I’ll be honest with you: I am not one of those people who wakes up and immediately opens a puzzle game. Wordle was fun for a while, but I didn’t exactly stick with it. Then a friend sent me a link to something called “Absurdle,” and I figured, why not? How hard could it be?
Spoiler alert: very hard.
Absurdle looks simple enough at first glance. You type in a five-letter word, and you get hints in the form of colored squares. Green for correct letters, yellow for misplaced ones, gray for letters that don’t belong. Easy, right? Except it’s not. Because unlike Wordle, where the word is fixed from the start, Absurdle changes the word behind the curtain depending on your guesses. It’s like playing hide-and-seek with a cheater who keeps changing hiding spots.
The first time I played, I thought I was losing my mind. I kept making logical guesses, but the game never seemed to narrow down. I’d get one green letter, then suddenly lose it again because the game had decided to commit to a different word. At one point, I thought maybe it was broken. Then I learned that this is exactly the point: the game doesn’t want you to win easily.
Here’s the thing: I both love and hate it. It’s frustrating in a way that makes you want to throw your keyboard across the room, but it’s also deeply satisfying when you finally pin the game into a corner. Every win feels earned, like you actually forced the game to admit defeat. It’s more than just guessing words-it’s about outsmarting something that is actively trying to mess with you.
Absurdle is unique because it has an attitude. Regular Wordle is like a friendly puzzle. Absurdle is like a grumpy professor who makes exams deliberately hard just to prove a point. Not everyone will like that, but if you’re in the mood for a mental duel rather than a cozy pastime, this is the game for you.
Would I recommend it? Surprisingly, yes. Even if you’re not a huge word game fan, you should give it a try just for the experience. It may make you curse out loud, but when you finally win, you’ll feel smarter than you actually are. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll go back for more punishment. I know I did.
