2025 Gift Guide For Gamers: ‘Absolum’

Welcome to the table,

It’s one of my favorite times of the year! Those brilliant dark days of winter when the world gets a little quieter, the nights get a little longer, and I can lurk about my library like some holiday lich remembering all the fun TTRPG things I am thankful have brought me comfort and joy over the dark days of this past year.

This is also an opportunity for me to call out some of the coolest stuff I have found for you, my dear readers, so you can possibly add these offerings to your gift lists, allowing you to serve as the true lords of yule in raw defiance of the holly jolly crimson-clad elven king whom I hate with a burning passion!

It has been a very trying year for me. I had a publisher I work with rug-pull on me and disrupt three years of work, resulting in no pay for various creative projects and a general feeling that I lost people who I thought were my friends, but who clearly did not feel the same way about me. It was incredibly difficult and put me in a powerful sadness spiral that has made it more difficult for me to bounce back than I had ever thought possible.

In trying to bounce back, it seems to be taking me longer than normal to create what I am accustomed to, and that has eroded my free time to the point that I have once more not played video games outside of assignments for another year.

That is, until a few weeks ago, when, in a fit of frustration, I downloaded Absolum on my PlayStation 5 and started playing it, and I can tell you firsthand that I feel like my life has improved because of it.

Let’s get into it. 

Absolum, a game developed by Supamonks, Guard Crush, and Dotemu, is an epic side-scrolling beat’em up game that feels somewhere between Super Ghouls & Ghosts and Elden Ring, done in the style of a Hellboy comic. The game kicks off with two different player characters, with two more you can unlock, and can be played solo or as a two-player co-op game.

The world of Talamh is a really fun fantasy landscape to explore. It’s been disrupted by a magical cataclysm caused by ambitious wizards, leaving magic as something that is seen by the majority of the human population you encounter as taboo and something to fear.

This shows up in a lot of dialogue with Galandra, one of the four main playable characters, showcasing a lot of emotional depth in her overarching story as you progress through the game.

While everyone is busy worrying over magic, the main antagonist, the Sun King Azra, sets about enslaving wizards through his totalitarian Crimson Order and placing his loyal princes in key positions to rule over the conquered realms.

As Azra’s forces claim more and more lands, the high enchantress Uchawi, your benefactor through these adventures, and a small group of rebels rise from the shadows, wielding forbidden magic to challenge his oppressive regime and defy his absolute magic power.

In addition to the really fun narrative, Absolum really comes through in the varied ways to enjoy combat as well. There are a ton of different items to find as you explore that give you unique bonuses. What’s cool about those items is that when you die and are resurrected to start your next run, the items live in your Treasure Vaults, where you can purchase them from the start of your run if you don’t want to take the chance of them not showing up on your next run.

Each of the four player characters also has their own skills they can unlock, and these shift about the way you handle combat as you progress. I really enjoy playing as Galandra and using her Necrotic Wave, but there is a really cool whirlwind attack that works better in the caves than it does on the beach, so keeping that in mind is fun for me when I am picking how I want to progress on the run I am on.

The branching pathways give a lot of freshness to the multiple run-throughs you need to do to go through the game, giving some really fun challenges, bosses, and even unique quests as you go.

What I really love about Absolum more than anything, though, is that it feels so unique and inspired. Nothing feels recycled or overused, even if you play it over and over again to level up and learn how best to combat bosses, even when I forgot to level up for 9 hours of gameplay, it remained fun.

Absolum has such a low barrier to entry. It feels like Mega Man or Super Mario World. You can just pick it up and start playing. You don’t need to know anything. You don’t need to “get good,” you just need to play it, and from there, you choose your level of engagement and if you want to keep trying.

As someone who ponders creative projects while playing games, but feels guilty for playing them because I feel like I always need to be productive, or I am an awful person, I find something that is a pick-up-and-play game that I can decide how much time I want to put into, really gives me the permission to play just to enjoy the experience without a lot of the guilt attached to it.

I really think anyone who digs fantasy and solid storytelling, in addition to needing something they can run with quickly and go off and do other things with, is going to thoroughly enjoy this game from start to finish to start to finish, to start to finish, again, and again, and again.

Until next time, you can grab a copy for PS5, PS4, Steam, and Switch right now, so go have yourself some fun, and if you have a chance, be kinder to yourself than I have been to me. Don’t let other adults bully you and make you feel bad or take advantage of you. You deserve respect and kindness, and if someone is not showing you that, it’s okay to roll away. Now go have the day you deserve.