Absolum Review – A Sleeper Hit
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.
