Dolmen Preview – Even More Sci-Fi Souls

Dark souls give sit to Increase. Increase give sit to Hellpoint. Now, Dolmen here to give us another sci-fi soul-like. The game is set to release next year, and I had to scrutinize the initial build to see what kind of gruesome death awaits players when it becomes available. This preview build features an initial area, plus teleports to mid-game after defeating a boss. Yes again boss at the end of that, so my playtime here won’t exactly paint a complete picture.

The game is about the Zoan corporation (not to be confused with Devil Fruits), and you play as a driller sent to the planet Revion to find the main resource, Dolman. Naturally, the tool is used to move between dimensions. However, upon landing, you realize that creatures from other dimensions are kicking around, and you have to explore and find as much substance as you can. Are from Dolmen Is one soul-like, this means you will carefully navigate the environments while trying to make it survive.

Instead of the more typical Bonfire-style safety spots, you’ll come across beacons. You respawn at these, but you don’t level up on them. Instead, you use beacons to transport yourself to your ship, which allows you to focus the nanite you get from defeated enemies. You can also change the color of your outfit and respawn bosses using Dolmen shards – so you can farm to earn drops. Dolmen also focus on the gun, you can aim freely or use it after locking down the enemy. Both guns and melee weapons have light and strong attack power, although they use different meters.

Familiar but promising

As you would expect, you mainly use stamina for most of the action. You can run, dodge, attack, block and intercept. You know how this works. However, guns and healing both use energy. Healing drains your mana completely, but shooting only temporarily drains it, meaning you only need to wait a bit for the meter to recharge before firing again. When it runs out of power, you’ll need to use the battery to recharge it. By default, you respawn with four of these. Each full meter allows me to heal a few times before needing to use another battery, so Dolmen seems to be a little bit earlier.

You can also choose specific starting loads to give yourself a slight edge from the start. I went with one that gave me a parallel energy weapon. You can also choose one-handed weapons, shields, and two-handed weapons. If you have a shield or two-handed weapon, you can block enemy attacks. Fight in Dolmen pretty much exactly what you find everywhere else soul-like, which means the controls are very responsive and the combat is tight and challenging. Obviously, it’s a tough game, and it’s inevitable that you’ll get stuck, even early on.

From the very beginning, I was primarily up against these strange insect creatures. They’re not all that strong individually, but the game doesn’t mind throwing half a dozen of them at you at once, which kills me occasionally. Before long, there were mortal enemies far more dangerous.

I overall leave out impressions but totally not recommended – like any soul-as its salt’s worth. If you are looking for another sci-fi game in the subgenre, it will be like Dolmen definitely one to keep your eyes on.