Dolmen is an action and adventure RPG that introduces us to a dark universe dominated by monstrosities and hostile technology in every corner, with a space setting that is very reminiscent of Dead Space due to its aesthetics but also Dark Souls due to its game mechanics and design of levels.
At the beginning of Dolmen we will have the option to customize our character’s armor, in addition to deciding which combat style we would like to adopt, resulting in a different distribution of points for each attribute of our character depending on the class we select.
It’s like Dark Souls and Dead Space have a childeither
The title has weapons of all kinds that will determine the style of combat that we will use. At all times we will carry a main weapon such as a great sword or claws and a secondary weapon that will always be a ranged weapon such as an energy gun or a cannon. This opens up different scenarios in combat to achieve victory, as you could attack head-on with a great sword or use a light weapon that gives you speed and combine ranged attacks with close combat.
By defeating small enemies such as giant bosses, they will grant us Nanites that will be used to unlock character levels. With each level increase we will have an extra point to add to some of our main attributes such as constitution, stamina, energy, strength, dexterity and science.
Every time we kill enemies there is a chance that they will drop an item that we can use to craft things like weapons, armor pieces, or shields. Some items can be used to increase the stats of each item before they are crafted. These items can drop at different rarities, and the rarer it is, the better stats it will give the piece it’s attached to.
We will have a faction system that will increase depending on the pieces of armor and weapons that we have equipped. Each piece of weaponry belongs to a different faction and equipping it will give us faction points. If we add several faction points we will receive skills as a bonus. You can combine pieces and improve them to get more abilities of each faction
The combat system is in real time in which we will have to pay attention to the enemy’s movements to perfectly dodge or block their attack and respond offensively or defensively depending on the situation. This combat system is inspired by the Souls saga, so if you’re a fan of this type of game you won’t have any trouble adapting.
As for the bosses that we will fight, most are quite different from each other and have a set of unique movements that will drag you to try different weapons to build strategies that comply with the dynamics of combat and achieve victory in each confrontation.
We have a mission… and it is to survive
In a universe where humanity has colonized several planets and private corporations fight for military and technological advantage, the Zoan Corporation sends genetically modified humans, the Drillers, to colonize and investigate the planet Revion Prime. This planet is rich in Dolmen crystals, which allow interaction between different dimensions and have the potential to revolutionize space exploration.
After a catastrophic accident, the player is hired to return these Dolmen crystals to the archives, as well as eliminate the hostile creatures that have infested the planet. Facing dimensional fissures within the station that create intersections between different universes, the mission will become a struggle to survive and leave the planet with its secrets and dangers.
Throughout our journey we will discover past events related to each area that we explore through some computers with which we can interact. On the other hand, its soundtrack manages to introduce us to the environment along with quite surprising ambient sounds. They have achieved a spectacular sound section that absorbs you into their world along with the well-constructed scenarios full of details.
Has notable flaws
Despite having a fairly extensive interconnected world with control points that will serve as a teleport between various areas of the world and our base ship, exploration in the world of Dolmen is slow and boring since there is not much that encourages you to explore and it’s easy to get stuck. Throughout the world there are too many boxes that you can destroy to get rewards, however, most of the time there is no reward and the one we get is worse than the items that monsters drop when they die.
Many of the bosses have a somewhat confusing set of movements, in addition to the fact that our dodge often does not work against them leaving us totally vulnerable and losing all our ban points on the move. But it is not only that, it is also difficult to know what we should do in each fight, although this is easy to muffle with ‘practice’. We also have a small problem when fixing the camera on a target and trying to change it to a closer one, sometimes the camera just doesn’t change and by not having the closest enemy fixed you can perform an attack that requires a longer animation time leaving you vulnerable and dying.
Another negative aspect of the title is the lack of real variety of the enemies, since many times it is simply a change of skin or attack element, or it simply changes their combat form from close to distance, which can confuse the player since the enemy looks the same, but you don’t know if this enemy will attack with shots or charge you.
Conclusion
Dolmen manages to adopt the Souls formula by giving it a twist and integrating it into a space environment, with very entertaining action and exploration RPG characteristics. It has some flaws in the game design, however the version that we were able to test does not contain the day 1 patch that will improve many aspects of the game. If you have already squeezed everything that Elden Ring could offer, you can try Dolmen if you are left wanting more. But he remembers that there is not an open world, but an interconnected one like in previous Miyazaki titles.