which can’t be dodged that aren’t. It’s mostly sweeping attacks since they attack in a horizontal arc. Some indication of those would be nice. Maybe a blue spark to go along with the red for unblockable attacks.

But there’s a third option that works on everything, the Clash. If you time a Skill or Arcana with an enemy attack, it will parry it and open them up for a counter. It’s a bit harder to pull off since you need to learn the timing for the different enemies, but it’s well worth learning because you can get big punish damage out of it, and you can absolutely decimate bosses with this when you learn their patterns.

The one option you don’t have, that I do wish was here, is some kind of “get of me” tool. The invincible attack like the Extra Joy in Final Fight or the neutral Special Attack in Streets of Rage that gets enemies off you when surrounded, that kind of thing.

Arcana can work as this to some degree, but it isn’t quite the same. Granted I don’t know how this kind of thing would be implemented. The examples I used come at the cost of a bit of your life bar, and I don’t know if that would work in a Rogue Lite like this. I think if it cost a tiny bar of magic, half a stock maybe, then that would work for this just fine.

Because I do think the game could use one. You can get surrounded very easily which can lead to enemies dogpiling on you. You do have a lot of movement options to help you get away, but even that won’t help you when there’s tons of enemies on screen.

Luckily there are two ways of working around this. The first is to bring a buddy. This a beat-em-up after all and those are best played with friends, which you can do either in local couch co-op or online.

But if you’re a lonely, friendless, waste of space and air like me, you also have a special screen clearing Star Attack to help reset the pace of a fight. Every character has a unique Star Attack that works a little differently, but they are very devastating. The downside is you need Stars to use them which are rare, but you can get an upgrade that gives you a free Star at rest stops if you don’t have one. So feel free to use them in a pinch.

There is a lot to the combat. It’s a deep, rewarding, but still very easy to learn system that allows for a lot of player expression. And by this point you should know I love me a game with a lot of player expression.

The thing is, despite the number of mechanics and combat options, you don’t need to master all of them. The system is designed in a way where you can play basically however you want and you’ll also be able to get through the game just fine.

Want to play super aggressive and just combo motherfuckers all day long, go for it. Want to play super cautious and defensively, you can do that too. Obviously, some strategies work better in some situations, and it is best to try to have a nice balance in your playstyle if you want the easiest experience, but as long as you understand enemy patterns and the best ways to deal with them you should be fine.

Each of the four playable characters also have their own distinct playstyle. Galandra is the most balanced of the four, having a good combo game, decent damage and a good balance of offence and defence. There isn’t much Galandra can’t do. She doesn’t have any clear weaknesses, but by that token she doesn’t particularly excel in any given area either. A perfect all rounder that anyone can play.

Karl is the brawler of the group. He has good damage output with his moves, being the hardest hitting character and has the ability to move around while grabbing an enemy but his lack of a natural air combo means he can’t get the same kind of combo extensions as the others. Making him a bit more limited in his combo game unless he has magic to spare since his Arcana are great combo tools and let him control screen space thanks to their range.

Cider is the combo machine with a lot of fast combo attacks that hit multiple times, and her Skill is a grappling hook that not only serves as a mobility tool but gives her ways to extend combos, or even just to get in and go for a grab. Cider is all about speed and mobility, but she does require a bit more finesse to use effectively. She’s largely dependent on controlling the pace of a fight, and if you aren’t able to do so she does struggle a bit. But if you’re able to figure her out she is a beast.

Then there’s Brome who was the one character I couldn’t quite get. He’s the mage of the groups so his playstyle is focused largely on his Arcana. He has the most versatility with his Arcana, but some require a bit of set-up and planning to use effectively. Brome feels like a much more deliberate character. One that requires more patience and thought to be effective. Even his Star Move works a little differently. Unfortunately, I like to play aggressive, so he really wasn’t my kind of character.

Still, I liked three of the four characters and it’s not like Brome is a bad character, he just wasn’t one I like to play as. But hey, maybe he’s your favourite. With their different playstyles there’s bound to be at least one character you like. And you can even change how they play to fit your style even more.

You can find new skills in each run that change how each character plays. Karl can gain a bounce attack that gives him an actual air combo, a reload skill that stock magic right away letting him focus on Arcana, or he can gain more grapple moves to make him more of a grappler.

Cider can gain a wall jump for extra mobility, a command throw that can be comboed into, or a new grab for her grapple arm. Brome can charge his Arcana and skill for greater damage or gain a new throw that lets him manipulate the enemies or gain the ability to telekinetically pick up and throw throwable items.

