Video Gamers Podcast - [DEEP DIVE] Dive Into Absolum [REMASTERED] – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan, and Ace are diving deep into the mysterious, mind-bending world of Absolum in this week’s full-blown breakdown. Is this ambitious new experience the boundary-pushing masterpiece fans are calling it, or another case of gaming hype spiraling out of control? We’re unpacking everything—its haunting atmosphere, its ambitious mechanics, and the wild narrative swings that have everyone in the video games community talking. From the game’s surreal worldbuilding to its bold mechanical risks, we’ll explore whether Absolum truly earns its reputation as one of the most fascinating video games of the year. If you love gaming deep dives that analyze every layer of a strange, standout title, this is the episode for you. Don’t miss this mind-twisting journey into Absolum on the Video Gamers Podcast! Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps, Bobby S, NorwegianGreaser, Dettmarp and NightWizard63   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: Milkman, Drewsky, Jigglepuf and BadGam3rDad   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@videogamerspod Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I have not played Absalom, although I was going to say this. I have almost bought that game like three times now because I'm kind of craving it. So if either one of you were like, hey, Josh, let's play Absalom. I would jump in in a heartbeat, by the way. I'm just saying. Hello, fellow gamers. And welcome to the video gamers podcast, Hades 2, Expedition 33, Blueprints, Ball X-Pit. And then some game called Absalom?

Why is this game in the running for indie game of the year? Well, we've been playing it, and on today's episode, we're going to be breaking down what it is, why it's nominated, and if it's actually worth your time to play. But first, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh, and joining me, we finally found a game where the most common phrase is, res me Josh Res me Josh It's Ryan That was

That was not on the first run Because it was Resmy Ryan For sure But yes there was some Resmy Josh's Absolutely Oh man Just it's I'm gonna soak this in for a second

Ryan All I hear is Josh I'm down Josh I'm down Oh I'm down again You had three ress dude You had three auto res I got to introduce the next guy Ryan Enjoy

us. He was the one that twisted my arm and said, okay, Josh, fine. I'll play it with you. Does he regret it? Or was this one of my best ideas ever? It's ace. Oh man. Yeah, I was really had to twist your arm on this one to get to get this deep dive done. Oh, man. Had to remorgas my house. Also, when you and I said we're playing Absalom, Ryan got salt. right away. Oh, immediately. Immediately.

Immediately. Immediately. It was like, another game, guys? You guys are going to play this one? And then we were like, yeah. And he's like, well, okay, is it three people? And we were like, no, Ryan, it's just two. And then for the next two days, every time you and I were playing, we'd hear the

little discord. Somebody's joined the voice channel. And it'd be Ryan just being like, I hate you guys. I hope you die. I hope you guys die. Hey, nerds, what are you playing? You playing the game without me again? Yep, you were.

You were. Every time I saw it, I felt like, like, everybody hurts sometimes. I just keep seeing you guys in the voice channel together. And I can't join no matter what. Oh, man. So, Ryan, we were the guinea pigs, okay, to see if there was something here. We were actually being bros to you. and like trying to save you from having to play like an inferior game.

Thank you. Until we realized this game's probably not an inferior game. And then we were like, Ryan, you need to pick this up. And then like Ryan is very prone to do. He was like, say less.

I'm not excitable. I don't get FOMO. What are you talking about? And then I think you and I had like a good like, well, actually the first time we played, we only got like two matches in. And then Ryan disappears off the face of the planet to do garage work or something

for the next. 84 hours. Yes. But you and I got in a pretty good, like, three hour session after that, which was good. Yeah, we got our time in for sure. Yeah. So, all right, listen, everybody, we're going to be talking about Absalom. This game is nominated for the indie game of the year category.

And like us, you've probably heard the title and know nothing about this game. But we went, you know what, since the three of us have played this, we need to do a deep dive on it. And so here we are. Once again, you know, being in the guinea pigs, guys, we're like the test subjects for the listeners. For you. Like, the hard job, man. It's all for you listeners.

I feel like the meme where it's like the soldier, I don't know if you guys seen this, like it's a soldier like standing over somebody. He's got all the arrows and spears in his back and stuff where he's like protecting, you know, the person. And that's us. Yeah, I know exactly what you talk. For crappy games, you know,

and sometimes pointing out like a really good game that maybe people should play or something like that too. So, all right. Guys, let's just get into this. Absalom, Ace, this is an indie title. Yep. We stole this from you for the indie episode. So once again, you know, here we are on the main, the main episode talking about an indie title.

But, hey, this is 2025, ladies and gentlemen. You're the Indies, baby. You're the Indies, baby. You're the Indies. Slim Pickin's on the AAA side. I was, I think Ace, like, to give you credit, I'm pretty sure that you were the one that said, hey, have you guys seen this game? It's making waves. It's a fighting game.

It's a co-op like side-scrolling brawler type game. I'm pretty sure you were the one that brought this up. So I'm pretty sure this was in the first indie news episode where I turned into a rat at the end. I'm pretty sure I was that. You know what? That's ringing a bell. I do remember that episode very well. And those of you who haven't watched, we have video.

So please check it out. Ace occasionally turns into a rat when his internet goes out. Yeah. It's like a punishment. for having bad internet. Bad ace, bad. Bad rat time. But, you know, we covered it on that indie news episode, and we were very interested in it then.

