An artful roguelite brawler that simply smashes.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/72837/absolum-switch-review
A collaborative effort spearheaded by Dotemu, Absolum offers an atypical beat-em’-up spliced with roguelite DNA. With attractive cartoon and comic book-inspired art, you and a potential co-op partner move from zone to zone, taking down all manner of foes and bosses on your way to a final encounter with Azra in his heavily guarded tower at the edge of the world. The end result is a familiar but fresh fighting experience with a surprising number of twists and turns along the way.
The story centers on a conflict between Sun King Azra, responsible for enslaving wizards across the land, and High Enchantress Uchawi and her group of rebels. As one of these rebels, your goal is both to defeat Azra but also restore faith in wizardkind across the world of Talamh, which was devastated by the work of rogue wizards. Understandably, even the townsfolk you encounter are scared of you, so the places you visit are full of danger and devoid of friendly faces save a few.
What differentiates Absolum from other action Roguelites isn't a major new gameplay mechanic but more so the style and polish of its presentation and gameplay. Before looking at the world map, in the starting hub area you can choose your character, track your progress, and unlock a variety of boosts and upgrades. Your starting party only offers two characters to select, an elven fighter and a dwarven engineer, but you'll unlock a few more along the way, including a swift rogue and a powerful mage. The character design, even for the bosses, is top notch and injects a hefty amount of personality into this dystopian fantasy world.
The roguelite aspect sees you collect crystals that can be spent to boost your stats on a permanent basis, while also translating the distance you travel and your overall success into a score that rewards you with materials for unlocking new skills and upgrading the runes you encounter on your journey. These runes are attached to elemental affinities and can pop up at the conclusion of a battle before you move on to the next area. You might also be offered a choice of trinkets to boost your attack, luck, or defense, gold, or the aforementioned crystals, which I was always happy to see.
Your brawling kit involves a basic attack that can combo multiple times, a special attack with a bit more range and usually a knock up effect, and an arcane ability that consumes mana charges that build up as you fight. Any of these moves can be buffed through the runes that you collect, making parts of your kit more deadly, but it's strategic use of all your capabilities that's needed to keep making progress on your journey. The basic brawling that is enough to take down minor foes often fails in the face of the oversized bosses hellbent on preventing you from reaching Azra.
An aspect that really struck me with Absolum is the number of sidequests that pop up just from talking to characters you encounter in each area. The objectives of these aren't all that taxing, but in addition to a long list of in-game accomplishments, they do offer another goal to pursue. Roguelites really hit for me when they offer multiple forms of progression and even adjustable difficulty, and aside from a multi-hour delay in learning about how to spend a particular currency, it's easy to find new things to do and ways to change up each run.
There’s more to do after rolling credits the first time, but my main take away is just how good the combat feels and how gorgeous everything looks while you're doing it. Absolum is made by a team that understands how to make a great brawler, like Shredder's Revenge and Streets of Rage 4, so you can expect a similar level of polish and chops. I ended up clearing the game with every character because I was having such a good time, and with all the awesome games I still haven't played from September, that's proof positive that any beat-'em-up fan should absolutely be checking out Absolum.
Topic: Absolum (Switch) Review (Read 16 times)
