cormack12
Gold Member
Source: https://cogconnected.com/preview/dolmen-is-dark-souls-in-spaaaaace/
Dolmen Preview
When it comes to Soulslike games, there are two species. There are those games that bear a vague, passing resemblance. Some games, though, are so close to FromSoftware’s template that, mechanically at least, they have a near one-to-one correspondence. Dolmen is one of those games.
Instead of the trappings of high fantasy, Dolmen wears the mantle of science fiction. You are on a hostile planet called Revion Prime, there to bring back samples of a mystical crystal called Dolmen. You explore, fight monsters, die, get a little stronger, and the Soulslike cycle continues.
Souls players will feel right at home. Instead of Firelink Shrine or Majula, you have a space ship home base. In place of bonfires, there are beacons. You earn the game’s soul-like currency and crafting/upgrade materials by killing enemies. Death takes you back to a beacon, and the chance to retrieve your souls.
Where Dolmen departs from the template — and smartly, too — is in the area of energy management. Instead of healing flasks, you have batteries. You can reassign your battery power to healing or to powering your special, elemental abilities. It’s sort of a streamlined version of Dark Souls 3’s two-flask system. It works well, and adds a nice bit of risk/reward strategy to the mix. Of course, managing stamina is part of the game, too.
I played through Dolmen with three of its starting classes. There’s the slow but high damage-dealing, two handed swordsman, the agile but weak rogue type, and the ranged weapon specialist. As with Dark Souls, starting classes are just that, and you can shape them however you want over time. This is one area where Dolmen might want to play attention to balance. The heavy swordsman is sluggish to the point of being frustrating, and the two-handed fighter is too weak. For me, the only viable class was the one that started with an effective pulse rifle and melee weapon axe. All classes start with a pistol, and some have a shield. I never quite got the hang of Dolmen’s parry mechanic.
Dolmen Preview
When it comes to Soulslike games, there are two species. There are those games that bear a vague, passing resemblance. Some games, though, are so close to FromSoftware’s template that, mechanically at least, they have a near one-to-one correspondence. Dolmen is one of those games.
Instead of the trappings of high fantasy, Dolmen wears the mantle of science fiction. You are on a hostile planet called Revion Prime, there to bring back samples of a mystical crystal called Dolmen. You explore, fight monsters, die, get a little stronger, and the Soulslike cycle continues.
Souls players will feel right at home. Instead of Firelink Shrine or Majula, you have a space ship home base. In place of bonfires, there are beacons. You earn the game’s soul-like currency and crafting/upgrade materials by killing enemies. Death takes you back to a beacon, and the chance to retrieve your souls.
Where Dolmen departs from the template — and smartly, too — is in the area of energy management. Instead of healing flasks, you have batteries. You can reassign your battery power to healing or to powering your special, elemental abilities. It’s sort of a streamlined version of Dark Souls 3’s two-flask system. It works well, and adds a nice bit of risk/reward strategy to the mix. Of course, managing stamina is part of the game, too.
I played through Dolmen with three of its starting classes. There’s the slow but high damage-dealing, two handed swordsman, the agile but weak rogue type, and the ranged weapon specialist. As with Dark Souls, starting classes are just that, and you can shape them however you want over time. This is one area where Dolmen might want to play attention to balance. The heavy swordsman is sluggish to the point of being frustrating, and the two-handed fighter is too weak. For me, the only viable class was the one that started with an effective pulse rifle and melee weapon axe. All classes start with a pistol, and some have a shield. I never quite got the hang of Dolmen’s parry mechanic.