Beat ‘em ups are somewhat of a forgotten genre. There have been plenty of extensions of them into 3D gameplay–which if you look at Steam’s page for them, includes titles like Batman: Arkham Asylum and Hifi Rush–but rarely does side-scrolling co-op in the same vein as something like Streets of Rage pop up. That is, until Absolum, which was released last year to great reception. It does indeed feature a delightfully frenetic and tactile take on traditional beat ‘em up gameplay, but makes it all the better with a roguelite twist, and a gorgeous illustrated art-style. Not to mention, the writing, story, and vocal performances that almost landed the game a spot on our top 10 games of the year list for 2025. Similarly, it managed to snag nomination for best Indie game at the 2025 Game Awards, and though it lost to Clair Obscur, it seems the developers have taken it on the chin and continued on. Just couple of days ago on the 27th, joint developers Dotemu, Guard Crush Games, and Supamonks announced that Absolum has reached over 500,000 players.
In celebration of community support for the game, according to the developers, the Threads of Fate content update they promised for Q1 of 2026 is confirmed to release on February 12th. The new and first update for Absolum is set to spice up the post-game by adding a couple of new challenges to take on and new skins to grind. As covered on the dev’s teaser post, the main piece of content will be the Mystic Ordeals, which look to act as optional modifiers you can slap on a run to earn rewards or simply make the game harder for yourself. Additionally, the map will now randomly contain Corrupted Regions that feature buffed up foes and better loot. You can, if it pleases you, also force the entire map to be like this with Mystic Ordeals. The mounts that are in the game–rideable dinosaurs, hogs, dragons and the like–will get an elite variant that has upgraded attacks. Lastly, there will be new voiced emotes and skin variants unlockable by “challenges,” though they haven’t specified what those are yet.