Absolum Is a Gorgeous Roguelite from the Makers of Streets of Rage 4

Streets of Rage 4 developer Guard Crush Games is once again partnering up with publisher Dotemu for a beat-’em-up. This time, though, it’s Dotemu’s first original IP, with gorgeous hand-drawn-styled animation from Supamonks and a soundtrack by decorated video game score composer Gareth Coker. That’s a lot of talent on one unproven project, but if my hourlong hands-on with that project – it’s called Absolum – is any indication, it’s not going to be unproven for very long.

Absolum is a roguelite side-scrolling beat-’em-up action-RPG designed for, in the developers’ words, “deep replayability with branching paths to explore, quests, characters, and challenging bosses.” I can attest to all of those things being true. It’s an absolutely gorgeous fantasy romp with multiple player classes – I got to try out the tank-y dwarf-like Karl and the lank-y ranger-ish sword-wielding Galandra – where you kill evil creatures, smash up the environments (often hoping a carrot or other health-replenishing pickup will reveal itself), duck into the occasional building to pop open treasure chests or get ambushed by goblins, battle bosses with gargantuan health bars, die, and repeat the whole thing over again. Oh, and though I didn’t get to try it, you can also play two-player same-screen co-op.

For me, someone who has fond memories of many a two-player beat-’em-up back in 1980’s and early-’90s arcades as well as games like Golden Axe on the Sega Genesis, Absolum felt nostalgically familiar in a good way – perhaps owing to its Saturday morning cartoon-style art and animation. And you’ve got a relatively shallow but nevertheless slightly layered two-button combat system that allows you to mix up attacks depending on the enemy in front of you. But the roguelite element modernizes it in a way that gives it both an edge and a ton of obvious built-in replayability.

As you go, you’ll discover both hidden and obvious power-ups – some are equippable active weapons or spells that are activated by pulling one of the triggers and then hitting the corresponding face button, and others are passives that live in your inventory. All will randomize from one run to the next, but not all the items are necessarily desirable. Or at least, there’s a serious risk-reward system that might change your approach in that run. For instance, in one early run, I picked up not one but TWO orbs that gave me a 20% boost to damage, but at the expense of 20% of my health. So with both of them I had a frighteningly small health bar, but I could dispatch enemies pretty quickly. Fortunately, you can drop any item from your inventory at any time if you’d rather not deal with the trade-off of a particular power-up.

I did say this is a roguelite, so that means when – not if – you die, the realm you return to has a shop where you can spend in-game currency to buy items or power-ups for the next run. This wasn’t fully working yet in the early build I played, leaving me at the whim of what amounted to a dice roll regarding the quality of items and power-ups on each new run.

Because I couldn’t spend any of the hard-earned gold in between runs, I had a heck of a time with the first major boss – who I sadly don’t have footage of, but at least I can show you another, later boss that looks far tougher. But mine was a mammoth troll that swung a gigantic mace, and who’d summon smaller goblins, some of whom would leap onto you and start biting away at your face like they were piranhas. I would’ve loved to have gotten a chance to experience two-player co-op, as it would not only split the boss’s attention, but as anyone who shares those fond memories of the beat-’em-ups of yore knows, these kinds of games shine brightest in two-player mode. Always. Every single time. No exceptions.

But still, between the art style, animation, old-school side-scrolling beat-’em-up gameplay, and roguelite loop – not to mention the developer’s pedigree in this genre – Absolum has a ton of potential, and dare I say even a high probability of being good. If you’ve been lamenting the loss of couch co-op games over the years, Absolum is almost certainly one that’s going to stem that tide, at least for a little while. I’m very much looking forward to playing a more polished build as development progresses, but for now, I’m incredibly optimistic.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.