Absolum blew me away with its mastery of the side-scrolling beat-’em-up and roguelike genres, seamlessly combining the two in a game that is exceptional on a technical level and a blast to play. Paired with the excellent combat and roguelike loop are phenomenal characters, great worldbuilding, and gorgeous art, making for a game that is an absolute steal at just $25.
What Absolum truly does well with its take on a roguelite is offering plenty of opportunities to get invested in its world and characters, which is such an excellent quality to have for a roguelite, which tasks players with getting used to repeated excursions. Absolum is my favorite roguelite of 2025, and it's also one of the most satisfying genre mash-ups I've seen in some time. With time, I hope that Absolum will evolve even further and take Guard Crush Games' take on a roguelite beat-em-up to the next level.
Absolum m’a vraiment convaincu. Le système de combat est dense sans être inutilement compliqué, avec une vraie sensation d’impact et de maîtrise. Visuellement, c’est cohérent et lisible, sans surenchère. La musique est remarquable et sert bien le rythme du jeu. La partie narrative, en revanche, reste un peu en retrait. Mais dans l’ensemble, c’est un beat’em up abouti, exigeant juste ce qu’il faut, et qui donne envie d’y revenir.
Dotemu and Guard Crush Games have not pulled any punches with Absolum. Its fluid, hard-hitting combat system is a blast to play, and piecing together the best build to crush foes with 100-hit combos never gets old. Every runthrough in the fantasy world of Talamn is challenging but fair and replete with new paths to discover. Despite a few minor flaws, Absolum takes a bold step toward modernizing the beat-’em-up genre with an original story and technical prowess.
Absolum does a fantastic job of expanding what we would usually expect of a beat ‘em up, keeping it fresh and interesting to play over dozens of runs. It looks, sounds, and runs great, and it plays phenomenally. It may not quite have the kinetic impact of my very favorite brawlers, but this is a game that dares to push beyond what fans expect from its genre and succeeds on all counts.
Absolum fuses the frenetic energy of beat 'em ups with deep roguelite systems to deliver a stylish and addictive experience. While its narrative struggles to match the grandeur of its worldbuilding, the moment-to-moment gameplay and audiovisual design shine. Dotemu’s bold take on the genre blend pays off in gameplay variety and mechanical depth, even if its progression balance and storytelling lack polish.
Absolum is an excellent beat ‘em up let down by a roguelite structure that doesn’t serve it. I hate being limited by numbers instead of skill in action games, and in the early hours here, it feels like you’re a slave to them. Once you get to the point where each run has you making substantial progress and the story picks up, Absolum is very compelling. But it took me a long time to get there. Gorgeous artwork, an excellent soundtrack, and smart combat spread out among several distinct characters do a lot to carry it, but they can’t fix the feeling of dread when I died, again, and realized that I would have to do some variation of the same exact thing once more. I’m not against failure; I just wish there was more variety to it, and Absolum doesn’t find that until a good way into its runtime. That it manages to emerge as an exciting beat ‘em up in spite of that is a testament to the skill and work of its developers. But it would be a lot better if it just got on with it. Unlike Absolum’s heroes, I’ve only got one life to live.
Mini review: Si, obviamente quizá sea una exageración para muchos lo de GOTY que puse en mi canal de youtube (Federock) ****/IcZCEedmUkY?si=Vfi8HoWzMOyDBbMo , pero trae cosas hermosas que muchos dirán: Combina Hades con Streets of Rage 4. Y tiene sentido porque son los devs del último mencionado. Sin embargo este juego logra separarse de ambos para generar esta joyita, que ojalá no sea tan escondida, para deleitarnos con esos golpes potentes, diferentes estilos y personajes, unidos en un arte bellísimo.Hablaré más con el paso del tiempo, pero acá están las primeras 2 horas, de este rogue lite que, obviamente, tenés que morir para progresar, pero que me hizo estar a 5hp del primer boss grande, lo que me hizo enojar y a la vez darme esa adicción que muchos anhelamos en los videojuegos.HERMOSA rejugabilidad. Encima este New game plus que hay ahora es aún más intrigante y adictivo. Muchas ramas, combos y misiones secundarias que te generan más ganas de seguir pegándoles a todos. Que lindo. ****/IcZCEedmUkY?si=Vfi8HoWzMOyDBbMo Mini review: Yes, obviously, it might be an exaggeration for many to call it GOTY, but it brings some beautiful things that many will say: It combines Hades with Streets of Rage 4. And it makes sense because they are the developers of the latter. However, this game manages to separate itself from both to create this little gem, hopefully not so hidden, to delight us with those powerful hits, different styles, and characters, united in beautiful art.I'll talk more about it as time goes on, but here are the first two hours of this roguelike lite. Obviously, you have to die to progress, but which had me within 5 HP of the first big boss, which made me angry and at the same time gave me that addiction that many of us crave in video games.BEAUTIFUL replayability. On top of that, this New Game Plus that's now available is even more intriguing and addictive. Many branches, combos, and side quests that make you want to keep hitting everyone. How lovely.
I genuinely liked Absolum; the combat mechanics are fluid, the visuals are impressive, and the atmosphere is strong. However, after a few hours, everything started to feel familiar. The same loops, similar enemies, and repetitive rituals eventually slow down the pace. The game isn’t bad — in fact, it’s quite polished — but it’s like eating the same delicious dish over and over: tasty, yet too much of it becomes tiring.
+ Looks pretty good
+ Roguelite style
+ The maps and the 2d style looks pretty good
- Ability to cancel attacks would make the experience smoother
- Mother is pretty annoying
- Lack of visualization of overall stats of the character, relevant for pickups and know the impact that some stats have on combat and drops
And most important: - Lacks more build customization, everything feels too RNG. There's not a lot of stuff you can upgrade or tweak.
What the hell is this character design, Lmao. Look at the Vanillaware games (like Dragon's Crown), and then look at this. Yikes. Gave Absolum a chance... It's one of those games where politics chokes aesthetics.
SummaryCrafted with passion by the dream team that redefined side-scrolling beat 'em ups, Absolum mixes top-of-the-class combat action with modern roguelite elements, bringing all the vibes of the fantasy arcade hits of the past into an immersive adventure set in the original world of Talamh. Absolum combines Dotemu and Guard Crush’s mastery...