So we kept our eye on it just, you know, waiting for a moment to open up where we would have time to play it. And finally, I was just like, you know what? I've got nothing to play right now. 25 bucks. I'm spending it. I'm going to try this game. And you were just like, as soon as you saw me pick it up, you're like, okay, play it for an hour. Let me know how it is.

You have to let me know how it is. usually play. I was very curious about it already because it's a different genre of game two. I mean, how often do we get a co-op brawler, side scroller fighter? Like, I mean,

for somebody like me who is seasoned, we'll say in the gaming world, like this is a throwback to like the days of golden acts, you know, or double dragon or Ace, you mentioned a streets of rage. Streets of Rage. You know,

these types of games. Battletoads. Battle toads. Yeah. This genre doesn't exist. anymore. And if it does exist, it doesn't exist very well because there's not a game that's come out that has like been like, oh, this is a must play like co-op side scrolling brawler game, man. It's a genre.

And then a sudden Epsilon comes around. Yeah. It's a genre where we weren't seeing a lot of innovation and evolution. So when it did come out, people were like, oh, another beat them up. Whatever. Arcade game. Right. Yeah. That's honestly, arcade game was the very first thought I had. It's like, this would be fun for like an hour and then it'll just get repetitive and you know that's that so um and then it got nominated for game of the year all of a sudden and we were like hold up wait a minute yeah like wait a minute like i do remember i will say this i do remember instantly being wowed by the art style of this game and thinking like the art style in this really is really neat and stands out for a game that is about

like violence and just pummeling things to death like this is kind of cool. So you and I jumped in. We realized that there's actually maybe a reason why this game is being nominated for the indie game of the year category. And then we went Ryan, you need to pick this up. Let's play it. And then Ryan picked it up and dove in with us. Now, this is only two-player co-op. And this is why things got a little awkward with us and then Ryan because it was like Ryan standing outside, looking in through the window going like, what are you guys doing? What are you guys doing in there? You know, and they were like, fun in there?

Come on in, Ryan. Like, come on in. So, Ryan, I want you to start off with how would you explain what the heck Absalom is to say? I mean, we've called it a side-scrolling brawler, but like, in the simplest way for people that don't know what this is, how would you describe this game? I guess for our older audience, like you said, Golden Axe, you know, Battle Toads, Double Dragon, and all these side-scrolling games. It's really akin to that and a kind of a tip to those games.

For the newbies or a younger generation, it is just basically the kind of an all-out action, side-scrolling, punch them up, beat them up, explosions everywhere on the screen, beautiful art style, and you just travel through this land and you beat this section, and once you beat it,

you usually can unlock some sort of, reward gems or trinkets or something to help you along the way along your journey and uh and then you go to the next section and you go to the next stage and you just kind of progress through the levels as you try to get to the main boss and in traverse through their map almost akin also to like uh like Mario where you would go to the different worlds as you as you went along kind of like that yeah each level in the world like each level yeah in a world then you go to a new place yeah exactly so so it is uh yeah and you just you just go in and just let just havoc take place, man.

It was wild. So, Ace, you mentioned something that I was not aware of with Absalom initially and that this is also a rogue-like game. First of its kind, to my knowledge, a rogue-like beat-em-up, which-baffled me at first. Which baffled. Now, I like rogue-likes. I think all three of us have, like, have said, like, okay, we're down with the rogue-like genre, man.

Like, I've always said you've got to have really good gameplay if you're going to be a successful roguelike, because it's the only thing you have going for you. If I have to start over every time, I better really enjoy playing the game. You need two things. Good gameplay and consistent progression. Yes. Consistent progression being the key. I won't name names.

We had a developer reach out. They gave us a free key for a game that I think nobody will ever even know exists. And I played it because they gave us a free key. and I went, it's a roguelike game. I was bored within the first 20 minutes because I did like four or five runs and there was zero actual progression. And I just kind of went, why would I play this?

Why would I keep playing this game if it doesn't give me anything other than like a high score? Like nobody cares about high scores anymore, man. You know? And so like I said, I don't want to slander the game into the developer, but this was a perfect example of there's zero enticement for me to do another run. on this game at this point.

And Absalom has figured that out. They have figured out how to keep you engaged and progressing and things like that. So it is a rogue-like, and I think you're right, Ace, I don't know of another beat-em-up rogue-like game. I mean, you could say like Hades is, but this is a completely different genre than it is. This is a side-scrolling beat-up. This is a side-scrolling beat-em-up, not a top-down hack-and-slash. Yes, exactly.

Yep. All right, so let's talk a little bit because this game also does something that I really like, and that is it gives you various characters to play, that to me all actually feel pretty darn different at the same time. So, you know, in the vein of that progression, you start off with two characters. You start off with a, like a drow elf, like warrior with a with a sword, and then you start off with a short little dwarf guy that just basically has a giant blunderbuss. and he punches things with his fists. And so these are your two characters that you start off with.

