Absolum, the fantasy beat-'em-up from the team behind Streets of Rage 4 will arrive on October 9, Dotemu shared today. Ahead of the announcement, the publisher hosted a new preview of the game, giving the gaming press a chance to check out a new playable character and zone (more on those in a moment).
I didn't get a chance to play Absolum when it was first announced back in March, so going into this latest demo I didn't know what to expect. Now, after playing Absolum through most of the weekend, I can't wait for the final version in October. In fact, I think it might end up being a surprise game of the year contender for a lot of people. I've never been a fan of beat-'em-ups; most haven't had enough depth to keep me interested. Absolum solves that issue by smartly borrowing from modern roguelikes, with Supergiant's Hades standing as an obvious influence.
Each run in Absolum starts with you selecting a "Ritual" for your character. Like Boons in Hades, these modify your character's abilities with special properties. For example, one Ritual I encountered in my second playthrough caused throwable rose daggers to spawn whenever I timed a dodge perfectly. In turn, these allowed me to quickly dispatch dangerous enemies at a distance. The further into a run you get, the more likely you are to encounter additional Rituals. And, once again borrowing from Hades and its idea of Duo Boons, some Rituals are designed to synergize with one another. Combined with the game's Arcana system, which allows you to select up to two special attacks for your character, there's great combat variety in Absolum.
In fact, it never feels like you're simply button mashing. Combat is very Souls-like in that there are many different enemies for the player to take on, and each one requires its own approach. What's more, dodging attacks is often more important than dishing out damage. Healing items in Absolum are few and far between, but to balance this, the game gives you a few different ways to avoid getting hurt. You can either side step away from an attack, dash directly into an enemy to block them or use your character's Skill attack to perform what the game calls a "Clash." If timed correctly, all three options allow you to punish an enemy for trying to get the jump on you. Of the three, however, Clashes — acting as Absolum's version of a parry — are the hardest to pull off, but can turn a boss fight in your favor, allowing you to deflect an attack that would have otherwise been devastating.
With this preview, Dotemu let everyone try the game's full roster of four characters. Over the five hours I played the demo, I had the most fun with Galandra, a necromantic warrior with a sword on her back that would be big enough even for Guts. Each character feels distinct from their counterparts. Brome, for instance, who wasn't in the recent Steam Next Fest demo Dotemu released, is the game's only mage-like character. His playstyle centers around zoning your enemies with beams of power. Oh, and did I mention that he's a frog? Meanwhile, the new zone, Jaroba, did a great job of mixing things up just as I was getting used to ebb and flow of Absolum's combat. Enemies here employ much more devious attacks that are harder to dodge and counter.
If rougelike fans didn't have Hades 2 to look forward to this year, I think Absolum would easily be in the running for one of the best indie releases of 2025. As it stands, the game has tough competition, but if you're a fan of challenging and mechanically complex but fun combat systems, I think you owe it to yourself to check out Absolum come October when it arrives on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PS5.
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