Extremely shallow beatemup with lotsa loading screens and zero depth. The roguelite aspect has zero build synergies, the combat is basically two button mashing and there are nothing exciting to be found in however long I've played so far. Do not recommend.

Played co-op with my wife. She carried me so hard, I started washing the dishes. 10/10 would rinse and repeat again. Pun intended.

Gay woke shit. Nah refund.

Full of political stuff. Don't waste time.

2025, Steam release, no mouse support to even bind attack and block.

Add proper M+KB bindings, why can't I rebind to mouse, why can't I rebind the menu buttons.

Streets of Rage 4 meets Hades. Absolutely the best Beat 'Em Up game for this year.

Controls are really clunky, especially on KBM where it's barely functional, embarrassing for a 2025 game, which is otherwise quite good.

How are we in 2025 and games still come out where you can't map mouse controls?

No widescreen support and terrible co-op implementation. Very basic beatemup style game with very little combo potential. Not impressed at all.

Art style is beautiful, except the main characters, they look kinda ugly to me, but i guess it's a matter of taste. Combat is underwhelming, rituals (boons for the hades crew) are underwhelming, ruoguelite elements are underwhelming. I don't undeertand the hype around this one.

Absolum is a beat-em-up that was designed exactly the wrong way, with nonsensical design choices and difficult-to-read visuals that are attempting as hard as possible to ape Hades without understanding what made Hades a good game. The problems are evident as soon as you start the game - you pick between one of two characters, with the female knight being the default. She plays about as counterintuitively as she is designed: she has a sword but doesn't use it, instead opting to punch things. The punches are garbage: they have no reach, and instead of doing the logical thing and giving you a gap closer on the first attack, your character will sit perfectly still punching the air and then has a gap closer on the final attack of the string. There are games on the SNES that knew this was bad moveset design. Another part of the problem is that the movement is godawful. You have a dash button that moves you approximately one inch horizontally. All dodging has to be done vertically, which makes no sense and often doesn't work with larger enemies. Your block is activated by dashing into enemies, which is bad because enemies have unblockable attacks that don't clearly show until you've already dashed into them to block. None of it makes any sense or feels good to play. I would avoid this until it's on deep discount.

I had high expectations for this game, but unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be what I expected. The characters lack charisma, feel generic, and undoubtedly show a strong woke influence in their design. The developer already said that this video game would be aimed at “modern audiences.” When a developer says that, it's a red flag to me. Don't get me wrong; it's not a bad game. But as a lover of classic beat 'em ups, I really miss the classic archetypes: the big guy with different types of grabs and throws, the guy who's balanced in terms of strength and speed, and the fast but weaker character (sometimes female). This game completely lacks these archetypes. The only clearly male character is a dwarf incapable of performing a mere Haggar-style “piledriver.” A good game, overall. But lacking in personality and rather watered down experience, just like all video games aimed at “modern audiences.”

So I heard about this game 'cause of the Mick Gordon track on it. "That's pretty cool," I thought. Then I see it's a beat-em-up roguelike, and I'm like, "Yeah, I can get down with that. Then I look at the Tumblr-esque art style. It immediately sends off warning bells in my head. Now, I should say, the art in this game is beautiful, and there's nothing wrong with the Tumblr art style itself, but because I am a pattern-recognizing being, I associate it with generally annoying people. I ignore my warning bells, and I think to myself, "Maybe I'm just seeing things; maybe it's not like that. Maybe the game is just focused on being a fun experi-" I see that it's funded by the Creative Europe Programme and France's CNC. Warning bells again. I ignore it. Maybe it's just a funding thing and nothing more. I play the game; it's pretty fun. The main character—the sword woman—I didn't actually know she was a woman until I played the game. "That's fine," I thought; her design is cool anyway. Surely it's not anything with some kind of deliberate agenda behind it—and hey, the fantasy ninja lady is cute, right? Yeah, she's disabled, but I'm sure that's just for cool factor with her cool little grappling projectile limbs. I go online and look at Twitter in an attempt to find people to play the game with. I (unfortunately) see the PC Gamer article interview where the devs are virtue signaling about how they wanted to make the typical fantasy characters have "something that fits more with our modern culture" and about how the warrior is a "woman & non-sexualized." Of course. And there it is. And there goes my suspension of disbelief. And there goes my hope that these things are just coincidental and not indicative of any greater agenda. I feel like I did this to myself tbh. I thought maybe I'm just crazy, and I'm just reading too much into things. Turns out, ignoring pattern recognition is a bad idea.