You unlock fairly quickly, I might add. I mean, within probably a few hours of playing, you unlock two more characters that feel very unique as well. And I think it is this kind of feel that these characters have that is one form of progression in this game where you kind of go, okay, cool. Like I've played four or five runs with this character. Let me try out this character.

now. And this is not really a spoiler, but you know, you can unlock like a marionette character and you unlock like a frog wizard character. I think they show them in the like the thumbnail. They're on the page. Yeah. So not like I said, there's really nothing to spoil in a game like this. But so you unlock those two for you guys, what is your favorite character and why? I like the warrior monk character, which is very simplistic. The default character. The default character that you start with. She is a very well-rounded character. All around, she's good damage. She's good combo potential. That freaking sword clashes like you wouldn't believe, which we'll get into what a clash is. But that was my favorite character to play. Nice. Have you, did you, have you tried all four characters ace?

I haven't played the frog yet. I played everyone else. Okay. You did try everybody else? Yeah. Okay. I played with you when you tried the dwarf guy. And I feel like it was like one run and then you were like, no, I'm going back.

his reach wasn't far enough my punches weren't landing because you were just spamming Y and hitting everything he's got short little arms ace You were hitting everything away before I could hit them Don't you be smirts Carl man Carl's a good guy That is his name is Carl

Josh and I were even joking I was laughing because he's I think I was like Who else is ace played? He's like I don't think anyone else He's like he always plays this character Because that's the first round that I played and I was playing as her and I'm like, I love this chick so much. And Josh was like, yeah, he does too.

That's all he's played. And the one thing with this is wild is because you unlock characters as you progress, like Josh said. So then you unlock the marionette girl, cinder. Yeah, or cider. Cider. Cider. It's cider. You're right.

He's made a wood. I always wanted to say cinder, but it's cider, yeah. Cider. And I was like, oh, this is my new favorite character. This character is amazing. And then today, I probably put in three hours. with the toad, Brome. And the Wizard Toad, I was like, oh, okay, every time I try a new character, I fell more in love with not only the game, but also the characters.

And this one gave me even more options. Each one has a different, like, kind of range of combat and different abilities and different ways to attack, like, a setting or scenario. So it is really unique. You have the four, but they produce so much more than just, you know, just standard combat. Yeah, Broem breaks the game, by the way. He could completely break this game. Dude. Ace and I had a run yesterday where I kind of got a really broken build and broke the game as Brome.

Completely. I will say, you know, Ryan, you touched on this. I love how the different characters play. This is important because what good is a character if they don't feel different, right? If it's just a different skin on it, it's like, okay, is that really adding anything? But in this case, yes, the characters actually do add a variety of, like, gameplay elements. Ace, I agree with you. I think Galandra is the name of the Dark Elf.

Galandra is the Dark Elf. I always call her a mom. Yeah. You know, she's an all-arounder. She's good at everything. She doesn't really have any weaknesses. Carl the Dwarf, you know, he's tough and he can like punch through a lot of things. He's kind of hard to see is the downside because he's short.

And there is a lot of visual clutter in this game. So it's like sometimes like when I'm playing Carl, I'm like, where am I? Like, wait, there I am. That happened a lot. But he has a gun. So he's one of the, really the only ranged character in the game. Like everybody has some range stuff as far as abilities,

which we'll get into. But I feel like that's kind of Carl's niche is that gun. He can whip out that gun and do a lot of different things with it. Cider is, in my opinion, that's my favorite character because I just love the rogue type class. She's cool. She is pulling off crazy combos and juggles and she's very quick.

She cannot clash very well, which again, we'll get into here in just a. minute. So she's got some negatives to kind of make up for the combos and speed that she has. And then Brom is your frog wizard guy. Battlemage. Rome, that's my toad boy. I love him. I think Brom's thing is he's probably meant to be like the Arcana master, which is your skills. So he's more skill base because his basic combat is kind of plain and repetitive in my opinion. So that's kind of the downside to him. So it's like,

it's really neat that you have this cast of characters and they all excel at something and they all kind of have negatives at the same time. And to me, that's what you should have. If you have characters in a game, there should be positive as a negative so that people can kind of identify with this is my preferred play style. The other cool thing that Ryan and I figured out

is if you are playing a character and your buddy joins you, you can play the same character. Yes. As we quickly discovered, Ryan, that may not be the best strategy. We both played Cider, who is the roguelike character, and we got wrecked,

man, we were just like, okay, this ain't working. Speaking of not being able to see which one's yours, like, especially when you can't see already, and then there's two of the same ones, and you're just like, what? There's just like a red cloth or a green cloth on their shoulder is like the only way to difference

the two. You're like, yeah. The number of times I thought I was Ryan and I'm walking, like, I'm trying to walk to the right side of the screen only to watch my character like walk off a cliff or something because I was like, oh, I thought it was the other one. I can't imagine what was like trying to choose your skills because you both have the same one

you're trying to read who's his oh no no I'll tell you exactly what it was I didn't choose Josh just went and grabbed whatever he wanted that's what would happen Josh would instantly grab beginning arcana Ryan we're not talking about Lou Goblinning we're talking about the beginning skills we'll get to

we'll get to the food shortage yeah in a in a game like this where the gameplay is all about the combat and the action on this you've got to have cool skills and combos and abilities to keep the gameplay interesting, which is also where some of the roguelike elements come in. And we're going to break all that down right after this message. Hey, everybody, Ryan here. Rocket League players. I'm calling you out right now. If you've been

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Again, risk-free seven-day trial, TROP-H-I. dot AI, level up smarter with trophy. com. All right, guys, we're back. We're talking Absalom. All right, we've talked about the characters in this game. We've talked about this is a beat-em-up. I mean, the gameplay premise is very simple.

