Oh, to be a fly on the wall at Guard Crush Games as it was applying the finishing touches to Absolum and out of nowhere came Hades 2's release date. Here, after all, is a run-based game in which the player battles through challenging environments filled with fantastical enemies, choosing between otherworldly boons to enhance physical attributes and magical powers – and, when they inevitably fall, spending the resources they've banked to boost their chances of success on the next attempt. It augments its thumpingly intense action with rich, characterful comic-book art and a driving, high-tempo audio score. And at the end of your journey, you face an enemy who can control the flow of time.
So yes, there are a few familiar ingredients here. But Absolum stands apart from the crop of Hades-likes that arrived in the wake of Supergiant's original, not to mention its successor. The idea of combining a classic scrolling beat 'em up with Roguelite elements isn't without precedent: in this case, it spawned from the survival mode in the Mr. X Nightmare DLC for Streets of Rage 4. Joining forces again, Dotemu and Guard Crush (with animation house Supamonks) have built smartly upon the foundations of that already captivating add-on.
