As great as beat-em-ups can be, it’s also pretty easy for them to become repetitive and dull. The genre has its roots in the arcade, where upon death, players were encouraged to pump more coins through the slot for a chance to get back in the ring and continue smacking fools around. They can be challenging, but the gap between that and mindlessness can be pretty slim, at least in lesser examples of the genre. Absolum, the fantasy beat-em-up from Streets of Rage 4 co-developer Guard Crush Games and Supamonks, clears the gap so effortlessly that it’s skyrocketing to near the top of my favorite beat-em-ups I’ve ever played. It takes a genre that, when in the wrong hands, can be monotonous, and puts a roguelike spin on it that keeps it fresh and challenging, even as you beat your head against the wall in repeated runs.
Absolum takes obvious influence from other roguelikes like Hades in that it uses death as both a teaching tool and a narrative crux. Much of it is a pretty standard fantasy fare, with four rebellious wizards repeatedly fighting their way through angry villagers, monsters, and tyrants, and each time they die in battle, they’re revived so they can start at the beginning and do it all over again. Maybe, with the right loadouts and abilities, they’ll make it to the end this time. Or perhaps, they’ll be dealt a bad hand, meet an early end, and go right back to the starting line.
Roguelikes are all about chance and making the best of what you’ve been given, and Absolum’s fantasy dressings make even the most mundane fights a spectacle. After most encounters, you’ll be granted one of two “rituals,” which are modifiers whose benefits can be as simple as increased power, or as transformative as new attacks. I played primarily as Cider, a speedy, masked assailant who wields handaxes and uses a hookshot to pull herself into enemies to close the distance with ease. Without any rituals equipped, she’s already a vicious, combo-centric fighter who can take most foes down without breaking a sweat. With rituals, she can trap enemies in a bubble at the end of her combos, leaving them open to further assault, or burn them by leaving a trail of flames behind her as she dashes on the battlefield. I wasn’t thrilled with every option I was given, but Absolum feels so good and snappy to play that I was always more than willing to see a bad run through to the end.
The beauty of beat-em-ups is the almost rage-room-like catharsis of slogging crowds of baddies who would do you harm, and Absolum’s tools to do so are so vast, varied, and destructive that even the smallest scraps feel like a choreographed setpiece full of happy accidents. I’d often start whaling on a dude, only to have forgotten the passive buffs I’d given myself until they triggered a chain reaction of combos on multiple foes at once. Absolum is a delight to watch unfold thanks to its slick animation and gorgeous, hand-drawn art. Its characters move in an expressive, flowing dance of violence, and every effect that flows from their weapons is eye-catching, but never veers into the kind of sensory overload that would make its precise combo-driven fights harder to read.
I’m still chipping away at runs and cracking the foundations of Absolum’s world, but my short few hours or so with it have been more than enough to keep me banging my head against its stone gates. It is one of the most rewarding spins on both the beat-em-up and roguelike genres I’ve played all year.
