PRELIMINARY – Dolmen is an action RPG inspired by the classic Dark Souls series, like many other similar titles. What makes this game a little different is the inspiration of the art of love, which gives us a more interesting taste of the traditional sci-fi/horror genre and at the same time provides us with a different environment and landscape than usual.
Dark Souls, Dead Space, surgery: These names appear when we tried a pre-tested beta game on a PC. Since Legends From Software, Visceral Games, and Deck13 are so popular, we can only hope so. Mega Action Studio Dolmen title is developed by. After we have had the opportunity to pre-test the game on a pre-made set, we will share our thoughts below.
Monsters are bleeding in the mine
After a short tour that shows the beginning of the story of the Dolmen game, our character is transferred to Revion Prime: a mining station that has been attacked by bloodthirsty mysterious creatures. A first look at the station reveals the deteriorating condition of the place. However, while the creatures and the location may feel a bit like Dead Space, the path design is more like the spirits. That’s why the horror vibe initially introduced is actually less realistic, so the comparison to Dead Space will soon dissipate too.
After a short tutorial, fans of the genre will soon feel right at home, as the basic game mechanics are very similar to the classic spirits. At least a slight difference is that we also got an energy gauge that we can rely on to heal ourselves, to use long range weapons, or to activate a temporary mode that allows us to boost our attacks by absorbing them with elemental energy. These attributes allow you to damage or weaken the enemy with secondary effects that can, for example, slow you down or poison him.
Is there anything else that can be soldered here…
At the moment the bar is a bit wiggling in the amateur gaming experience a bit, but I would still say that if the game were to be developed further, it could be promising because the gameplay mechanics are well thought out. The chemistry between melee and long-range combat works well. With levels and a power meter, we can’t spam remotely, and a variety of gear we’ve been able to try to show that weapons and specializations offer diverse and fun gameplay. However, there are some major or minor flaws.
For example, some animations are rigid and sometimes uncomfortable during battles. Using potions is also very frustrating because the use time is very long and cumbersome, which is especially problematic if you want to treat yourself urgently. Finally, the visual use of a shield is not immediately visualized, which makes the defense intuitive enough. In other words, player defenses have quite a few challenges (and we’ve said that in moderation) that need to be fixed.
Vision, story and career planning – what about those?
Let’s look at the game pictures. From what I’ve seen in the game so far, the sci-fi inspiration is certainly clear, but it’s also hard to tell Dolmen to be truly unique. The creatures seen in the two different “areas” weren’t exactly impressed with its original design, and while the graphics aren’t ugly, they wouldn’t be visually stunning either.
As for the story, Dolmen’s beta hasn’t revealed much about it yet. The protagonist of the game is a space explorer, but we’ve also come across some other characters that I don’t want to spoil yet. We can also host a character on the hero ship, which acts as the central focus of the game. Hopefully, the storytelling is emphasized more than we saw, because not many of these clips and few dialogues are revealed.
As for the tracks, in the beta of three different parts of the game, we were only able to detect a small part of the Dolmen. The first level is somewhat closed and labyrinth-like, the second is more open with slightly different gameplay mechanics. However, it’s hard to make a real judgment after just three hours of playing, but that small part of the game is sure to turn into a much bigger world later in the game.
In the end, we can’t do without the tacky and uncharacteristic HUD display and some bugs or designer flaws as well. For example, it would be nice to do a complete overhaul of Dolmen’s inventory and crafting interface, which is very weak at the moment. Whether these bugs will be fixed by the developers is the music of the future, as there is still plenty of time for a complete rework by the time it’s released.
-bad sector-
