Absolver is one of the top games of the year. While its level design can use some work, its combat system should be studied and worshiped by anyone trying to make a fighting game.

Absolver feels like a (difficult, sometimes frustrating) step into a larger world, and if you can hang with it, it'll leave you hungry for more.

Combining unique and rewarding combat with the freedom to explore its beautiful areas in any order you see fit, Absolver is one of the best adventures of the year.

Sloclap has delivered one of the best indie games of this 2017. Although it lacks a deep and more interesnting story, it has unique combat and gameplay mechanics that are rewarded with a great progression. An amazing journey and a stunning game.

Whatever gets added in the future, though, I hope that Absolver doesn’t lose its sense of focus. If the game had tried too much — if it had thrown me into more complicated duels, or forced me to use weapons more often — I don’t think I would have found it nearly as appealing. Instead, Absolver recognizes its singular goal of building a robust, satisfying martial arts combat system. It leans into those strengths, and it’s a better game for it.

Combining gorgeous if deceptively simple graphics with an innovative approach to combat, Absolver is a welcome breath of fresh air to the sometimes predictable fighting game genre.

Absolver is a game that rewards players with a unique Kung-Fu fighter to master.

Absolver isn’t for everyone. Fighting game fans will likely get loads of mileage out of building their own Combat Decks. But until Sloclap releases new content, the only endgame here is in PvP duels, which some players may find off putting. For anyone with even a slight interest in kung fu or martial arts movies, give Absolver a shot. It just might hook you.

The world of Adol keeps you at arm's length, but the intricate and clever fighting will pull you right in. [Issue#266, p.56]

Absolver has a few problems, then, yet they're not impactful enough to take away from its unique strengths. There's a significant challenge involved in learning Absolver's combat intricacies, but it's the kind of struggle that rarely frustrates. Defeat is part and parcel of the experience, but your demise always teaches you something new that you can take with you into the next battle--and Absolver's deep, nuanced combat always finds ways of enticing you back for one more fight.

The endgame is all about becoming an Absolver, donning a cloak to signify your status as a person who’s finished the campaign. After you’ve beaten enough players, you can create your own fighting school and recruit newbies, sparring with them and letting them absorb your moves. It’s a clever idea, and it’s thematically consistent because it’s quite the grind to unlock your own school. By the time you do, every parry will be a reflex. You won’t be kicking people off a cliff for some bandages, you’ll be doing it simply because you can.

Absolver offers a new approach to the martial arts simulation. It's not easy to start to play, but it can pay off in the long distance.

Absolver’s is hyper-focused on its fighting system, and the work Sloclap did there pays off. Its combination of cool systems, like learning fighting moves from enemies and player mentors, creating your own combos, and carefully and strategically using them during fights, makes every battle feel intense and important, especially in multiplayer scenarios. While everything else surrounding that system feels a bit anemic by comparison, the mix of great ideas Absolver brings to its core concept carries the rest, and should inspire plenty of other fighting and action games.

A highly-entertaining brawler. The visuals are stunning, the ambience a perfect fit for a world of martial arts, and the incredibly deep fighting system is fun to experiment with, making the game accessible for both seasoned veterans and button-mashing newcomers to fighting games, with unique features that allow any of those players to hone their craft. Overall, it’s one of the year’s most unique and enjoyable fighting games, and one worth checking out.

Absolver is a combat game with great fighting mechanics but it lacks some accessibility and tutorials.

A great customizable fighting system and a cooperative spirit fill the empty spaces in a bleak open world.

Different and satisfying fighting game with a swallow campaign but some entertaining online options. It could be prettier, but it's a good start for this new IP.

Absolver is a beautiful martial-arts fighting game that allows for an impressive degree of personalized play with its innovative combat deck system, which lets you learn skills from combat with other players and NPCs. Unfortunately, it only comes with a single PvP arena mode at launch, and its fascinatingly nebulous campaign breaks off early and abruptly. It feels like an early access game with a ton of potential, but it’s not quite there yet.

There's a clear vision that shines throughout the game. Its combat system encourages a granular knowledge of the different moves and potential combos that stem from each directional stance. But while the appeal will be apparent to the competitive-minded player, Absolver's pointed focus is complex enough to turn others away. The journey from lowly Prospect to Absolver is arduous and challenging, but it's hardly inviting.

Absolver is innovative and original, easy to play and hard to master. It lacks content for the single player mode, and it still has a long way to go to reach excellence, but it's already worth your time.

Absolver is a unique fighting game, with its own style and direction. The depths of the gameplay sometimes struggles with the confused brawls on screen.

Absolver is a revolution in fighting games, adding role elements and a combat system based on Martial Arts.

Absolver features one of the best fighting systems to be found in gaming. In addition to this, it looks and plays fantastically. However, it's let down by a few balancing issues, some glaring design problems caused by the unpredictable multiplayer feature. The end-game, however, could make for one of the best multiplayer experiences the year has to offer.