Then there’s Galandra who has the best unlockable skills in the game. She has a dive kick, a new combo attack that adds more hits and damage, a combo for her Skill and, my favourite, a ghost sword that fights alongside her. Galandra can get very broken thanks to her skills, and she is easily my favourite character to play as a result.

That isn’t even everything. There are several more skills you can find, and you’re free to pick and choose which ones you want. Well depending on what you get. This is a Rogue Lite after all, so random chance is going to play a role in what skills you get.

But that isn’t all. You also have Rituals which are magic abilities that can be added to the characters, either giving you different buffs or adding properties to the characters abilities. If this sounds like the Boons from Hades, that’s because it very much is.

The Rituals are pretty much the exact same thing. There are eight different types of Rituals ranging from the standard elemental abilities to more abstract ones, but I’ll leave the details for you to discover.

These rituals can also drastically change how you approach the combat. There are dozens upon dozens of possible builds that can be made, and with the four characters having their own distinct playstyles, you have a ton of options in how you want to play.

The combat variety is strong here. Not just in the tools but the enemy variety too. The enemies all have different attacks and behaviours you need to keep track of. Some counter if you jump in on them, others have shields you need to get behind or break, others use magic or attack from a distance which I frigging hate but hey every beat-em-up needs projectile enemies for varieties sake.

They keep you on your toes, and with every major area having its own set of enemies, the combat manages to keep itself interesting. At least in the short term.

So far you may be thinking this all sounds excellent, and you would not be wrong. The combat in Absolum is easily it’s best feature and is an absolute blast. If that is the case, then why am I mixed on the game overall. Well, this is where we start getting into the problem I have with the game that, in my opinion, holds the game back significantly, the structure.

Absolum, as I said before, is Rogue Lite. The game is built around runs which are all randomised. Every run whatever Rituals and Skills you pick up is random and what levels you run into will be different as well, meaning every playthrough is different.

This is how most rogue lites work and at first it does work in Absolum. The combat is interesting thanks to the strong enemy variety, and there’s a ton of different builds to try out. For a while I was enjoying the game quite a bit since there was a lot of upgrades to unlock and things to uncover.

But after a few runs you begin to realise that Absolum has very little variation besides the Rituals and Skills. Which, to be fair, does provide plenty of variety. You will not have the same build in subsequent runs, which does help keep the combat fresh. It was fun seeing all the different combinations of Arcana, Rituals and Skills I could create.

The problem is everything else. First let’s talk about how you progress in each run. The way Absolum works is that you’re given a choice of paths to follow which each have their own sets of enemies and levels and bosses, though each path will eventually converge on the same boss in every major area.

Early on you’re give a bit of freedom in how to get through the game. you can even change the second island you visit to change runs up even further. It does get more linear near the end though. The final area is always the same, and while you have some freedom in which rooms you can do, it will always end with a linear hallway to the final boss.

But, while each path has its own types of enemies and obstacles, the rewards are largely the same. You’ll find resources in largely the same order, for example Rituals are always given to you right before a rest stop or boss, meaning that you’ll always end up with roughly the same number of Rituals in nearly every run.

Now some paths do offer different rewards. When you start each run you have a choice of three paths, two of which will take you along simple enough opening levels with the same rewards, but the third, which is hidden at the start, will lead you to an optional boss fight that rewards you with a Skill but you lose out on a Ritual.

So there is some decision making in regard to what paths through the game you take. The problem is that, because the rewards on each path are largely set, it makes it very easy to plan out a route where you get everything you want in the easiest most efficient way possible.

Once you find the optimal path through the game there is very little reason to diverge from it. There are certain events that pop up randomly that try and add some variety, but not only are these rare there also aren’t enough of them.

They’re so rare I would actually forget they were in the game until I saw one again. If you compare this to Hades, where are there dozens of potential events, obstacles and general shenanigans that can affect any give run, you realise just how lacking Absolum is in that regard.

You may consider that an unfair comparison. After all Hades was an early access game that got added over time to make it a more robust experience. But Absolum borrows so heavily from Hades that the comparisons are inevitable. Which makes the fact that it is not as good as Hades, at least at being a Rogue Lite, sting all the more.

Now there are certain factors that can affect how runs go. One of which is gold which is used to purchase items or even Rituals. You won’t get the same amount of gold on each run, either because of bad luck on drops, or because you purchased expensive items that you really wanted. This means there might be certain paths where you can buy upgrades like Rituals, that might not be worth doing since you won’t have the gold to spare.

