[b]absolute[/b] is a 1st-person escape room puzzler, wasd-controlled, not point & click. wander around rooms, interact with items, pick some up, use them elsewhere, and eventually escape the current location.
unfortunately, there aren't many positives I can mention. despite the minimum requirements on the store page, [b]it runs on windows 7 and very outdated hardware[/b]. it uses the unreal engine and actually performs better than some 2d point & clicks I had the 'pleasure' of playing, and it definitely should, because the [b]presentation is seriously lacking[/b]. very basic and low quality textures, everything's very shiny, and [b]the audio is beyond annoying[/b]. there's no music, but footsteps don't sound like footsteps at all, they're really grating, and some effects are much louder than others. and while there are plenty of ways to tweak the graphics, there are [b]no audio settings, let alone volume sliders[/b].
[b]controls aren't great either.[/b] wasd works fine, mouse to look around, left button to interact, 'q' for inventory, but sometimes the interact/take prompts appear where they shouldn't and don't appear where they should, item hitboxes are all over the place. bringing up the inventory is only necessary to check what items you currently have, as nothing can be used directly from there. however, if you click on anything and close the window, you'll have to click again before getting back mouse controls. buggy.
[b]items are mostly used automatically[/b], so if you have a keycard on you, click the card reader to open a door. not too bad, and once an item served its purpose, it disappears, and if it's something in the room, it can't be interacted with again either, but this automatic thing threw me off a bit. there's a glass orb at the beginning and I was trying for the longest time to break it with the crowbar I'd just found, but only a hammer worked from a few rooms later. I was also trying to use the flashlight before entering a dark room (no brightness settings, of course), but it's used by pressing 'f', and the prompt for it only comes up when you're in the middle of darkness, not when the item is picked up.
[b]5 untimed levels[/b] to go through, nothing's chasing you either, but there is [b]no mid-level saving[/b]. I don't think any of them take more than 20 minutes or so, but I stopped towards the end of level 3. couldn't figure out how to proceed, but at that point I didn't care, the walking sounds were really getting on my nerves, and without saving I wasn't going to re-do the whole thing again. I doubt the final two levels bring any change in quality, nor a satisfying conclusion. it's [b]really not worth playing[/b], very uninspired and dull.
