Absolum Proves Dotemu Offers More Than Nostalgia Bait
- Antal Bokor
- Oct 13
- 3 min read
In my mind, DotEmu is associated with retro beat ‘em ups because of their success with games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and Streets of Rage 4. Of course, they’ve dabbled in other genres with Windjammers 2, Pharaoh: A New Era, and Metal Slug Tactics being some stand-out examples. But all of these are games that are both retro-inspired and are already part of existing IPs. That’s what makes Absolum the real standout in Dotemu’s offerings.
I know everyone is hyped for Marvel Cosmic Invasion, but I think there should have been more buzz around Absolum – I absolutely loved the hours I put into it. Absolum isn’t the first roguelike beat ‘em up that I’ve heard of, but it’s probably one of the most polished I've played. This isn’t a genre/sub-genre mash-up that comes around very often, and never has a developer with such pedigree handled the idea. Fortunately, Dotemu knocks the concept out of the park.
Absolum plays like a standard beat ‘em up: fight enemies, destroy environmental items, and sometimes pick-up weapons (there are only throwable weapons in Absolum) or other items like health. There are two initial characters to choose from, with a roster of four characters to work towards. Each character has a different feel and moveset. Galandra mixes quick strikes with a slow, heavy sword attack. Karl (which is hopefully a Deep Rock Galactic reference) is a dwarf that uses a blunderbuss and his fists to dispatch foes.
As you progress through Absolum on your journey to dispatch Azra, the game’s advertised big bad, you will meet lots of different enemy types and interesting ways to dispatch them. You can collect rituals and trinkets on your journey, both of which have the ability to drastically change how effective your character can be. And that's the biggest difference in Absolum versus your average beat ‘em up: its roguelike structure that gives you the ability to upgrade your character with abilities that have the potential for some absolutely devastating synergy. And that’s why I like to play roguelikes.
As with most roguelikes, you have some agency over where you can go on the world map. Except in Absolum, you determine which fork to take. Sometimes these forks are hidden or blocked off by some puzzle. It’s not possible to see all of Absolum in one playthrough, but that also means you’ll be playing the same areas repeatedly.
Thankfully, Dotemu anticipated returning to areas over and over again and made going back and exploring already tread ground a little more interesting than just seeing the same stuff over and over. Sometimes new events will pop up, or characters you met on your travels will catch up and pop in for some help or guidance. There are also a handful of sidequests and other secrets to uncover that will require multiple runs to complete. Obviously, there is also a true end boss and other hidden bosses to discover and brutalize.
There is a lot of heart put into Absolum, and that’s evident in both the game’s tight gameplay and its lore. Each of the four characters you can unlock are unique and have distinct personalities. The worldbuilding is superb, though it's very derivative of similar works that came before it. Absolum’s strength is in DotEmu’s fantastic execution, however, and not its originality.
If I did have any substantive complaint about Absolum is that it feels much too short, and too easy. I was able to see most of the game within the first 4-5 hours of playtime, and I'm not exceptional at beat ‘em ups nor roguelikes. In fact, I had such an easy go of it that once I finally got a character powerful enough to meet the end boss, I steamrolled him without breaking a sweat. It was often the case that I would find myself either vastly overpowered or not at all prepared for a fight, with few encounters that were in-between.
Absolum is one of my games of the year. I have a feeling it's slipping under the radar a bit, but I hope it’s successful enough that Dotemu keeps working on these new IPs, because their first truly novel offering in a long time is an absolute gem.
Absolum is out now.