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
4 Comments
@miramiraotw
yeah it took a wild swing and didn't really work out. it's a big shame, and it's hard to blame anyone for dropping it post-mortem when the living, breathing community was clearly intended as the beating heart. the mechanics are more than sound, but it's next to impossible not to feel the vacancy when you're one of two or three people sharing the world; it's just not how it was meant to be experienced unfortunately
yeah it took a wild swing and didn't really work out. it's a big shame, and it's hard to blame anyone for dropping it post-mortem when the living, breathing community was clearly intended as the beating heart. the mechanics are more than sound, but it's next to impossible not to feel the vacancy when you're one of two or three people sharing the world; it's just not how it was meant to be experienced unfortunately
Absolver came out during a time I really couldn't get any games unless it was a special occasion or could really spend the money for it and as such I never played, but I saw multiple videos about it 'cause it utterly fascianted me, it looked so unqiue, so complex in the best of ways, creative like so very few games I had seen. The line ''absolver is a dreamer's game, made with the impractical grandeur of idealists'' is absolutely beautiful and makes me wish I could go back in time and play it as it released, and it's so sad to see that near launch experience has vanished. Amazing review as always!
@deemonandgames
thank you :)
I really wish you could too. it's nice that there's some documentation via videos and stuff that can capture how interesting and unique for those who weren't able to see it firsthand at least; I wasn't sure how well that experience was preserved. I'll always hope the team will go back and take another stab one day, maybe when they're in a better position to bring those ideas to life, but I'm glad that moment existed and that I was there in that brief window when it all made perfect sense
thank you :)
I really wish you could too. it's nice that there's some documentation via videos and stuff that can capture how interesting and unique for those who weren't able to see it firsthand at least; I wasn't sure how well that experience was preserved. I'll always hope the team will go back and take another stab one day, maybe when they're in a better position to bring those ideas to life, but I'm glad that moment existed and that I was there in that brief window when it all made perfect sense
MiraMiraOTW
3 months ago