That said, there are methods late in the game that can make it easy to get a ton of gold, and certain paths are guaranteed to net you a lot of it. So, again, it’s easy to plan a path that gives you all that you need including gold.

This all means that at some point you are going to enter a routine. The levels themselves are still randomised, but there aren’t that many potential levels to begin with and the randomness of the levels is fairly low in my experience. I would play the same path and get the same levels in nearly the same order. The RNG is either very poor, or there aren’t enough levels to randomise so you wind up seeing the same ones repeatedly.

You could try to change up what path you take, but there’s very little incentive to do so. If you get the same rewards on each path, why would you need to change. If your comfortable with one path, you might as well stick to it since you’re going to wind up with the same stuff anyway.

Even if the paths offer slightly different rewards like I mentioned earlier, they’re just that, slightly different. That example I gave where you give up a Ritual for a Skill, I didn’t even notice that I lost a Ritual until I paid super close attention to it. So even if there is variation in the rewards you will barely notice it.

There’s a pretty easy fix to this too. All they had to do to make the player try different paths was just to randomise the rewards. Have certain paths give out more Rituals or some give more Trinkets on different runs, and you’d give the player more of an incentive to try paths they wouldn’t normally.

There’s already a map in the game, so all players would need to do is open that to see what reward each path offered. That way you can still randomise rewards but still allow the player to plan out their path through the game. Why didn’t they do like that.

This wouldn’t necessarily fix the game getting stagnant, it still needs more levels and events to allow better variation, but it would go a long way in obfuscating the issue by making sure the player changes their route through the game.

Mind you that is only the first step. The second would be to add a greater sense of risk vs reward. One thing I like about Rogue Likes is that often the difficult paths lead to the biggest reward. It might not be easy, but that’s why it’s a risk, and the reward is often worth it if you are able to beat it.

In Absolum these harder paths are never worth doing. The rewards you get simply aren’t worth the risk of trying to complete them. In fact, the easier paths are often the ones that are the most rewarding.

That secret path I mentioned earlier is one such example. The boss fight on that path is one of the easier ones in the game, and despite losing a potential Ritual from it the extra Skill is more valuable anyway since those are far rarer, and there are places where you can get multiple rituals at once and if you plan it out you can more than make up for the ritual lost taking the secret path.

This all means that Absolum gets stale after a couple of runs. Initially there is a nice sense of discovery as you find new paths and events, but after you discover the best path to go down it isn’t hard to get into a routine, and nothing kills a Rogue Like better than routine.

Yes, some events won’t occur due to the game’s random nature. You can go down a path for a potential outcome only for it not to show up. That can be annoying, but as I said there aren’t many of these events and it isn’t hard to plan around this.

I think GCG is aware that you will get stuck in a routine because they do try to push you into exploring other paths. Most of the types of Rituals you can access are locked at the start of the game and need to be found across certain paths.

This is a good way of getting the player to explore the different paths in the game. Which works in the early game when you’re still trying to figure everything out. Of course, when you do find everything this doesn’t really matter, but this is where the side quests come in.

The game has a bunch of optional objectives that will require you to go down certain paths to complete them. Often rewarding you with a new permanent upgrade or event you can access. Unfortunately, many of the events are the ones you’ll ignore, but at least it’s something new.

Unfortunately, these side quests not only require you to go down certain paths but require certain things to happen on those paths. And keep in mind that every run is randomly generated so the things you need for the side quests might not show up.

This means that when doing side quests, you’re at the whims of the RNG gods, and they are not kind in Absolum. There were multiple runs where I tried to do a side quest only for what I needed not to come up, forcing me down that path again just to try and complete it. There was one where it took me near a dozen tries to do because what I needed wouldn’t spawn.

This is the most artificial way of creating replay value. I know a lot of Rogue Likes have this issue. Sometimes you’ll try going for something and it doesn’t spawn. But in other Rogue Likes you aren’t intentionally going for bonus objectives, they’re just an extra thing you do on the way if it pops up. Even in Hades where there are multiple side stories to complete, they’re generous enough with spawn rates that they don’t feel tedious to complete.

In Absolum it is tedious. So much so that it sucks all the fun out of doing them. The worst part about this is, outside of these side quests, there’s not a lot to do after you do your first successful run. Well technically second because the true final boss only shows up after you complete your first run, but after you beat that and get the true ending, there’s not much to do beyond that.