You move your characters around, enemies show up on screen, and you pummel them into oblivion until they die, and you rinse and you repeat until you get to the end of the level, you fight a little mini boss or a major boss and hope that you clear that level and move on to the next one. Since it is a roguelike game, your goal is to beat the whole game in one run,

which is doable. We have done that. Yep. I will say to the game's credit that when you beat the game the first time, it ain't over. Nope. It ain't over. We'll get to that.

We'll get to that here in a little bit, too. but I do want to talk about how the characters each have unlockable abilities. So when you are fighting, you have something called Arcana, which is a triggered skill that is tied to mana in this game. And you go, okay, things are getting crazy. I better pop this skill and hope that this clears out some of these people. There's something like, how many, like 10 different skills, A, something like that? There's like 10 different Arcana skills you can unlock.

And each of them. Per character. Yes. Yeah. And they each do something completely different. Oh, wait. No. Okay.

I'm sorry. Clarification. There are like six or eight different arcana that you take into a match, but you unlockable arcana that you can pick up during a run. That's what I was talking about. Those skills like the skills. Yeah. The skills. I don't know what those are called.

But those are, they just add to your move set. We're just going to call them skills. They like add passively passively to your move set. But those are cool. You do have Arcana that you start with and that you actually do unlock through a trainer. So this is another progression element, which this game does fantastically. I'm just going to put it out there right now. The progression elements in this roguelike combat game are phenomenal.

And as much time as we have put into this game over the last, I don't know, week, there's still stuff that we're discovering. Still finding stuff. Oh, yeah. So you have a variety of skills. You have a variety of upgrades that you can unlock that you can then find during a run that are unique to your character that you're playing. And then you have these arcana that you also unlock that you start a match with.

And these things are game changers. They're kind of like, I want to say they're ultimates, but it's not ultimate. Guess what else you get in this game, guys? You get an ultimate at the same time. So each character has unique arcana. Ryan, can you give us like, give the people an example of what a few arcana are for one of the characters that you like, for instance? So we're talking about like the attacks you go in with, right? buttons. The right trigger buttons. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, what I found with Brome is, like, um, there's, there's some, too, like, then certain circumstances work well. But what, what I think is cool about this game is, is it, is it, is it, is it. Before you start running, gives you the option of to choose which one you want. And then it'll always select one that'll give you a plus bonus to, like, the amount of loot you get, uh, the rate, what is it, radiance? Experience. It's experience. Yeah. Yeah. Very akin to the, uh, for anybody that's played Hades with the,

weapons in Hades where it's like the, I forget the term, but it's like the weapons glowing and it's like, hey, if you take this weapon on the run, you're going to get bonus XP. This may not be what you want, but if you'd use this, you'll get more XP, you know, basically is what it is. So there's a cool incentive there to kind of try other options, but there's one for like, the one I played a lot today was Brome, you know, where you can do this dimensional door, where you can juggle characters off the door, it does damage to them, and it's really cool. but there's also these other abilities where I can form this orb in the air that just shoots down other orbs at all the enemies and it auto targets them, which is very handy in like a kind of a crazy clash when there's a bunch of guys around you. He has another one where you can summon four like whirlwind tornadoes.

That's my favorite one. It hits everything. So the more the more ability, because it is side scrolling, but there is a depth to it. So there's an up and down so you can kind of go to the bottom of the map or the top, and enemies will do likewise. So when you do that, you can kind of hit enemies above you or below you. So there's a lot of options, and that's for every character. They have, you know, eight of those types of options as well.

So to be able to choose all those is something really unique and cool, but you get that. It is a powerful ability to use, like in that pinch. You only get so much. You have to recharge your mana. You recharge it with your hits and contact damage. And then once you have them, they are extremely useful. They're game changers.

Like they can go from, you know, clearing a wave of enemies out of your way to throwing down a distraction doll to get to get them away from you. So they go attack that instead. Like, they are completely different. And they're affected by the rituals too. So you can add, you know, elemental, you know, arcana to it to your Arcana and make everything die, which is what Josh did. Thorntz.

You pop your thing. You mentioned rituals, but go ahead and explain. And maybe you can use Hades again as a reference or an example of what these rituals are. Rituals are boons. Boons from Hades were like the elemental elements you could add to your quick attacks, your, you know, your Y, your skill button. But in this, rituals go to your skill. They go to your dash.

