Absolver takes Journey's multiplayer, adds martial arts
Absolver's multiplayer gameplay lets you stumble across other players who might help or hinder you.
Absolver takes Journey's multiplayer, adds martial arts
Absolver's E3 reveal offered a great deal to players, including martial arts combat, PVE and PVP arenas, and a gorgeous art style. But it's the multiplayer gameplay itself should interest fans, simply because it's not embracing MMO mechanics. The experience is far closer to Journey - players explore the game world on their own adventure, and stumble across other warriors who could help you, hinder you, or actively challenge you.
The game takes place among the ruins of a fallen empire, where civilization has been replaced by an order of fighters called the Absolvers. Players are prospects attempting to complete a series of trials granting them full membership to the Absolvers, while slowly learning what exactly happened to the society that built these ruins. Eventually, you'll build up a small but trusted group of companions who can complete quests or enter the game's PVP challenges.
"It’s not an MMO. You’ll never have 50 people running around in every direction," creative lead Pierre Tarno explained. "We try to keep things intimate, so it’s very much about the relationship you’ll be meeting with other people."
This is a principle shared with Journey, where the multiplayer experience was rooted equally in emotions and gameplay. While Absolver will take a stronger combat approach than Journey, it does use a gesture system for communicating with other players. Combined with a rich martial arts combat system, this should go a long way towards immersing you in the world while feeling attachments to multiplayer partners - or anger to someone who challenges you.
Absolver will launch for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2017.
Be sure to check out our E3 2016 hub for all the news, videos, screenshots, interviews and much more, live and direct for this year's show.