2019-04-01_Official_Xbox_Magazine

You play as a Prospect who has joined the Absolvers, elite combatants sworn to maintain stability the world

Absolver Downfall

FACELESS FIGHTER THAT MANAGES TO PULL SOME GREAT MOVES CHRIS BURKE

PUBLISHER DEVOLVER / DEVELOPER SLOCLAP / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST £23.99/ $29.99/ AVAILABLE ON GAME PASS

your ability to target is almost

nonexistent and you only seem able

to lock onto an attacker once they’ve

actually landed a strike. Knocking out

these side-men repays you with a

little health, and when you’ve downed

enough of them it’s back to the main

guy. These boss fights are challenging

and unforgiving, and mastering the

moves and defeating the bosses is

certainly rewarding.

Touch of class

Absolver has some deep RPG

elements. You have a choice of three

‘classes’, defined by fighting styles.

Windfall specialises in evasion, Kahit

is ‘tanky’, with your character able

to absorb damage more effectively,

while Forsaken’s speciality is parrying.

Experience in fighting NPCs (by

blocking or evading their attacks,

specifically) eventually unlocks their

fighting style, and there are a few to

collect. Once earned, these styles can

be arranged in a combat deck, which

all relate to your four changeable

stances (mapped to quarter-

directions of RT plus right stick).

This clever indie
martial arts fighting
game has been
around on Windows
for a while, but
with Absolver
Downfall, developer Sloclap has finally
unleashed it onto Xbox. Visually, it’s
striking, the oil-painted style not
dissimilar to recent indie adventure
Ashen; like that game, the characters
are faceless, or nearly – here
everyone wears detail-less masks.
The game describes itself as having
an open world, but in reality it’s more
Metroidvania in its approach; progress
through its world is pretty linear, and
in truth there’s not much to see along
the way. After a while that faceless
art style begins to feel repetitive –
like seeing a game at some point
in development where it’s not quite
complete; the renders not finished,
characters in need of fleshing out still.
The fighting feels authentically
rooted in actual martial arts moves;
the motions and attacks are fluid, you
can side-step, change stance and
kick and punch in some neat combos.
Best is your ability to block, something
that few 3D fighters manage quite so
effectively and realistically. While it’s
not easy to do, you can anticipate
and block attacks by directing your
character’s arms with the left joystick

• time this right and then get in some
  counters, and it really feels like you’re
  having a proper fight. The boss levels
  are challenging from the outset – not
  least because, as with the first boss
  Kuretz, after he’s taken a couple of
  hits, he summons forth minions to
  attack you. With multiple enemies,

Sadly, the visual simplicity works

against your immersion. The ‘lost

lands’ in which you’re adventuring

have fallen into ruin, which tries to

excuse the emptiness. You unlock

some doors, smash some others, and

fight some dudes that just appear to

be hanging around waiting for you to

turn up. Your aim is principally to face

three boss fighters, and when you

have done that, you can fight them

again at a harder level, and continue

this challenge seemingly indefinitely.

Enter the PVP component. When

another player enters your instance,

you can fight it out, or team up

against others. A nice idea, but we

found that too often game lagged

horribly when others turn up. When it

works, fighting your mates can be fun,

and you can even form martial arts

schools with other players and get

deep into the learning and collecting

of fighting styles. Cool, that – but not

quite enough to surmount the game’s

many limitations. Q

short

cut

WHAT IS IT?

Indie fighting RPG

with combat based

on martial arts

hand-to-hand

combat, plus some

adventuring.

WHAT’S IT LIKE?

It looks like Ashen

and plays a bit like

For Honor.

WHO’S IT FOR?

Fans of fighters and

RPGs who like a

challenge and a deep

levelling system.

“The visual

simplicity works

against your

immersion”

OXM VERDICT

A challenging

fighting system is

only the bare bones

of what could be a

better game.

6

RIGHT The

fighting moves

and different

stances feel

authentically

drawn from

martial arts.

084 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE

REVIEW