There’s certainly not much to the story. It’s just a basic evil guy conquered world, go stop him and claim revenge story. There are not many character moments, so the cast feels a bit flat, and while there is some interesting lore it’s not delivered in the most engaging way.

I think the world of Absolum is actually cool. It’s got zombie dwarves and an undead elven kingdom, it can get pretty fucking metal, but the actual story just doesn’t interest me. I hate that I keep comparing it to Hades, but that game had a much more engaging story with an interesting thematic throughline that this game just doesn’t have.

And since there isn’t much to the story beyond the main plot, it gives you less of a reason to go back when you see the true ending. Which doesn’t take too long. It will take a few runs to do because the game is challenging but you’ll still see the end of this in about ten or so hours depending on your skill level.

It also helps if you have a broken build. Much like Hades there are some combinations of Rituals and Skills that are so busted you feel practically invincible. It can have a side effect of trivialising the deep combat, but never to the point where you never have to engage with the mechanics.

That’s not even counting the Trinkets which can help boost certain stats. You can get absolutely jacked in the game if you stack these. Which I don’t like because it can turn this into a numbers game. Where it’s more about stats than the actual combat.

I think what bugs me is, Absolum didn’t need the stats. The combat is already incredibly deep on its own, I didn’t even get into the different mounts you can ride. The game already has a ton of depth with the mechanics and Rituals, so the stats to me feel superfluous.

Are they helpful? Yes, though it depends on what you’re increasing. If you focus on increasing magic, luck or defence then it makes each run a lot easier. Everything else makes so little difference you’ll barely tell you’ve increased them at all. The stats have so little impact you won’t even recognise them so what’s the point. They don’t add depth, they just add numbers.

I also have an issue with how the difficulty is handled. The difficulty itself is fine. It poses a decent challenge, not too difficult not too easy, and there are ways to adjust the difficulty if you find it too much, so it’s great for any skill level.

But there are instances where the game makes itself harder and it doesn’t feel entirely fair. For one there are armoured enemies that don’t get hit stun unless you punish them. I can’t stand these because they break the flow of combat, and when there’s more than one of them they can be a frigging nightmare to deal with.

What sucks most about these is how lazy they are. They’re just the same enemy but with super armour. Unlike in, you guessed it, Hades where armoured enemies were stronger with different attacks, these are just the same basic enemies only far more annoying.

You can’t even plan for these because they appear at random, and after you beat the game once, the game will randomly drop in other enemies from other routes to make things more challenging. But because the enemies are random, and can also be armoured, it can make fights into a complete clusterfuck.

This isn’t uncommon for Rogue Likes. A lot of them can get extremely chaotic and that’s why they’re so fun, but it doesn't work nearly as well for beat-em-ups. Beat-em-ups get their challenge from having thoughtfully designed combat encounters where enemy types are grouped together in interesting and deliberate ways.

Beat-em-ups are all about learning levels and enemy behaviours. Randomising fights goes against that, and while some of the randomisation isn’t so bad, if you get a bad enemy combination it can screw up your game. It can feel challenging not because of a lack of skill but because of bad luck.

Fortunately, the boss fights are more deliberately designed and are some of the better encounters in the game. These were a lot of fun, even if I find the more optional ones a little annoying and not really worth doing. I do wish there were more tougher versions of some of these like a certain other game had, but there are a few surprises with these bosses that do make later runs more interesting.

The one boss I don’t like is the secret final one because it cheats. Not in the fight, although it is a bastard to face, but because before you fight it he will always take away one life. That is just bullshit. Because if you reach it with no extra lives your game just stops right there.

That’s not fair in the slightest. I really hate it when Rogue Likes do this. You know when they have a secret final boss that’s way harder but for unfair reasons. Slay the Spire did this too which is probably why beating it didn’t count for finishing the game there.

I think they did this to ensure the final fight is strictly one-on-one since you can find companions in the game to help you out and some of those can be very powerful. There had to have been a better way of doing that though, especially since it doesn’t fully work since chicken companions are invincible. I’m not kidding, you can find invincible chicken companions that don’t attack but do distract enemies. It’s hilarious.

I think my main issue with the difficulty is that the random enemy drops are the only added challenge the game provides. There are no harder difficulties or ways to add more difficult parameters like in other Rogue Likes which really limits the replay ability.

This is probably the worst part of Absolum, as a rogue lite it has very little replay value. There isn’t enough variation in the runs so it gets stale, and considering it’s a beat-em-up it can also get very repetitive, and the lack of things in the post-game gives you very little to go back to it.

