Absolver
No retreat, no surrender
DEVELOPER SLOCLAP PUBLISHER DEVOLVER DIGITAL PRICE $ 29.99 AVAILABLE AT STEAM, GOG absolver.com
Absolver is a game not quite like anything you’ve played before. There are instantly recognisable elements – the methodical, tactical combat and shrine (bonfire) based spawns of something like Dark Souls instantly springs to mind – but due to the way the story is approached, the pacing and way that online is integrated into the game makes Absolver a whole different, confounding and kind of wonderful beast. What is an Absolver? It’s not expressly clear exactly what they do aside from fight for stability against masked enemies. Given that everyone aside from a few given individuals wear masks in the world of Absolver, what exactly makes most of these combatants the enemy isn’t really made clear. It could be that they are all evil and that the strange world that might be some form of magical VR simulation is their prison, but it’s just as likely that they may be aggressive because they’ve heard stories about the player-character and don’t want to be beaten to death like the many who have crossed their path before. It’s hard to know. With the exception of a handful of NPCs, nobody in Absolver has anything to say on that, or any other matter. They are as silent and emotionless as their masks.
Whatever the case may be, in this strange, broken and sad world populated by violent masked martial artists, players take the role of acolytes striving to become Absolvers by learning new fighting styles, becoming better warriors and vanquishing a number of named or numbered enemies. When it comes to aesthetics, there is very little for the player to do during character creation outside of choosing a haircut
and combat becomes a crazy dance of blows, counterattacks, and near misses
and skin/hair colour. Appearance can be modified through play with new armour and masks offering greater protection and more striking looks. More important than appearances are fighting styles. The first choice players need to make is the form of fighting they want to focus mainly on, or more precisely, the form of defence. There are three available from the outset and a fourth available after completing the PvE portion of the game. The initial styles, Kahlt, Windfall and Forsaken all focus on unique ways of dealing with incoming damage. Kahlt is a power style focussing on strength and uses absorption to deal with damage. Absorbing an attack prevents stagger allowing for a quick counterattack and also allows players to regain the health they lost while attacking after an absorb. Windfall is a fast, dexterity based style that utilises avoidance to deal with incoming damage. Avoiding an attack slows the enemy briefly allowing for easier counterattacks. Forsaken is a balanced style between strength and dexterity and uses a parry mechanic. Successfully parrying an attack stuns an opponent for a split second allowing for a guaranteed punish.
Along with the defensive ability, each combat style comes with a basic combat deck, a number of moves that can be strung together based on stance. A player’s combat deck can have a total of 12 moves and four alternate attacks equipped, the only proviso of how combos are put together is that
the next move in the sequence must start from the stance the previous move ended in. There are four stances – forward, left, right and back – and each stance has moves corresponding. A roundhouse kick, for example takes a player from forward stance to left stance (facing left), so the next regular attack in the sequence might be a right elbow or a backhand. It’s a deep and intricate fighting system open to a great deal of experimentation. The game is best played with a controller, and holding the right trigger allows players to change stances so a basic combo can extend in multiple ways, with each angle of attack giving rise to four options for the next attack. It sounds intimidating and to begin with it is, but after only an hour or two the system makes perfect sense and combat becomes a crazy dance of blows, counterattacks, and near misses.
New moves are learned through fighting or by joining martial arts schools. Blocking an attack you don’t already know allows you to learn a little something about it. Block enough times and you’ll learn the move and add it to your deck. Using your style’s defensive move successfully against the attack gives more experience. After a player has reached a certain level of experience and moves they can open their own martial arts school, and any player who joins that school can learn the moves in the teacher’s deck. In addition to normal moves, defeating the named and numbered targets in PvE also rewards the player with special skills powered by shards, a power source charged through defeating enemies. Players can also learn weapon styles or fight with shards of weapons scattered around the game world.
That’s just PvE. There’s a whole PvP game in Absolver as well, with 1v1 and 3v3 matches, players being able to invade other player’s realms to either help them or challenge them and more, with the developers promising more online modes to be released after launch.
Absolver is a strange, often frustrating but equally fascinating game. It’s all but silent world is a mystery, as are the motivations of its inhabitants, but this otherworldly mood serves to heighten the individual stories of martial arts mastery you can tell yourself within. It’s a strange game. It’s also kind of wonderful.