They go to your, uh, arcana. They even go to your old, I think, which is crazy. and rituals are what is going to make you strong enough to beat this game. These are your builds. These are the random perks that you pick up during your run. Like you said, they're like the boons. In Hades,

for anybody that's played Hades, these are the things that, like, you get from the gods where maybe it's a lightning buff or maybe it's a frost buff or something like that. This game calls them rituals, but these are the things that make each run feel unique. These are abilities that you get.

like you said, it can tie to attacks, maybe to a dash, or deflect, clash, flashes, uh, dodges, which we'll cover here in just a second. But also what I think is really cool in this game is that as you unlock some of these, like upgrades to the rituals in town in between runs, you can get new moves. So like in combat, you can unlock these moves. if you get the correct ritual and you get lucky and get it, that give your character an all new move

that you have not had before, which are crazy fun at the same time. And are just, they're bananas. Like the cider, the rogue one, gets like a spinning pile driver move, which is completely off base for this like fast little rogue-like character. But it's so fun to just grab like an enemy

and then you just shoot up off the screen and then you come flying down, you can control where you land with them too, which is super cool. And then they hit the ground and they knock everything away that's like near them and stuff. And it's like,

and this is just a random thing that you might get during a run for this character. So the rituals are like the, they're the bread and butter of like what makes each run feel unique and how you get them. And sometimes you'll get a broken build where you get the right rituals that stack. And then that's when things kind of,

you know, it blows the doors off the game and stuff like that as well. Yeah, you get chain lightning or super powered throwables while your friend spawns you can an endless amount of throwable darts. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like this is this is where the game also really shines. There's a gazillion of we don't have time to get into all the different rituals.

But these are the boons. Like I said, they are awesome. They can be broken. Some of them can feel a little underwhelming. But that's like any game that's like this. You know, some are going to be better than others by nature. but if you stack enough of them, or again, if you get lucky

and you can combine a few of them, they can get real overpowered real quick. And that's where like you start to be like, okay, this run feels really special. Base I mentioned the one we had last night where, you know, I had a broken build. We still didn't win. No, no, we didn't.

Yeah, the game is not easy. Yeah, the game is not easy. This does not hold your hand. But even with that, it was like, you know, we still didn't beat the game, you know, with that. But man, was it a good time. So, all right, let's talk about combat real quick. Like just the actual feel of combat.

We're running low on time already. Time flies when you're having fun. But I want to try to give people an idea of how the combat works and why it is so satisfying. So, Ryan, can you take us through just general gameplay? You're in the world. You're walking around. Enemy show up. What is the combat like?

How would you describe that to somebody? Well, this game is primarily if you can't control or be. based. It plays really well on a controller, kind of old school style. I played on controller. Even if Josh, if Josh plays on a controller, I'd like controller games. I just also like mouse and whatever. Whatever. Uh, so, so, so it, like we said, side scrolling, you come into the world, there's these, uh, all different types of enemies that you come kind of run into. Really good enemy variety. I will say that too. There is a good, and, and then a different, also a different way like the enemies come at you. Like, there's enemies hiding up in trees.

and there's enemies hiding in packs of leaves or they just jump out from nowhere. You know, there's all different kinds of ways. You're right. And then you basically, you have your main attack, which is your kind of your standard square button or, you know, whatever for whatever, whatever control you're using. And then your bigger attack that you used to clash a lot with. So as you do that, you have your kind of main attack, main attack, you just punch, punch, punch and you got to just wear these down this is really attrition you got to uh beat these guys up

there are some special attacks like we talked about that you can use but it's mainly just go around smack the crap out of all of these characters on the screen uh do the best you can to see where you're at while you're doing so and then once you pass that kind of section you can move on to the next but it's mainly a lot of um dashes dash and dash and attack dash and jump defend, block, clad, you know, there's... Sprint and attack. Sprint and attack. And like you talk, Josh, about your pile driver.

Dude, I unlocked one today with Brome where he did that, but it was like a sideways, like, screw driver. Oh, yeah, the drill. The drill. So I would just like come from the side and burn and just drill through everything and then and then just explode, explode, and then run away. And then come back and do it again. and then just throw a bunch of orbs up in the air. And then the thing is, there's two of you doing that. And I can say this to everybody listening if you haven't, like, you haven't seen this game.

Like, it just is, it's chaos. The screen is absolute chaos during combat. But you start to develop this weird sense of understanding. You can, like, read the matrix. Like, you know where things are at and you read the code. And that's how you know where to put things and where to do things and what to do and like with what your build is how to do that so yeah the combat is i mean i we've got a lot hours in this game already we didn't we didn't start it very long ago we put a ton of time in

and i still feel like i've barely scratched the surface on on different builds and how to set this up oh yeah we've used the word clash a lot what is a clash ryan so so the cool thing it's almost kind of like uh i would say like a counter or or like a block attack to where when when these larger enemies especially come at you. You can use one of your skill sets to clash the enemy, which stun locks them. So then once they're stunlocked like that, you can attack them a lot more. And then, like we've talked about with your upgrades and your other things that you can unlock, like you can unlock like a thorn turret that's going to shoot turrets at them or a world win

that's going to pick the enemy up. There's so many ways to stack attacks and add to different things. when you do something like a clash, you know, you can, you can do even more damage from it. And you got to learn to clash. It will save your life if you can clash. Well, and, and then certain characters are very good at clashing, whereas others are not. So this plays back into the ability and the positives and the negatives for some characters as well. Yeah.

