We go fingers on with a brand new model of Dotemu’s upcoming indie beat-em-up, delving deep into a completely new character and biome.
Regardless of 2025 already being a robust 12 months for old-school beat-em-up video games, Absolum is primed and able to endlessly sap up your time because of its roguelike construction and funky playable characters.
The issue with numerous beat-em-ups launched in the present day – even good ones like TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge and Streets of Rage 4 – is that they finish. Certain, laying waste to legions of unhealthy guys utilizing a sequence of punches, kicks, and seize assaults throughout a 2D airplane feels nice within the second, however not often do you’ve got an excuse to do it yet again. Enter Absolum, the brand new Fantasy-based beat-em-up from writer/developer Dotemu, which goals to resolve that.
It does so by taking the style’s punchy fight and conventional side-scrolling and supplanting it onto the skeleton of a Hades fashion roguelike. To date, from the a number of runs I’ve performed, it’s working virtually too successfully. That is the type of style mashup I didn’t know I wanted.
A part of Absolum’s largest enchantment is its setting; whereas numerous different beat-em-ups as of late are inclined to happen in some type of modern-day location to allow them to set battles within the metropolis avenue, Absolum takes a web page from Golden Axe’s pocket book and as an alternative concocts a lovely and noticeably distinct fantasy world that feels worthy of defending.
It helps that the artwork fashion is darkly cartoonish in design but in addition surprisingly detailed. Due to this, the land of Talamh is one which feels lived in, and I sensed this when combating by each of the biomes – Grandery and Jaroba – I had entry to.
This one resolution to make Absolum a fantasy beat-em-up is one which has trickled down and influenced all the things from particular assaults, boss creatures, and clearly all 4 of the playable characters themselves. It helps give Dotemu’s tackle this tried-and-tested style a barely completely different flavour. One which I got here to understand extra after enjoying as the sport’s most not too long ago revealed hero, Brome – a wizard frog prodigy geared up with a workers he can journey throughout the display screen
Such a background would possibly idiot you into pondering he’s greatest performed solely as a ranged character, however he’s capable of unleash combos at tempo out in entrance, utilizing each the workers itself in addition to a couple of licks of the tongue.
This is only one occasion the place Dotemu has taken the essence of a personality and translated it seamlessly into its fight animations. All of a sudden, virtually by fight fashion alone, I achieve a greater sense of what makes Brome tick – and the identical is just about true for Cider, Galandra, and Karl, who additionally tout distinctive fight expertise and personalities.
I gained’t delve into the opposite characters an excessive amount of right here since a demo at present accessible on Steam already serves as a great showcase. However every character coming geared up with a particular assault is already proving equally fruitful for Brome.
With three to select from, I discovered my favorite to be his nature to shoot an enormous beam of concentrated electrical vitality out in entrance, since not solely does it pack a hefty punch but in addition will increase his vary drastically. I used to be hitting enemies all the way in which over on the opposite fringe of the display screen utilizing this ability. It ties in properly together with his aforementioned gentle assaults, in addition to his heavy assault ability that sees a bubble burst round him to assist fend off foes who get in too shut.
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We could be heroes
Like all good roguelites and roguelikes, Absolum does an honest job at making rooms held inside every biome really feel comparatively contemporary every time. Various kinds of enemies, in addition to randomised bosses that may pop up at completely different factors, at all times saved me guessing and anxious whether or not my present Brome construct had the proper mixture of Rituals, Inspirations, and Trinkets geared up.
The reality is, I used to be by no means actually ready for what Absolum had lined as much as throw at me subsequent. However this sort of unpredictability is precisely what makes a roguelite like this thrilling. Though I by no means accomplished a run by the not too long ago revealed, second biome of Jaroba, attending to the lizard King boss on the finish nonetheless felt like an accomplishment.
Talking of which, whereas the preliminary location of Grandery felt completely versatile and much from linear every time I might rush by it, Jaroba’s extra swampland setting at all times discovered a method to hold me guessing. Whether or not it was components of the setting that noticed me fall by the ground to an underground cavern or excessive up within the rope bridges discovered within the timber, keeping off waves of lizard and large area bosses gave me sufficient inspiration to maintain on returning to it.
Sadly, numerous the buffs and upgrades accessible to me had been duplicated in runs maybe a bit an excessive amount of. However hey, Absolum is a recreation very a lot nonetheless being labored on, and I’m certain such stability and randomisation elements are nonetheless being tweaked.
Absolum has the potential to be considered one of 2025’s largest indie surprises. As though its nature to take a humble fantasy beat-em-up and make it endlessly repeatable by a extra procedural construction a la Hades isn’t precisely groundbreaking, it really works much better than I anticipated it to. A variety of that is as a result of degree of appeal and character Dotemu has managed to infuse into the world of Talamh and all its inhabitants.
I can already see Absolum consuming up limitless quantities of my time as a consequence of how effectively it already runs on Steam Deck. This leaves me in a bizarre place the place I’m excited for its launch later this October, but in addition equal elements afraid. Clearly, you may’t have an excessive amount of of a great factor, and within the realm of beat-em-ups, Absolum is definitely shaping as much as be that.
Absolum is scheduled to launch on PlayStation, Nintendo, and PC on October 9, 2025.