Aside from the main story all you have are the side quests, which as I went over are no fun, and what are essentially achievements that only give you crystals. Which is ok I guess. They aren’t hard to do, well most of them anyway, but only getting crystals out of them isn’t that good a motivating factor for me. You can get tons of crystals on a basic run so why would I need the ones from achievements.

Unlike other rogue likes where I would enjoy them so much, I kept going back even after seeing the credits, by the time I reached the end of Absolum I was done. Both because I was already burnt out on it despite enjoying the combat so much, and also because there isn’t anything to do after that.

The sad thing is there are elements of its rogue like structure that I do like. The way it handles currency for upgrades is great. You only have three types to worry about, one for character upgrades, one for Ritual upgrades and crystals used for more general upgrades. The former two are limited, but you can keep getting crystals to either reroll rituals, or you can spend them prior to a run to buy Trinkets to get a build started.

It’s a simple system that gives everything a purpose and still gives you a reason to keep collecting crystals even after completing the upgrade tree. This actually gives Absolum something over Hades own sequel which has so many different items for crafting that it’s ridiculous. Credit where it’s due Absolum, you got one.

But as a rogue lite, I just don’t think Absolum works as well as it should. I think the biggest issue is it’s trying so hard to be Hades except it is nowhere near as good. If it had gone it’s own direction with being a rogue lite like Double Dragon Gaiden did, which in my opinion is a better example of how to turn a beat-em-up into a rogue lite, then I think it could have been better.

Instead, it just copied Hades’ formula. Which is bad because it invites comparisons to it, and that only makes you realise how much better Hades is as a rogue lite. Like a lot of copy cats, Absolum copies a lot of what made Hades so good without the understanding of why it was good. Resulting in a game that is much weaker than the sum of its parts.

And I hate saying that because playing Absolum is great. The beat-em-up side of it is absolutely fantastic and one of the finest modern takes on the genre. It’s deep with tons of player expression, it has great enemy variety, it has co-op both online and couch, the characters all have fun play styles, it looks and sounds great, and even some of the rogue like elements like the Rituals do add to the fun factor of the combat.

As an action game Absolum is peak, but the action gameplay is let down by a rogue lite structure that just doesn’t support it. The best way to describe Absolum is it’s a great game in a poor package. It’s like a beautiful looking, well-designed house with a shitty foundation. It might be great being in there for a short time, but it doesn’t take long before you start noticing the cracks.

Absolum as a rogue lite feels undercooked. It feels like Hades did when it was in early access which makes me wonder if they plan on updating it with new content down the line. That is what they did with Streets of Rage 4 and if there was a game in desperate need of more content it’s Absolum.

Not that it’s an unfinished game or anything. It does feel complete, and I got a good twenty hours out of it before I clocked it, which is ten hours too long in my opinion but that’s still a good length. It does feel like it could’ve used more polish though. I noticed several bugs in my playthrough including one where I lost companions because they went too far off screen which screwed up my run.

The Switch version also has some frame rate issues. Mind you I played that version and didn’t notice any, but a lot of other players did and considering DotEmu’s last few games on Switch I can believe it has issues. I’m sure this issues will be patched in due time, but it’s worth noting that there are issues with it right now.

Can you see why I’m so split on this game. I love playing Absolum, but it lacks the addictive replay value I expect from a rogue like. It gets too repetitive, and I get bored with it after just a few runs. It doesn’t have the “ok, one more go” feeling you get out of most other rogue likes.

Do I recommend Absolum? Well, let me put it this way, I really enjoyed this for the first couple of hours. When you’re starting off and unlocking everything while uncovering new paths it’s a great time. But after I figured the game out and found the best path a few hours in, the repetition kicked in and I started losing interest. But even then, I still kept coming back to the game to try and beat the final boss.

The gameplay is strong enough to keep you going until that point. And I think the game is fairly priced for what it offers. So if you’re a beat-em-up fan it is worth checking out, especially if you have a friend to play it with you.

If you’re looking for a good rogue lite though, this ain’t it chief. Just play Hades 2 instead because that is a far better example of the genre. It is a shame this came out around the same time as that because Hades 2 is a masterpiece, while Absolum is only half a masterpiece.

Still, half a masterpiece is better than most. I hope Guard Crush Games do give this another shot because a beat-em-up Hades has potential. Hopefully their next game lives up to that potential. Or they can just make a linear beat-em-up again, that is what they’re best at.