Absolver Review: Power in Patience

Absolver, kind of like martial arts in the real world, is not for everyone. If you want to mash buttons and flail about, then this isn’t going to be a rewarding or entertaining experience for you. If, on the other hand, you’re looking (and willing) to take a thoughtful and profoundly gratifying martial arts journey which requires your focus and time, then Absolver can offer a unique combat experience unlike anything you’ve ever played.

When you begin your journey in Absolver as a humble Prospect, you’ll be asked to choose one of three combat schools. The Kahlt method is one that emphasizes strength and stability, allowing users to absorb blows and force their will (and fists) upon others. Those who choose the Windfall path will be granted an enhanced quick-step dodge, which slows down enemy attacks when triggered the moment before impact. The Forsaken path, while the most balanced, grants a parry ability that is incredibly difficult to use effectively.

After creating your character and selecting a starting style, you’ll begin your journey alone with little more than a few beginner’s strikes, a cracked mask, and the tattered rags on your back. Your ultimate goal is to become an Absolver, an elite warrior and guardian of the fallen kingdom of Adal, which ever-sprawls before you like a beautiful, melancholy charcoal painting. Absolver‘s world is gorgeous in its simplicity, and its muted tones and densely-overgrown ruins will make you feel isolated and sullen.

It won’t be long, though, until you come across fellow Prospects and more advanced Absolvers in your travels. Multiplayer in Absolver has been compared to Dark Souls or Journey due its relatively limited implementation, and due to the lack of clear communication between players. Unless you decide to start up a Discord channel with your buddies, the bulk of your communication with other players in Absolver will take place between series of emotes, and through sparring sessions (or fights).

The core of your experience will be in the development and perfection of your own unique fighting style through Absolver’s combat deck. The combat deck is central to everything that you do, everything you aspire to, and everything you’ll eventually have to give back to the less-experienced community.

While fighting in Absolver you’ll assume one of four stances at any given time. From each stance you can unleash short combos using two attack buttons. The combat deck is filled with singular strikes and moves, each of which is only accessible from certain stances, and many of which will automatically transition you to a separate stance.

Let’s describe a very simple example. You may open up your combat deck and elect to assign some moves to your basic front-left stance. You select a right jab, a left jab, and a roundhouse kick from your combat deck. In practice, you’d tap X once for the first jab, X again for the second jab, and then Y to execute your roundhouse kick, which leaves you with your back facing your opponent in a back-left stance.

You’ll want to imagine what it will be like in the heat of battle. When your back is turned to your enemy, which moves and what combo will you want available to you in that moment? Do you want another quick three-hit combo, or do you make sure you have a singular powerful strike that automatically places you back in a front-facing position? Toss weapons into the mix, weapons that alter your moveset significantly, and you’re faced with near-limitless possibilities.

If it sounds complicated, that’s because it is. You can set up a combat deck within minutes, but it takes many hours to work out a competent offense. You’ll start chaining together moves and stances that look fantastic and seem practical, and then you’ll come across an opponent who absolutely destroys you, leaving you dispirited and humiliated. This is martial arts, b@!#^! That’s the point.

The progression loop in Absolver is utterly addicting, and so intensely rewarding, because it almost seems unfolds in real time. With every session you make just enough progress.

You can only learn new moves by encountering them repeatedly from your opponents. The more you guard, dodge, or parry a move you haven’t learned before, the faster you’ll unlock it in your own combat deck. It’s only by getting your ass handed to you for hours on-end that you’ll earn the right to piece together your own elite and eclectic fighting style.

If you fall in battle or run away like a coward, then all of the experience you had accrued in that battle is gone. You have to perform courageously in order to learn; you have to be determined, and that’s what makes finally beating down some fools online or besting a long-time rival such a unique delight.

Another unique joy in Absolver is the partaking in (or starting) a fighting school. Advanced players are able to found their own school of combat, which other players can join. When you accept someone as your mentor and join their school, their combat deck is opened to you, and you’re able to learn those moves yourself over time. This means that when you load up a 1-on-1 PvP match and get dazzled by someone who strikes you down with the speed and grace of a lethal ballerina, you can eventually adopt their style as your own by submitting to their tutelage.

If that doesn’t appeal to you, I’m sorry to say that you may not find much to hold you over in Absolver. The single-player content is on the lighter side, and the path from Prospect to Absolver is one that can be traveled in less than ten hours. Absolver’s substance is in its interactions, competition online, and the perfection of your combat deck and style. Developing your own school of martial arts, proving yourself online, and making additional growth and evolution is the hook, and it’s one that I found more than worth the asking price.

WWG’s Score: 4 / 5