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