Fun, but feels overpriced for what you get. I beat the game, beat the new boss, and unlocked all upgrades in <10 hours. It also feels a bit unbalanced. Nothing really felt like it was doing much damage until I tried thorn daggers. 1 dagger can 2 shot almost anything from across the map. And a single dodge can generate 5. I killed all the bosses from across the map with less than a full load of daggers. A few tweaks that could make the game more enjoyable: Make other rituals feel more powerful Change the pool of options for the ritual at the start of every run to only include attack related rituals Make the power moves integrate as combos. I just never used them on any character Reduce shield blocking power. Shielded enemies made some areas really annoying

Thank you for the assist options. As an older gamer who just wants to come home from work and the gym it's nice to not have to be frustrated playing a game when you just want to beat it. Online Co-op is nice. Loving Karl

Once again Guard Crush delivers in excellent action game design but now with a sick roguelite twist, plus a wizard frog. FROGS IN THE CLUB DOING AEGIS REFLECTOR

Thanks to EU taxpayers for sponsoring this incompetent 60 fps locked scam

First time I've felt compelled to write a review, because this game is that excellent. Yes this is Hades meets SoR4 but it is so much more in its character, charm and artistic direction. Its beautiful hand drawn style combined with what will I'm sure be one of, if not the best soundtracks this year made by a certain beloved DOOM composer makes the experience immersive and addicting. The gameplay as I've experienced it so far is smooth and diverse, the mobility options and the incentives to use them make the game feel much less clunky to play than most beat em ups. Beyond the already fun combo chaining options, the roguelite element adds great depth for strategy and aspects like the varying specials and mounted combat allow you to constantly approach the game from different angles. The boss fights are a highlight as they feel intentional and not just spongey. There is a bit more repetition in the map so far that may turn people off for a roguelite meant to be played many times, but branching path options, hidden secrets and enemy variety help it to feel like less of a repetitive slog. I couldn't recommend this game more to anyone who likes its respective genres and even for people outside of its scope as it is an extremely fun, unique and lovingly crafted game that is currently topping my goty list.

Absolum is exactly the kind of innovation the side-scrolling beat ’em up genre has been waiting for. By blending traditional brawler mechanics with clever roguelite elements, the game completely revitalizes a genre that has long remained anchored to the past. Visually, Absolum is stunning: hand-drawn, rich in detail, and bursting with personality. Every animation feels fluid and meaningful, perfectly tied to the gameplay. Combat is intense and physical: combos send enemies flying, air juggles connect seamlessly, and the “Rites” system adds layers of strategy through elemental and magical upgrades. Sure, a few of these upgrades feel too situational or underpowered, but the sheer variety keeps experimentation rewarding. The roguelite progression loop works brilliantly. Each run feels fresh thanks to new events, branching paths, and character interactions that slowly expand the world of Talamh. It’s a design philosophy clearly inspired by Hades, but reinterpreted through the lens of a brawler, and it works. Whether played solo or in local/online co-op, Absolum delivers a responsive, satisfying, and surprisingly deep experience. It’s visually gorgeous, mechanically tight, and full of heart: it's one of the best beat ’em ups in years. Full review: https://www.smartworld.it/recensioni/absolum

