Absolum

Amazing game...in co-op. The audio/visuals are top notch, as are the controls and most of the gameplay. There is plenty of meta progression as well as run-specific upgrades to keep the game interesting. They did a truly awesome job. But it kinda sucks in solo, enemies will throw cheap shots at you all the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ time and it gets old so damn fast. Being able to create combos from the wide variety of moves and weapons is so cool, but getting cherry picked every 5 seconds because, even though you perfectly time a dodge/counter against 1 or 2 enemies, the 3 other ones just out of reach will still pick you off. When this ♥♥♥♥ happens it makes your attempts to play the game correctly feel pointless. Co-op makes it easier to deal with because you have another body on the playfield, so all the enemy attention isn't just on one player. It feels like night and day to me. Also, there are still a couple of bugs that will freeze your game, forcing you to quit. It doesn't happen very often at all, it has happened 2-3 times over the course of my 20-30 hours of play. A run only takes a short time, and you still get to keep your rewards up to the point where you have to quit, so it's not terrible, but these technical issues seem to have been known for a while, and they are still around, which seems crappy. To me this is a 4.5 star game if you have some gaming friends. Playing solo exclusively it's probably 2.5 stars because of the constant frustrating ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the enemies do. If they fixed the remaining technical issues and toned down the cheap hits it would be 5 stars easily.

The platonic ideal of the game I've desperately wanted to play since I was about 12 years old. (Yes, I'm old.) Because Absolum brings it all together: the lazy childhood summers plunking quarters into Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom at the local arcade; the countless hours frittered away jump-kicking goons in Streets of Rage 2 and Golden Axe; the compulsive "one-more-time" drive to blast through The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth and Spelunky over and over again, inching toward victory one death at a time. Absolum feels like the apotheosis of all those decades-long obsessions: a gorgeous, brutally polished collision of arcade brawlers, roguelikes, and high fantasy nonsense that somehow manages to hit basically every dopamine receptor in my brain at once. I loved it unabashedly. Also, there's a frog wizard and you can play as him.

Hands down one of the best beat em up games I've played in a long while. These developers specialize in this genre and it's evident through Absolum. Four distinctively different characters with different personalities and varying, emergent gameplay. Great voice acting, hard hitting combat and punchy sound effects make this a must play if you like beat em up games. My favorite characters are Karl and Cider, whereas Galandra and Brome are great too. Story is solid but not the deepest, but certainly well designed and colorful locations, it's a rogue like, so expect some repetitive action. You can't miss it if you like beat em ups. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3620873388