Abscond, verb, to exit a place in a wee bit of a rush. Absconder feels a lot like Hotline Miami and Super Hexagon in that it’s really hard to convey how ‘in the moment’ it is, and that you simply need to learn through exposure.
Absconder puts you in the role of an escaping convict from the exact moment they spot the chance to escape. That means there’s no planning, just an immediate bolt for the exit — even though you won’t know where the exit is. The good news is that the map is set in stone, so while you’re being actively chased down by dogs or guards, you do get to take the chance to take in the level, and when you’re caught you also get a look at the floorplan, with your failed route painted across it.
Despite that, there’s an incredible sense of urgency that’s only heightened further by the intense music that plays as you run. If you can actively slow yourself down — something I struggled to do — then you can educate yourself on the map… however everything about Absconder tells you to run faster and faster.
It’s not just running that you’ll be doing though, you’ll need to hold an action button in order to squeeze through spaces, jump obstacles or block the path behind you. Juggle that with a dash move, and the option to look in a different direction (because you only have a limited vision cone) than the one that you’re running in, and you’re fully equipped to escape from your captors. Whether you can do that, though, is down entirely to whether you can memorise your path and adjust your route on the fly.
Arguably, Absconder is going to be a great title for speedrunners, and not only because of the short nature of each of the levels, but also because of the masocore-style gameplay loop. There’s a promise of a hidden story that runs in the background through the levels, however I didn’t find any of this during my time playing the demo of it while at Devcom earlier in the year.
Absconder is in development for Windows PC, you can Wishlist it on Steam