Absolver offers a truly unique take on the combat genre, with a peculiar mix between single and multiplayer. Technically solid and visually inspired, it suffers from a sometimes confused level design and the absence of a real, high-level endgame.

Absolver still offers too little long-term motivation, but the combat system and the exciting multiplayer dynamics show potential.

Absolver spends so much time honing the development of its fascinating, ambitious combat system that it leaves a shallow narrative structure in its foundation. An ever-evolving gameplay mechanic cannot carry a game's excellence on its own merit, and unfortunately, there is little draw to the world of Adal than the encounters within it.

Absolver is a great combat game, and a fantastic blend of genres. It’s just sad that the PVE side of things is so short, because I’d really have enjoyed the game if there was more of an adventure to play through. Still, if you’re an old pro and fan of fighting games then Absolver may very well be worth the buy. It’s unique blend of ARPG and traditional kung-fu mastering is a whole lot of fun.

Absolver is not for everyone. If you’re expecting a more traditional single-player RPG experience, this probably isn’t what you’re looking for. Much like the path of aspiring martial artists, Absolver is a trip through mastering one’s self. Expand your moveset and learn a playstyle that fits you. There’s not a lot of content and I feel that it launched prematurely. Sloclap still has a lot of plans to add more modes and features in the next few months. The lasting legacy of Absolver will undoubtedly be its amazing combat system.

Absolver’s fighting mechanic is one of the best to come along in years. While the rest of the game can be a little too hit and miss for its own good, this is still a wonderful achievement.

By combining a unique method of connecting players, complex character creation and development, and solid combat mechanics, Absolver delivers something that no traditional fighting games can offer. What it lacks is variety. [11/2017, p.45]

Absolver comes extremely close to being an amazing game with its deep 1v1 melee combat and unpredictable player encounters, but where it falters is in, well, nearly everything else. The world feels lifeless. When more than one fighter joins a battle, battling becomes frustrating and clunky. There's a lot of potential with Absolver. But unfortunately, it's not 100 percent of the way there yet.

Absolver has a very fresh concept that combines fighting game and GDR mechanics. The result is quite good: the combat system is one of the most customizable we've ever seen and the beautiful world of Adal is a pleasure for the eyes. Unfortunately the lack of a map and the devious level design dilute the experience and the main quest is only a pretext to introduce the player to the PVP.

Absolver is a very specific game with it's own stengths and weaknesses. The universe and the gameplay are truly awesome but its lacks some accessibility and some tutorial on how to use such a complex system.

With slow and powerful fighting mechanics, Absolver is a great game representing its genre.

Sloclap’s first foray shows glimmers of brilliance in the combat and the somewhat intriguing aesthetic of masked martial artists going at it in strange lands. Even so, Absolver feels like a collection of little pieces from something larger that just never happens. It’s as if someone has set the table for a fascinating three-course meal and the appetizer is the only thing that ever comes out of the kitchen – and by the time you take your first bite, you’re being ushered out the door.

Absolver is an intriguing but painfully boring fighting game that repeats the mistakes of No Man's Sky.

Like Doctor Foster's puddle, Absolver packs a surprising amount of depth into a small space. [Nov 2017, p.72]

If the developers had packed their unusual fighting system in a linear adventure instead of half-baked openworld, it would’ve been a win-win situation for everyone. [Issue#224, p.57]

Absolver is a great and interesting game as a whole, but the biggest part of the game, actually playing it, is both frustrating and unbalanced. The combat works and is very customizable, the pacing and level progression is nice, and the world is interesting and looks great, but in the end, it has all these great things about it, and I honestly don’t feel like playing it due to the fights turning into frustrating encounters. Now, that’s not to say everyone is going to feel that way and I’m sure there’s going to be at least one person saying I’m playing the game wrong, and I may very well be doing that, but in my time with it, I have given it my best shot and found it to be a great game in many ways that I just don’t want to play.

No tutorial I could find. Graphics reminded me of World of Warcraft, or Far Cry. The first Far Cry. All of the equipment power-ups are just +1 to this, +1 to that. It's like WoW with all the fun taken out. As for the fighting, it seems to be just furiously clicking and a bit of dodging. They've been making great martial arts games for years. Why change the process to something weird and less enjoyable? I did like how you learn new attacks by beating enemies who use them. But that was the only real positive for me.

If you’re looking for crazy flashy combos and special moves, Absolver isn’t the title for you. Good times are few and far in between, because of repetitious fights and long periods of grinding out moves and experience. Glitches are also numerous, although Sloclap is aware of these problems and is releasing patches to help eliminate them, while also adding new features. While a fighting game, Absolver is a far cry from the likes of Street Fighter, TEKKEN, or Injustice.