And so, you know, the thing is the game is based on combat. It's melee combat. and if you don't have a variety of techniques and gameplay and options, it's going to start to feel repetitive very quickly. But with the way the combat in this game is, it is insanely satisfying, dude. Like the combos that you were pulling off on these enemies, the juggling,

because you can knock them up in the air, and then you can juggle them in the air. And of course, you know, it has a combo counter. So it's showing you how good and you just keep going, man. You're like, oh. And then even when, like, when an enemy dies, it kind of turns into a shadow,

but then the game still lets you kind of juggle their shadow for a while. Yeah, and even though they're dead, you're just like juggling this corpse and you're pulling off these insane hits and stuff like that. So, like, you know, so there's the juggling. There's your arcana. There's your skills that you get.

There's your boons slash rituals that affect everything you do in the game. There's unlockable moves in a run that you get. There are boss fights that are very fun and good boss fights. There's mini bosses. There are multiple. maps, there are multiple secrets in every level where you might not see something right away but hidden behind some bushes is a cave entrance that you didn't know was there. Punch everything.

And now this is a whole new route. Yep. Everything. On the map, there's multiple different worlds, unlockable paths through each world, characters that send you on quests that change the maps occasionally. you know and that's not to say that when you beat the game the first run through it's not over now things change for the for the subsequent runs that are in here and things are different on that run which I thought was really cool there are a gazillion unique events that are happening so guys when we talk about a rogue like game and we talk about this progression and how do you keep people playing it over and over and over again I just check my play time I'm 18 hours into Absalom. And Ryan, you said it earlier.

I feel like I have scratched the surface. Like, while I have maxed out, like, the perk upgrades, and this isn't even talking about, like, the little tree where you just get some benefits for spending some, like, permanent unlocks where it's like, hey, you start every level with, like, 25 gold, or you get 10% more health or something like that. We are still finding secrets. We are still finding levels that we didn't see before.

We're fighting creatures. We had one where it's summoned a whole bunch of, like, new enemy types that were all of a sudden in that run. What are these? It was like, yeah, like, what the heck are these guys? Where did they come from? And now they're just in the game because we discovered them on a run. And so like, dude, Absalom masters what it takes to have a really fun rogue like with absolutely thrilling and engaging combat that is pure and simple fun to play that keeps you wanting to play more and keeps dangling that carrot in front of you like.

roguelike should, you know? I mean, it's like, this is just a master class in how you make a roguelike game. Yeah. This is the textbook definition of infinitely replayable. That is what it is. Because the gameplay is incredibly fun. At the same time, like,

I just want to beat things up, man. Like, Ryan and I had to run the other day where we didn't even make it to the first boss. But, you know, why? Because number one, we were just being stupid and we both picked the same class, which didn't work out very well. But at the same time, the game has this kind of varying difficulty curve where sometimes it will throw some really

difficult enemies at you on a certain level for no reason whatsoever, you know? Or like, A, so we had a run where we got like no healing. Oh my gosh. We can't heal because the game's not giving us anything to heal with. Like so it just every run feels unique. It feels incredible. It's insanely fun to play. The gameplay loop in Absalom is is, is, amazing. I mean, it is so much fun. It's really good. I want to say too, like, there's something to be said to about the way where, like, as you, as you play through this game, if you get a really good build, and you're like, why didn't I get further? Like, I need to try to get that again. And then if you get a really bad build, it's like, oh, that wasn't good. I got to try again and get a better

build. So like you're always searching for more and you still feel fulfilled like you're having fun and enjoying it, but you're always searching for that, that perfect thing that you'll never get. But it does. It leaves you always wanting more, which is exactly what a video game should do. Yeah, yeah, absolutely should. Yeah. Um, all right. So let's do this guys. We're running out of time here. We get, we still have to rate the game. Is there like, is there anything that doesn't work for you in this game? Like, I always like to say because it's like, hey, can talk positively, but, you know, most games always have some kind of negative to them as well that it's like, it's good to make people aware of. Is there something that you wish was better or didn't work for you in Absalom? I do kind of wish there was a more consistent way to heal. Like if there was like more options to take to heal, but I also get that's part of this challenge to get there with taking as few hits as possible, healing from the random drops you get, things like that. But like, Hades 2, the only reason I get as far as I do is because sometimes I can heal. Yeah.

Yeah. This reminds me of night rain in a way where it's like, hey, don't take too much damage, right? You can't use, we don't want to use one of our ress before we get to like the boss in this case. And Absalom is very similar in that case where it is very stingy with the healing items. And you can come across like little campfires where you can heal like 30% of your life. But if you were playing carelessly and you were taking a lot of damage, you will pay the price for that. Like you will not have a good run. So there is that kind of risk reward there as well.

sometimes it's frustrating, but I kind of think it's also what makes the stakes. Exactly. Like so high reward as well. Yeah. Little guys can mess you up. Yeah. Oh yeah. Trash guys. If you're not paying attention,

yeah. And then you're like, bro, that guy took a third of my health and now I can't get it back easily enough. Yeah, you're going down in a small section like the elevator down the mine shaft. And it's not a very long part, but then you just get wrecked and you're half life now. And you're like, dude, what the frick just happened, man? Now I've got to get through all this time and then let's say I don't get hit again. And then I only get 30% health boosts. And then I'm still not full health and I got to go fight a boss.

