Absolver was one of the most interesting experiences I've had with a game that I had absolutely no idea about beforehand. I only downloaded it because of its visual identity, which really caught my attention. Mysterious masks and characters in fighting poses were all I knew about it until then.
The gameplay was extremely fun, responsive, and different from what I had experienced with other fighting games. My experience with the game was divided into two parts. The first part involved exploration, seeing the ruined landscapes and abandoned biomes, encountering mysterious enemies along the way, completing quests, and bumping into equally mysterious players. This gave a slight "FromSoftware" interaction feelâsomewhat limited and primitiveâwhich added a much more curious air to these player interactions.
The second part, after completing the "single-player" PvE campaign, was a whole universe of matchmaking and ranked 1v1 matches against other players using various fighting "decks." This completely changed the style of each match depending on the deck you used or faced. It was incredibly satisfying how the fights, strikes, and defenses were executed and received in these matches.
In short, the game made a huge impression on me, and I am EXTREMELY happy that Sifu, the new game from the same developer, brought these captivating and original characteristics to a single-player game.
The gameplay was extremely fun, responsive, and different from what I had experienced with other fighting games. My experience with the game was divided into two parts. The first part involved exploration, seeing the ruined landscapes and abandoned biomes, encountering mysterious enemies along the way, completing quests, and bumping into equally mysterious players. This gave a slight "FromSoftware" interaction feelâsomewhat limited and primitiveâwhich added a much more curious air to these player interactions.
The second part, after completing the "single-player" PvE campaign, was a whole universe of matchmaking and ranked 1v1 matches against other players using various fighting "decks." This completely changed the style of each match depending on the deck you used or faced. It was incredibly satisfying how the fights, strikes, and defenses were executed and received in these matches.
In short, the game made a huge impression on me, and I am EXTREMELY happy that Sifu, the new game from the same developer, brought these captivating and original characteristics to a single-player game.
A fascinating and short experience with an extremely deep and customizable combat system based on learning new moves and including them in your ever growing catalog of moves. While I'm sure there is a "solved" or meta way to play the game at the highest levels I believe the best thing you can do is let yourself experiment and play around with moves until you find a way to express yourself through your tailored and designed move list. While my time with the game was brief this is something to come back to and praise for its seemless pvp/coop experience and its interesting combat system that is unlike anything else I have ever played.
you had to be there
when the online wasn't a ghost town it felt like the full experience it quite obviously isn't in any other context. the fashion; the modular create-a-wrestler style movelists; duels. it was delightful, if insanely obtuse in ways it never should've been allowed to be. absolver is a dreamer's game, made with the impractical grandeur of idealists
the dark souls veneer followed by the realization that the single player content was a total wasteland certainly turned some folks off, and it's not tough to figure out why. uncover this shortcut, now fight this boss, now calibrate the north western stance in your cardinal direction combo deck. regular people turned to goop when this shit hit; folks were disintegrated for thinking it's another R1 bonanza. this is a fighting game, baby, or at least the corpse of one
revisiting it now is a bummer. just doesn't hit the same way without player interaction. an extended tutorial devised to usher you toward a wider community that's dead and gone. bones long turned to dust. the fallout 1 death screen where you're slumped in the desert repeating for eternity
ppl talk about when mmos lose their communities, but there's something extra sad about this space + time for me. reaching for the moon, designing a combat system so heavy and nuanced, and then having it relegated to fighting hollows in the undead burg forever. purgatory shit. gustave dore woodcuts depicted this exact scenario and we should've learned from them
true marvel of ungoverned spirit. these kinds of indie games rarely felt so brazen and optimistic as in those ten minutes in time
when the online wasn't a ghost town it felt like the full experience it quite obviously isn't in any other context. the fashion; the modular create-a-wrestler style movelists; duels. it was delightful, if insanely obtuse in ways it never should've been allowed to be. absolver is a dreamer's game, made with the impractical grandeur of idealists
the dark souls veneer followed by the realization that the single player content was a total wasteland certainly turned some folks off, and it's not tough to figure out why. uncover this shortcut, now fight this boss, now calibrate the north western stance in your cardinal direction combo deck. regular people turned to goop when this shit hit; folks were disintegrated for thinking it's another R1 bonanza. this is a fighting game, baby, or at least the corpse of one
revisiting it now is a bummer. just doesn't hit the same way without player interaction. an extended tutorial devised to usher you toward a wider community that's dead and gone. bones long turned to dust. the fallout 1 death screen where you're slumped in the desert repeating for eternity
ppl talk about when mmos lose their communities, but there's something extra sad about this space + time for me. reaching for the moon, designing a combat system so heavy and nuanced, and then having it relegated to fighting hollows in the undead burg forever. purgatory shit. gustave dore woodcuts depicted this exact scenario and we should've learned from them
true marvel of ungoverned spirit. these kinds of indie games rarely felt so brazen and optimistic as in those ten minutes in time