The term Souls-like is not only still one that’s rather fresh amongst the many sub-genres of gaming, but also one that has found itself heavily saturated in recent years with new titles from developers attempting to make that next big hitter by following in the well-trodden footsteps of the loveable Dark Souls games that created the sub-genre in the first place. As someone who regularly enjoys a romp through the death-ridden worlds of a Dark Souls title, you’d probably think this would be something that would have me incredibly keen to get stuck in, but with so many titles attempting to beat the near-perfect entries already available, I can’t help but feel we are only getting second rate efforts at best. Dolmen is hoping to be one of the few to go above and beyond – sadly, it barely catches up.
Like many other similar titles, Dolmen is played from a third-person perspective, with players first creating their character from a selection of different classes, all of which cater to the usual varying gameplay types most players will be accustomed to; a heavy class, a ranged class, a close combat class, etc, whilst each also comes with pre-set stats to cater to that specific style of play.
Once you’ve got the character ready to go, you’ll be heading out onto the planet Revlon Prime, with the goal being to hunt down some incredibly powerful crystals known as Dolmen. You see, these crystals come packing the capability to create a portal between alternate realities. Unfortunately for you, Revlon Prime isn’t a casual stroll through the park: in fact, it’s been overrun in recent times by all manner of alien critters and creatures, and you need to get in there, figure out what’s going on and get your hands on some of the highly sought-after Dolmen.
The sci-fi world of Revlon Prime is one that’s dark and dreary in design. At first, this comes across as intriguing and interesting, but with a linear path to follow and very little room to explore off the beaten path, the game world does quickly become one that feels rather restricted, and incredibly so when compared to the recent genre release Elden Ring. Of course, linearity doesn’t break a game and often I’ll find more enjoyment from something with a determined path, but with linearity, there needs to be a sense of intrigue still, and with many areas looking reused, it doesn’t take long to feel like you’ve seen most of what is on offer in each area before you’ve even really explored all that much in any specific location.
Dolmen doesn’t just use the aforementioned Dark Souls series as inspiration but also borrows some of its features for use here too. As you progress through even early areas, chances are at least once or twice you’ll succumb to some of the dangerous critters that are running around Revlon Prime, and once you do so, you’ll notice that nanites – your source of XP or ‘souls’ in Dolmen are left behind in the very spot you died through a holographic version of yourself. You can go back to that spot and collect them, but should you die again before you do so, they will be gone for good. So far so Dark Souls.
Of course, in any title such as this combat is a big focus and that much is true here as well, but once more Dolmen has taken the mechanics and features, we know so well from Dark Souls and tried to incorporate them by way of copycat ideas, but sadly lacking even close to the same level of polish. As you’d expect you can hack away at enemies with a light or heavy attack, with light attacks taking less stamina or energy but proving quicker whilst dealing less damage, or you can utilize a heavy attack, using more stamina but causing more damage. Heavy attacks also have the possibility of creating a stunning effect on enemies.
Whilst this may not sound like the poorest form of combat, especially for genre veterans, it has to be said that responsiveness is not a strong point within the game, and with delayed responses to button input, incredibly slow animations, and repetitive combat, there isn’t much to be excited by.
There are options for long-range attacks with firearms present, but even they take up a fair amount of your character’s energy, and with each of the bars already taking ages to replenish, you can often find yourself running from combat more often than you’d want to for a moment just to ensure you aren’t met with an unavoidable attack. This isn’t poor system management either as attempts to use the integrated parrying ability feels useless thanks to the timing window for a perfect parry appearing to be either incredibly minute or simply not working as it should, and on the occasions it does work, it will only push enemies back ever so slightly anyway.
Whilst there are multiple issues I have here, there is something that is deserving of praise. During combat, defeated enemies will drop various rarities of resources, and these resources can then be used to create weapons and shields back at your ship, which is accessed through beacons that copy the bonfire system we all know so well. Doing this does reset enemies including bosses, but it’s a nice way to get something new to use in a fight rather than sticking with the same thing for too long.
Another thing to note is the option to use elemental effects such as freezing, fire, and acid to your attacks. This is however also tied to energy usage and with just a few attacks or a single flurried combo eliminating your entire energy or stamina bars, it does feel like a rework is needed to make this worthwhile in the slightest. Especially when enemies have no such limitation to their attacks and can inflict elemental effects in just an attack or two.
A big focus of any souls-type game is naturally going to be the bosses, and this is an area Dolmen doesn’t fail quite as much on, in fact whilst a few were definitely a bit too simple to defeat, there are a few that require you to rethink your attacks and actually learn the patterns ongoing during the fight, however such as one with a particular Queen Caniptei whose massive tentacles provide a fresh challenge – however, this challenge is one you’ll get used to as to get all the required resources from a boss to create their unique weapon, you’ll need to take them down three times first.
Unfortunately, though, even if the bosses are a ray of enlightenment in this otherwise poor souls-type effort, the visuals do no favours in showcasing them. Much like the environments, most enemies look disappointing and with textures and colours proving drab, dreary, and reused, there isn’t much that comes into play that looks ever looks overly exciting and with sound design lacking the real excitement or opening up to the possibilities of a deadly sci-fi world, there is nothing that makes the design choices stand out here either.
Conclusion
Sadly, whilst Dolmen is a game that may have been well suited 10 or 15 years ago, with a ton of souls-likes already out there such as The Surge, Hellpoint, Mortal Shell, Nioh, and so on, there is a lot to achieve if you want to make it as a memorable experience in the action RPG genre, and Dolmen doesn’t stand up there with the cream of the crop already available.
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This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