You know, so yeah, that's, oh. It ups the stakes though. I get what you're saying is. But at the same time, I do think that's part of the sauce, you know, of what makes. I think for me, the biggest thing. And again, this could just be, you know, I want more, right? is that like I have maxed out the tree. The tree is where you get these kind of like permanent perks, right?

Like I mentioned like, hey, start a run with 25 gold. You have 10 more health. Revive it. You know, you can get mounts in the game where your mounts do more damage. They're minor, they're little, but I've unlocked everything. And so there's a part where I'm like, guys, man, I really wish I had more to like chase at this point.

I've unlocked all the skills. I've unlocked all of the rituals. You know, we didn't talk about the fact that there's unlockable rituals that like as you play, you'll unlock new elements that now show up in future runs. And it's like, so I feel like I've kind of unlocked everything at this point. And it's like, you know, in 18 hours, I just, I want to chase that carrot more. And I feel like I've kind of gotten the carrot. So at this point, it's just for fun, which is okay.

Like, this game is insanely fun. But I wish that the progression, like chasing that was still there a little bit for me. I totally like that. quadrupled what it would take to unlock the next section. You know, it would give you something to work towards. Yeah, you could slow me down, right? But give me something to go like, oh, I can't wait till I can unlock this, you know, and do it like that.

Ryan, is there anything for you that stands out as like a negative or you wish it had kind of thing? I mean, aside from what you guys said, I would like maybe, maybe the map to be like a little bit bigger as far as on screen. because there are points where you just you just legit cannot especially with two player you cannot see what's going on it's kind of zoomed in what you mean is the actual play yeah the actual playable map like when you're on

screen like maybe if it was just a little bit bigger they give you a little more working room to where you could see because especially with I mean and they're brilliant it's part of what makes the game what it is is the explosions and the colors and the all the effects but they also kind of prohibits your vision so you don't even know where the heck you're at.

So it makes it a little difficult. So if I had a little more ability to kind of see where I'm at and see where the guys are that I'm fighting, might be nice. But man, we're really nitpicking, you know, here trying to find something. Ace and I were talking about this earlier where it's like this is, you know, some people would say negative is like, I wish it was three player co-op, you know? I mean, us, right? Like, we could not, the three of us play together because it's only a max of two. people, but at the same time, it's like, dude, if this was three-player co-op, I don't think you'd be able to see a thing, like, I could find myself.

Honestly, yeah, so it's like, I wish it had that, but then when I take a step back and I go, no, it's a really good idea. It doesn't have three-player co-op because it would not work at that point either. You just wouldn't see a thing, man. It's kind of interesting with this game. We go, I wish it had this, but then when we think about it was like, well, no, because then this doesn't work. Yeah. Or it would affect this. Yeah, it's very well put together. For me, more progression is the thing where I don't see a negative to that necessarily unless it's like a balancing issue but that's the one where I'm like I think they could have pulled off just more options. Yeah, no, I agree with you there.

Without hurting the game. And that's where they fix that by like with the balancing like if, you know, they'd slow you're slow you down like crazy. I don't, I don't often say this and I can't believe I'm saying it right now, but like give me that DLC. I was saying, yeah. Give me, give me that fifth character. Give me, give me new skills to chase. Like, I'm in. I'm in, baby.

Yeah. Because that would that that's really all I want. Let me play as the Sun King. You know, yeah, to play more. So all right, guys. Let's rate the game. Ryan, where are you out with Absalom? What's your rating on this?

Got to put me first. This one, I've got, I don't have as much hours as you. I probably missed that first day or two, which is why I probably only have 13, 14. But with what I've got in, I absolutely fell in love with this game. I want to play more. I even told you guys before. I'm like, are you sure you guys want to record this now?

Like we can wait. Ryan's word because we're recording this, it means we're done with the game. And I was like, no, dude, I know you. Don't even. I know. There's so many games that I have not been done with. And you record it and you're like, yep, well, we're done with that one. And you move on.

I'm leaving this one installed, buddy. All right. I'm leaving this one installed. That's good to know. So I'm happy with that. For me, this game was, this was just another crazy surprise of indie talent and what we can get out of these developers. I absolutely loved it.

It was a throwback. Like we said, Golden Axe, Battle Toads, all these games. It was just a blast. That's all you can say. It was a fun, enjoyable time,

and I'm going to give it a 9.2. Oh, that's low. It was way up there for me. I am hooked. I am a junkie right now. I've been doing solo runs. We even didn't even talk about it, by the way.

I don't know if you guys tried it, but I did matchmaking. and I played with randoms. Oh. So I don't know if you guys tried. I didn't try that. Because I wanted to see what it was like. One, randoms are the biggest loot monsters in the world.

Bigger than Ace, which is saying something. Oh, that is saying something. They, I just, I always, every time you go to something and you can unlock the choices, I just stand back and they go to the best one right away. They'll grab all the gold. They'll have like 500 gold and I'll have like 83, you know, but there is an option to just play co-op with people. people too. Like, there's,

there's just a lot there. I think it's a really, really good game. There's a reason why it's, it's nominated. So I loved it. I am an absolute sucker for a wonderful roguelike, and there have not been a shortage of those this year.

