Absolum Reddit Verdict: Genre Evolution or Skill Betrayal?

If you are seriously getting upset that someone else didn't 'earn' a meaningless virtual achievement because they turned on an assist mode, you should rethink your priorities in life.

While I think Absolum is the best beat-em-up released in years, it doesn't top SoR4 for me. Which is fine. I don't think anything ever will, but that doesn't mean others aren't absolutely amazing games.

Watching the video I'm like 'oh this looks neat, I'm not really into rogue-lites these days though'. Then he says it's by Guard Crush games... 'whelp guess I'm buying it'.

Absolum is amazing and people hating on it for its roguelite elements are missing the forest for the trees. It is an all time great in the genre.

It's crazy how no one is talking about it.

I agree, and I almost overlooked it after my first couple hours. I'm not a beat 'em up guy (wasn't, now I am) so I didn't get how cool everything was coming together. Now I LOVE it and I've been playing SOR 4 and Fight n Rage… I've got a new beloved genre.

If you want a challenge dont turn one hit kills on. It's just a game. I personally play to have fun and dont give a flying shit about achievements.

I got it last night. Combat is great. Fast paced and once you get to grips with dodging, parrying and punishing, it becomes even better. Not too enthralled with the upgrades thus far, but even in Hades they start out kinda meh.

Some things about Absolum blow it out of the water but SoR 4 to me is the GOAT beat em up. Ironically made by the same studio.

I'd say the game still has a pretty heavy skill component, though; learning things like enemy attack patterns, timings for deflecting and clashing, and how to move effectively can all help you punch above your weight. Yes, it's still a roguelite, but there's a definite sense of 'oh, I'm kicking the crap out of this boss that bodied me last time because I learned their timings,' rather than just 'this is easier now because I found a busted build that can hard carry me'.

Eh, not as good as sor4 for me. I feel the roguelike elements didn't add anything for me. It feels like busy work and luck until you get enough crits and the right build to steamroll the enemies. And as usual they made the last boss a huge absolute bastard, so you have to replay them a few times to get a better roll. The graphics are good and it does have a meaty campaign. Although I'd prefer a normal campaign tho.

Absolutely agree about the orange aura enemies. Late in the progression they will send two different high tier orange enemies at you along with their friends and the game goes from a flowing beat 'em up to a painful slog for that fight unless your build is already breaking the game wide open.

I wouldn't say: if you dont like roguelite games, then don't play it. Because I'm not a roguelike/roguelite fan at all, and I absolutely love this game. At first I didnt even want to try it because of the roguelite elements. I just can't get into games like that. However, I liked Streets of Rage 4 so much I decided to try out the demo and was impressed at how well everything was done. I think everyone should give it a shot.

For me the issue with the roguelike aspects is actually that there isn't enough of it. It feels like the progression caps off too soon and I would really like if they expanded it with an update of some kind in the future. Something about the radiance economy feels off too. I do agree the orange elite enemies feel poorly designed.

This game makes so many good choices. Art, animation, writing, voice acting, music, combat. Small quality of life things like how mounts work or throwables. The run button. I just can't wait for more.

Absolum is amazing. I really think it's gonna be a game that beat em up players are gonna look back at in 10+ years and appreciate it even more.

I think beat em ups and roguelites were MADE for each other. It's the perfect way to add variety and replay value to a genre that naturally gets repetitive very quickly.

All they do is expand the beat em up format, which is good imo. Beat em ups can be on the short side, and building variance into a bit longer of an experience is a smoother way of offering replayability than just rerunning the levels. It's not too bloated.

My first instinct after playing it for a few hours was actually 'why has no one done this before'. It works amazingly well. While I love a variety of Beat'emUps, I often struggle to get more than a few runs from them, before burning out. Even in more mechanically involved and deep games, the same enemies and stages without any changes get boring to me.

Played this last night with my wife. Her sword familiar interrupted an NPC yelling at their guards to attack us by spiking him into the floor two words into his dialogue. Also we recruited a random chicken that stayed with us until the last boss. Chicken provided a helpful distraction against 2 different bosses while I revived my teammate. Had a great time.

I had no doubts about this one, as soon as it was possible I bought it. I was even ready to shell out 40€ for it, so when I saw it was 25€ I was super happy. I have like 5 hours in the game right now and I absolutely love it.

Man, I fucking love Absolum. It's exactly what I wanted. I'm having a great time solo and co-op. It isn't Streets of Rage 4-2, and that's a good thing. SoR4 is still my favorite beat-em-up of all time, but I like having different experiences, too. No complaints, I'm glad they made the game exactly as they did.

I dont share your disappointment at all. I feel beatemups and roguelites are an excellent mix of genres and this game more than proves it for me. Most beatemups are typically very short games. So most of the time, you are already playing the same stages over and over. Absolum just adds random power-ups, side quests and multiple paths to that.

It's super fun, but the roguelike elements do rear their head and halt the fun at times. I paired up with a rando online and both being fairly skilled made it pretty far in our very first run. But after a while the game becomes a bit less about skill and more about the numbers/stats you don't have because you haven't done multiple runs already.

The assist mode is so clutch for playing co-op with a little kid or other noob, since it can be tuned per player. Wish more co-op games did this.

