Absolum Preview – A roguelike beat ’em up? Absolum-lutely!

If games were rated on visuals alone, Absolum would be a surefire winner. This is one great-looking game; like a Saturday Morning cartoon by way of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, it’s immediately eye-catching with bold black lines, bright colouring and gorgeously animated characters, all set against a distinctive dark fantasy backdrop.

The fact that it looks good should come as little surprise when you learn that Guard Crush and Dotemu are involved. Both developer and publisher have become synonymous with bold, evocative 2D artwork, ably demonstrated by the stunning Streets of Rage 4 from a few years ago. Absolum is, quite clearly, a feast for the eyes.

Fans of Streets of Rage 4 also will be heartened to learn that this is a beat ‘em up. You stride confidently from left to right while despatching legions of monsters, our hands-on seeing us take control of a pair of Wizards: Galandra, an elven swordswoman and Karl, a dwarf with knuckledusters and a blunderbuss.

Combat feels awesome. Every punch or sword swing has bags of weight behind it, with regular attacks lined up behind more powerful special abilities – in Karl’s case, a headbutt. It feels familiar – it’s hard not to for a beat ‘em up in 2025 – but that familiarity doesn’t matter so much when everything here is tuned to perfection.

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As you punch and wallop your enemies, you build up Mana, which you can then unleash via each character’s Arcana. This is a special move that can blast multiple enemies out of the way, helping you to clear the area around you, and grab a little breathing space, at least for a moment.

You’ve set out to free Uchawi the Mother. A pregnant embodiment of spirit and nature, she’s been captured by Azra, the Sun King, who is set on controlling all magic, his devices feeding from Mother’s essence. Once you release her, your character gains access to Rituals. This is your first taste of the Roguelike aspects of the game, with each Ritual point letting you choose between two different abilities. Initially, you choose between adding fire to your regular attacks or creating a burning ring around you that damages enemies, and the whole process allows you to tailor your character’s abilities through your playthrough.

That is, of course, at the whims of RNG, and there are also different families of Ritual, including fire and water, to choose between. There may also be additional bonuses for equipping abilities from the same class, enhanced further by equipment known as Trinkets that you can pick up along the way. You can immediately see the opportunity for exciting builds, giving players plenty of reason to experiment with different Rituals and Trinkets.

Being a Roguelike, death is somewhat inevitable, and when you fall at the hands of Azra, you’re brought back to life in Mother’s sanctuary, a place of rest, relaxation and contemplation. Here you can level up, check out artefacts you’ve found, and prepare for the next run, and it’s another beautifully presented place that helps to cement the game’s world, and the lore around it.

The world of Talamh isn’t small. There’s a huge map to explore, collecting artefacts and levelling up, all in a bid to become powerful enough to beat Azra and his Crimson Order. You choose your path through this land, coming up against boss characters at points that punctuate the action with a serious step up in challenge, with the reward being new Rituals and improved abilities.

This is such an inviting world. The environmental design is packed with detail, capturing the decaying, ruined landscape in a way that’s consistently intriguing. Alongside that, the different enemies, and the two main characters included here, just look fantastic, and you want to get further just to see what’s around the corner.

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As with all good Roguelikes, death is not an entirely bad thing. Your progress gains you Radiance, alongside other materials, that you can use to further level up your character, improving various stats, enhancing their abilities, and giving you more chance at success the next time around.

The humble beat ’em up has seen an incredible resurgance in recent years, from Streets of Rage 4 and River City Girls through to a bevy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle games. Guard Crush and Dot Emu have been at the forefront of that, and that alone makes Absolum worth keeping an eye on.

On early impressions alone, Guard Crush have crafted something truly special with Absolum. It looks and sounds incredible, and the Roguelike action is made all the more tantalising by discovering new areas and hideous enemies to fight. I can’t wait to see more.