And Absalom just stands on its own as the first of its kind as a beat-em-up roguelike, at least a successful beat-em-up roglike, I should say. There is absolutely a reason it is in the game of the year, or the indie game of the year nominations. I'm just, it might be, I might be too willy-nilly with them, but this is a 10-9-10 game for me, man. This is absolutely a 10-0-10-of-game for me.

Okay. I will come back for DLC. I will come back for updates. Like, I want to play Absalom all the time. I'm going to put you to the test, Ace. Absalom or Abysus? Oh, man. Abysus is hard to say no to just because all four of us,

or like four people could play that at the same time. And that's really appealing. Are you going to get Absalom's tattoo? I honestly, that's not a bad idea. Oh, no, what I do. I would totally do that. This tattoo artist reached out to Ryan and said, like, hey, can you? I think for longevity, Abysus, but Absalom is an absolute must.

And I mean, Abyst is not a 10 out of 10 just because of some issues I have with it. But Absalom is just so much better paste. Yeah. Yeah. A lot more carrot on stick. Yeah, that's true. All right. So for me, I mean, I'm, goodness gracious, guys, I feel like we're throwing these out like candy lately, man.

I know, but it's a good year, dude. It's a really good year. I mean, we just did 9-5 on dispatch. And look, I know there's listeners out there. They're like, you guys are getting soft, man. Like, you guys are just rating games really high. But it's like, there's just a really good quality games lately, man. Like, you feel something when you play them. I'm going to give this a 9.0. I, I, and that is, look, that is not to say, like, this ain't a good game. Like, that is incredible. I love the gameplay. It is the most fun I have had, and I have not played a beat-em-up game in quite some time. For my OG people, this is a mix of Golden Axe meets Double Dragon meets Streets of Rage.

It is the most perfect modern blend of those three games. So for our older OG gamers that grew up with those kind of games, this is it. Absalom is the game that we have been waiting. for it and like bring the genre back and remind us why we freaking love to these games in the first place it keeps you playing i wish it had more content or more progression and the progression it has is bloody fantastic like i'm not slandering it at all i want more i want more reason to continue to play other than just the thrill of the combat which is enough to keep me playing

you know what i mean like i'm not saying this is not a slander to the game but i like i i I want more of it, man. Like, give me the DLC. Like, give me new maps, new character to play. Like, more skills. Like, I'll buy it in a heartbeat, man. That's how good this game actually is. I 100% support that this game got nominated for the indie game.

Oh, absolutely. It's not going to win. It's not going to win. But if you have not heard of Absalom or you've heard the name and you're going, what is this game? The three of us are telling you right now, this game is worth the 24, 99. That's so cheap, man.

Oh, it's so good, dude. This caliber of game and the amount of fun that you can have with it. It's a no-brainer at this point, man. You will feel so much joy playing Absalom, seeing those numbers go up, getting those combos, getting enemies just knocked off of the screen entirely because you suplexed them. And like you said, Josh, too, for like the older, older listeners that would know goldnecks.

And like, I said it too immediately. And you agreed, like, uh, when we started playing. It looked like old school like sort in the stone graphics, like the art style. The visual style is incredible. It's, it's so good. It feels old school, but it plays new school. Also, the music and sound effects are top much. Yeah.

That music. That music. Yeah. So, you know, this is an absolute must play, in my opinion. It sounds like all three of us are agreeing on that. The one thing I want to touch on real quick, and I know what's at the end, is that, you know, there are a lot of solo players out there. I think this game plays fantastic solo.

So for somebody that's like, yeah, but I don't want a random matchmake and I don't have a buddy to play with, I have done some solo runs. They are a ton of fun. The combat still shines. The progression still shines. I am of the mindset that any time you can play with a buddy,

it's probably going to be a little bit more enjoyable. But I think solo Absalom is still a fantastic experience for people that might be on the fence about that part of it as well. So check this game out, guys. For 2499, again, year of the Indies, Absalom coming in hot, dude. This is, I did not expect to like this game as much as I did, dude. I mean, either, man.

Like, I was curious about it. Like, I think a lot of listeners are. And then we started playing it. And once again, dude, it was like, the, holy crap. This game's way better than I thought it was going to be. We have, we've been having a lot of those. I feel like they keep saying that. Yeah.

Like, it really is, man. Are we getting soft guys? Are games really just this good right now? I think games are just really good right now, dude. Yeah, I think so too, man. There's no light without the dark. So next year, guys... Oh, yeah, next year's a dumpster fire.

But we'll see. All right. All right, listen, we went way too long on this one. Play Absalom people. Pick it up. It is worth it. Support these developers. Support this game.

We want more of this. Incredible entry into the rogue-like genre. I mean, a ton of fun, guys. A ton of fun to play this. I want to play more. So that's going to do it for this episode, everybody. Thanks for hanging out. with us. Hey, quick reminders, rate the show five stars, write us a review, join our Discord.

And if you want to be amazing and awesome, you can support this podcast. There's a link in the episode description to sign up on Patreon. We'll give you a shout out. You get a ton of awesome perks like pre-show content, post-show content, a shout out on the show and things like that as well. So thanks for hanging out, everybody. We love you. We'll see you soon. Until next time, happy gaming. Josh, Resby. Res me. Res me. You're down again, Ryan?

You down again, dude. See ya. You punk, you stole my cheese. Peace out.