i would prefer to give this game a mild suggestion but if it is yes/no, i cannot recommend it. first of: the game looks as brilliant as the trailers and screenshots suggest. while the animation-quality per see ain't something never seen, the sheer creativity when it comes to art, color and scene-work makes this already a piece of art but then comes the audio. the VO might be one of the best i've heard in quite a while. there is a lot, not just from main, but also from side-characters and 99% is standout quality. the OST is also very high quality; there is everything you'd expect looking at the scenario, but it always fits the biome you are in. the writing is also tight and suprisingly indepth for a rogue-light-beat-em-up-sidescroller. there is a devoloping plot, side conversations, random npc dialogue all drawing from a pretty rich pool of world-building and lore. the rogue-light works also like you would expect. although they put quite some effort into making same-runs feel different. not just via gameplay (as you might expect), but also trough feeding whole side- and main-story content into the run-loops (and an evolving world; like solve a quest to fix a bridge one run and the next run you got a new path, etc.). the 4 characters are also quite distinct, which you might not think in the early couple of hours; but with higher tier builds their differences come to shine. and builds there are quite some; heck you could be a necromancer summoning skeletal hordes or a tornade-shaman. but sadly there is a lot of typical rogue-light-rng involved which leads into my main point and why i still wouldn't recommend the game, atleast not at full price: this is a prime example why not every game and genre needs to be a rogue-light or a souls-like (difficulty); if Double Dragon or Streets of Rage would've been balanced like this i wouldn't have played em religiously. it is less that enemies do to much damage or whatnot it is more that the screen is often nigh impossible to read and yet you are expected to dodge (often close to on the second and pretty pixel-accurate) and "deflect" or "clash" (all timed presses) with accuracy. it is not just that you rarely got free boxed arenas, but instead either tiny close range arenas or often pretty small paths or paths blocked with enviroment which already makes spacing weird, but it also that enemy attacks often got ranged shots (tiny sprites) mixed with in or ranged charged attacks...now imagine that in a pulk of other melee type enemies that can also all come in a none-stunable (you need to "break" em first) variety or with shields. to often i felt like my hits should have connect but didn't (the frog's normal attack combo is a prime example on how weird hits have to be aimed here) and rarely did taken damage feel justified. it is usualy beeing swamped and some tiny aoe-corner hitting you, or a ranged attack (you get 3-4 ranged mobs often enough mixed with in) clipping you, or 3 to 4 none-stunable enemies + shielded mobs. all that wouldn't matter if the game wasn't balanced around "difficulty" frankly the only way to realy make a clean run (especialy later on) is with rogue-light-rng-luck and thus creating a borken, spammable build; and even then you will get clipped by some random pixel often enough. it is kinda sad: apart from the gameplay everything else here is fantastic if this was more a normal Streets of Rageish design with slight RPG elements this could've been a real banger, but as a souls-rogue light it just doesn't work. the balance and especialy hitboxes, hitreaction and encounter design need to be way more polished for a game like this not become annyoin.

not game for me. on paper it sounds great. but it quickly felt like this loop will get dry fast and won't last. abilities and combat wasn't fun enough to keep playing this rouge like for many hours. felt like this well is very shallow. wish game had more classes. traditional knight for example or elven archer or mage as default. another small complaint even though big fun of tolkien style high fantasy with elves and dwarves. main goddess in this game strong accent annoyed me felt out of place. she never stfu constantly yapping on every opportunity. Preferred listening and spending time with characters in the camp.

great game design.but bad online play experience.I was on about 70% game progress.once I connected another player.he got a 35%progress.then I got disconnect.I became his character.my character became 2p.And my progress became his progress,back to 35%.wft???!!!

Streets of Hades.

I'll put it to you this way: If I buy a game on its launch day and have nothing but smiles the entire time? You should most definitely do the same. Support games you actually want to play. This game checked all the boxes. Go on and buy it. Worth every cent and it's only like 20-something bucks