Dolmen Preview

Dolmen is a game that I’ve been aware of for a while now. Having watched over a gameplay video of this sci-fi soulslike title, it has been one I’ve casually kept tabs on over the years. Now I have the privilege to get some hands-on experience with the game and let me tell you, this took great pleasure in kicking my ass.

So we're set in a universe where our scientific boffins have managed to push humanity to a point where several planets have been colonised. Of course, big greedy corporations have taken advantage of this and fight for control over the resources. Held within the confines of Revion Prime are Dolmen crystals, which have the power to interact between dimensions and completely revolutionise space travel. As everything has descended into chaos, you’re tasked with heading planetside to recover the crystals and make it out alive.

The team over at Massive Work Studio has done an amazing job on the visuals here. The player and weapon models looked suitably dangerous, giving you that feeling of being a badass. The environments — oozing with atmosphere — could not help but feed the fear senses as death could be lurking around every single corner. The enemies are suitably varied and vicious, from creepy spider-like beasties to blade wielding bastards, every adversary looks threatening in some way. Then once you encounter a boss, everything gets cranked up to 11.

Each adversary you vanquish gives you a chunk of “Nanites”, your currency for the game. Should you die and not recover your dropped stash before dying again, then you can kiss that pile of “Nanites” goodbye. In addition to these “Nanites” you may also come across “Dolmen Fragments”, which allow you to summon up to three other companions for a spot of jolly cooperation. The co-op aspect of Dolmen is limited to boss encounters only, but you can also use the fragments to respawn previously defeated bosses for some farming action.

If things are getting a bit too tough for you, then you can increase your character's potential by levelling its stats to tailor your build to your own playstyle. However, unlike most soulslike games, you can’t put “Nanites” into your stats at any of the game's bonfire-esque nodes, as these act purely as checkpoints should you die, or your way to teleport back to your ship to use said currency. While you’re there, feel free to take a look at crafting new weapons or enhancing what you already have equipped. You’ll find materials in your adventures as they’ll be dropped by your fallen foes or tucked away in a container that you break open. These materials will then be used in different crafting plans to create a new weapon or piece of armour, or to enhance what you currently wield.

You’ll find there’s more depth in your build once you start to piece together the package. Not only do your raw attributes improve your character, but also the different technologies that are available on the gear you find or create. These technologies are split into three different categories, Human, Revian, and Driller, each providing different benefits to your character. Human tech focuses on energy management, Revian tech focuses on organic benefits such as increasing your HP, while Driller tech focuses on material enhancements.

Adding another aspect into the mix of your overall build are the elemental damage types, Physical, Fire, Ice, and Acid. To give you an example, I was battling against an acid based enemy that stayed at range to hurl balls of acid towards my location. Going in close seemed to be the best idea, however, my normal melee attacks weren’t overly effective. When I switched to “Energy Mode” my melee swings switched from using my stamina bar to using my energy bar, as I had encased myself in some ice-looking body effect and added ice damage to my attacks. This in turn had a greater effect on the enemy and drastically reduced the time and hits needed to take out the blighter. I feel this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the depth Dolmen has to offer with its combat mechanics and build possibilities.

Those familiar with this style of game will feel at home. Dolmen uses the same style of parry, block, dodge, light, and heavy attack mechanics as we’ve seen in the likes of Dark Souls. What differs slightly here are the ranged weapons, as they use your energy resource bar rather than consumable ammunition. As I’ve touched upon the stamina and energy bars, I'll talk a little more on how they work. So as standard with soulslike games, you do have your health and stamina bars. Melee actions, sprinting, blocking, dodging, etc. will deplete your stamina bar as you expect and that recovers over time when you’re not using it. The energy bar comes into play with several uses for you, first of which being your main resource for healing. Yeah, I don’t know how that works either, but permanently using a chunk of your energy bar allows you to recover lost health. So how do you recover energy then? Well you use one of your consumables to restore that lost chunk of available energy, or rest at one of those shiny bonfire-esque nodes that you come across in your travels. By the way, I never came across an actual name for these nodes in game, so they’ll forever be “bonfire thingies” to me.

Your melee attacks while in “Energy Mode” temporarily use up your energy bar as previously mentioned, so do your ranged weapons, such as a pistol or rifle. As you can imagine, if you’ve had to heal yourself, you now have less energy to use for potential attacks. Can you see why I say this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of depth now?

Dolmen is shaping up to be an outstanding entry into the soulslike style of games and most definitely one I’ll be snapping up come release. Due to ship during 2022, Dolmen will be hitting PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.