There are plenty of reasons for gamers to keep an eye on Absolver, and its late summer release date should allow the game to stand out from the crowd ahead of the busier fall schedule. The game has a lot more complexity and depth than first impressions might suggest, as its creative lead Pierre Tarno detailed at PlayStation Experience in December 2016.
“The core gameplay of Absolver is accessible and doesn’t require high levels of dexterity to be played, but players will be challenged on other skills,” wrote Tarno in a post on the PlayStation Blog that was published earlier today. “Timing, reflexes, observation, and memory will all be put to the test, and with the interplay of all the different mechanics above, there is enough depth to make all fights unique.”
On the surface, Absolver takes plenty of cues from the beat ’em up genre, but those influences are tempered with systems inspired by role-playing games. Fighters will gain access to new techniques by accruing experience points, or by learning them from other players.
In Absolver, the people you meet in the game world could be computer-controlled bots or real human players, in a mechanic that’s not too dissimilar to summons in Dark Souls. Fellow humans might be friendly enough to present you with a new move — or they might beat you up and leave you in the dirt.
Its developer, Sloclap, is comprised of employees who formerly worked at Ubisoft Paris. Team members were working on projects including Ghost Recon: Wildlands and Watch Dogs before they left the company to form their own independent studio.
Absolver is scheduled to deliver its own bone-crunching brand of combat on PlayStation 4 and PC, with the former set to receive exclusive content. An Xbox One version of the game is in development, but will be released at a later date.