I adore SOR4 but man, Absolum is incredible too. Love the mechanics, the art direction, the lore seeded throughout that doesn't overstay its welcome, the variance in paths and builds. It's excellent.

It's an excellent game but the beat em up community is so traditional it's hard for them to move past its rogue lite direction and they always remind you that it simply can't be great because of it. I'm enjoying it more than SoR4. I also think SoR4 was necessary for Absolum to be what it is.

My gf and I are playing it now. For context she barely plays games, her favorites have been Overcooked, It Takes Two, and Fifa. She said this is her favorite. The game sounds, looks, feels, and plays amazing. It's class.

You're totally right. Dragons Crown is still one of my all time favorites, but I feel Absolum handles the RPG mechanics better. The Diablo style loot in Dragons Crown wore out its welcome — spending 10 minutes after every dungeon to equip new gear that gave the smallest, most incremental buffs.

It finally happened. A beat'em up came along and topped River City Girls 2 on my list. Absolum does something a lot of beat em ups forget: pushing the genre forward. The closest I've experienced this is with Double Dragon Gaiden. Each death keeps you coming back for more.

I know I've said some negative things about it in this sub, but it's growing on me. The funny thing is that it wasn't until I defeated the true last boss that the game finally started to feel like it clicked for me. I still think the upgrades are meaningless (you can knock them out in a few play sessions) and that your entire moveset should be available to you right from the get-go, but otherwise, I finally get it. It's a different beat 'em up but if you give it a chance, it's a great game.

The roguelike and beat'em up parts of the game conflict with each other. Turning parts of your moveset into random pickups is a gigantic sin against the very design of beat'em ups, they should've been permanent unlocks and the main way for you to ramp up your meta progression. As it stands now the character movesets are far too braindead for me to enjoy.

Great game, but I get lucky and draw super powerful necromancy perks so I could literally play that run blind because the skeletons won the game by themselves. I think some things could be balanced a bit.

Seems kinda shite to me. Story is meh while world is okay/interesting. Gameplay CAN be fun, but it feels so off when the screen is filled with shite and you can't make anything out. On top of that, trying to figure out what is in the foreground or background is sometimes just a tossup. The game desperately needs visual clarity for gameplay's sake.

It's the level of polish that astounds me, for a beat em up!

Absolum is currently my favorite beat'em up of all time. I try to get in playtime every day. I'm so glad I bought it for my Switch 2 even though it's not as perfect as the other versions. Praying for a switch 2 patch next year.

I wouldn't be surprised if down the road we get an arcade mode added in an update.

It's my game of the year and I think it does nearly everything really well. The combat is so addicting and the roguelite elements actually improve the game in a way I wasn't expecting. It really keeps things fresh with the multiple paths and all the variance in different builds that you can get. I've played the game for dozens of hours and I'm not bored of it yet.

Just beat the game today and my god it's amazing. I usually get tired of rogue-likes but this game crushed it. Incredible characters, fighting mechanics, awesome world, great progression, super fun with absolutely wild builds. Absolutely love this game and everything DotEmu touches.

Fucking great game, I would've liked it to be more rogue-LIKE than LITE, but I still find it really enjoyable, the controls are amazing and the core systems are made in a brilliant way. The art direction, the animations and every sprite is fucking mesmerizing, that's how good it is.

I enjoyed it a lot. Did unlock everything and I just can't get over how solid mana regen beats everything and how huge the disparity between the various upgrades is. If you want to succeed there's always something that's clearly better and you end up playing the same two builds or losing.

My only issue is the final "true" boss. Tedious and frustrating asf without proper build and arcana.

I love all the Dotemu stuff. This is just a breath of fresh air as a new IP under their umbrella. My wife and I are having a blast playing through it. Love it as much as SOR4 and Shredder's Revenge. I hope they add DLC content soon.

The game feels solid while playing, but I heavily dislike unique moves not being permanent upgrades. The characters feel very anemic at the start. I've found that the roguelite elements can easily invalidate the beat'em up part as well. I had a build online as Karl before the end of the first island that allowed me to spam grenades the rest of the run and nothing stood a chance against it.

It's fun and well made. The randomness, roguelite progression and OPness of some combos has upsides and downsides — it's a bit less repetitive but it makes the scoring system a bit irrelevant and less skill-based. Overall I enjoy it a lot but yeah not the same as a 'true' beat em up where you can only rely on skill. Also a weird thing is that the game feels better when you have shitty upgrades and actually have to rely on base mechanics.

Great combat and pretty fun. The boons should've cooked longer — half of them just aren't very good and the arcana moves don't offer enough good choices.

I'm absolutely loving it. In just a week, it already surpassed SOR4 for me as being my favorite beat 'em up ever (and I loooove SOR4, it's literally one of my most played Switch games by far).

Absolum, at its core, is still a rogue-like. Because of this, the characters have a super basic moveset until you get further in with a build from upgrades. Every time you die and start over you have to spend a bit of time with a very lackluster and un-interesting moveset.

Beat em ups aren't really popular nowadays, so I'm not surprised it's overlooked. Among fans, Absolum is definitely a special entry.

Not available on Xbox 😢