Well this came out of seemingly nowhere, didn’t it? Coming from the same talented outfit that gave us the seminal Streets of Rage 4, right off the blocks Absolum feels like Dotemu and Guard Crush’s take on Capcom’s venerable Dungeons & Dragons arcade games – albeit with the usual stratospheric standard of polish and opulence we’ve come to expect from these folks.
As the outcast heroes of a magical nation known as Talamh, Absolum has players waging war against a fanatical Sun King called Azra, a greedy magic-hoarding despot who along with his oppressive Crimson Order army seeks to drain the world of its life energy. In Absolum‘s demo, players can pick from two heroes (with a third available in the full game from day one), Dwarven bruiser Karl and stout Elven warrior Galandra.
Absolum PS5 Preview
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On the face of it, Absolum would seem to be cut from the same cloth as Streets of Rage 4. Moving from left to right across a variety of different stages, Absolum tasks players with laying waste to all manner of health bar connected enemies with all manner of strikes, throws, evasions, timely deflections, collectible weapons and special magical attacks. Notably, fans of Streets of Rage 4 will be delighted to discover that Absolum borrows much of juggling and air-combo enabling shenanigans of that game and as such, provides players with ample creative latitude to juggle enemies both in the air and against the far sides of the screen by racking up that all important combo meter.
There’s also something of a feedback loop in place too, whereupon every successful strike that you land on your enemies top off your mana meter which in turn charges a devastating Arcana attack. This in turn lends Absolum a real sense of rhythm that you don’t usually see in genre fare such as this.
Elsewhere in sticking with its influences from Capcom’s Dungeons & Dragons side-scrolling titles, Absolum very much embraces non-linear exploration, with multiple diverging paths leading to new and interesting areas, while secret areas also abound too (hinted at by mildly creepy demonic looking rabbits which occasionally hop around in the background, playfully hinting at a secret that lay off the beaten path). Meanwhile fans of those earlier Capcom brawlers and Sega’s venerable Golden Axe series will also be cheered to realise that Absolum allows players to ride special mounts (which in this demo turned out to be an especially angry giant boar) into battle.
So far, so Dungeons & Dragons then. Where Absolum changes things up somewhat however is in how it blends in aspects of Roguelite design. You gain radiance levels that make you stronger each time you respawn while crystals that are found during each run can be fed to a soul tree that provides permanent buffs and stat increases as a reward. Likewise, you can also trade in special seeds and magical plants to various folks who will provide you with new abilities and the facility to upgrade existing ones and so on.
It’s said early on in the demo that you should ‘die as often as you need to’ and, well, that’s the truth because even at this early juncture, each death is just one more opportunity to come back stronger and progress farther and Absolum really nails that feeling of every playthrough being worth something.
Visually speaking, Absolum is an absolute knockout, too. Leveraging the same heady art and production values seen in Streets of Rage 4, you can pause Absolum at just about any moment and just marvel at the fact that it looks like highly detailed concept art, that’s how good this game looks. Encompassing painterly backgrounds, gorgeously realised and animated sprites and a enough colour to make a rainbow blush, Absolum is easily one of most stylish and eye-popping games of the year.
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Though this morsel left me knowing that there is still much to discover, I am already sold on what looks like the next meaningful iteration of the side-scrolling brawler genre from the endlessly talented wizards behind Streets of Rage 4. Put simply, side-scrolling brawler fans are going to be absolutely *eating* when Absolum releases later this year.
Absolum is set to release on PS5 later this year.
Preview code kindly provided by PR.