First off: It’s Free on Playstation Network This Month
For me, Absolver is worth its time. The game is pretty harshly divided though, so I’ll say this going in that more than anything that’s come across PS+ as a budget game or any of our modern jank it’s definitely one that’s more Love It or Hate It than anything I’ve probably written about so far this year.
(the website i found this on is cool. check them out!)
ABSOLVER is a martial arts - action adventure - souls inspired game. It’s a little bit of that God Hand we liked, but not all of the parts of it to justify a direct comparison.
ABSOLVER is kind of like a much more polished version of the old furry-beatemup that was all the rage on Steam a decade ago.
Primarily though, Absolver is best played as a slow-burn martial arts journey where you’re confused by the system, aimless and constantly losing.
This is all kind of stream of consciousness, but here’s what I like about ABSOLVER
You will lose. A lot. Dying is kind of fun. The areas in ABSOLVER are small, so you respawn quickly and then you jaunt back off to try again and figure out where you went wrong. It’s a frustrating and sometimes cumbersome game to play, so I this is good for me.
The way you learn new techniques is about mastering your block abilities You can either dodge, block or parry in ABSOLVER. Each one of them has their own strengths and weaknesses, but I didn’t like that you get locked into your selection at the beginning of the game.
You learn more moves in ABSOLVER by either blocking unknown attacks, or using your block ability. For me this means I’ve got to study opponents a little bit longer, because I am better at dodging than having a strong guard.
It pays off though. There’s not a whole lot of feelings for me in videogames lately like dodging the last attack of an enemy, and immediately finishing them off unscathed.
Especially because hits in ABSOLVER have that good padded feeling that old martial arts movies had. None of that Mortal Kombat bone crunching here, and you half expect dust to get everywhere when you hit someone.
ABSOLVER is pretty to look at at the very least. There’s a lot of these really incredible views of ruined cities and destroyed citadels. You’re fighting in the ruins of a long gone civilization, and it shows. There are frequent battles on bridges and over crumbling rooftops.
(in a cool bit of sound design here, the music cuts out and you can hear the rickety bridge turn and creak in the wind)
The way ABSOLVER’s combat works is by starting you off with a simple deck of moves based on your starting fighting style. You can meditate at any time in the game world, guaranteeing you safety to re-shuffle your fighting style around. You don’t quite start getting as many options as a game like God Hand gives you until you’re a quarter of the way through the game or more.
You can always get more by learning them from the enemy opponents, whether they’re players or what have you.
You’ll run into players pretty often, and most seemed pretty nice. I was fighting two guys at once, and instead of joining a guy watched and jumped in excitement like a background character in a street fighter stage. When I won, he gave me the thumbs up and ran to parts unknown.
My favorite part is that all of the equipment so far makes me look like a badguy. I’ve seen riffs on standard martial arts movie costumes often, but I’m going for this kind of ragged-hobo drunken boxer look.
There are no jokes in this thread, cuz times are too rough right now for humor.