#DOLMEN GAME SERIES#

The weapon choices have tradeoffs with speed, power, and technique. 'Say what you will about how derivative it all is, but at the end of the day, Dolmen does achieve what it wants to on a fundamental level.' So, hey, say what you will about how derivative it all is (and I will), but at the end of the day, Dolmen does achieve what it wants to on a fundamental level. Managing your energy with batteries and converting that into either energy attacks or health is a fun tug or war to balance out as you carve and blast your way through Revion Prime, though, and the game does a good job incentivizing you to keep an eye on that on top of just staying alive. These would be forgettable bugs if the combat had something to it to make it worth trudging through its problems, but unfortunately that’s just not the case. Forcing me to play with a keyboard and mouse despite the game clearly indicating that the controller was supported and detected. I also ran into several instances of controller buttons, like sprinting or the lock-on function just not working at all. Just as we do when my well-timed giant sword slash goes right through an enemy without registering a hit. When I’m still shooting from the gun despite letting go of the gun button so I can attack with a melee weapon several entire seconds later – we have a problem. It does however lack polish – which is not fine. Fine is fine, despite lacking any sort of real special sauce.

Even if the gun that shoots acidic bullets only does ten more damage than the gun that shoots ice bullets, that could make or break your situation, so observing how powerful or ineffective any given weapon is against any given enemy is paramount – along with constant energy management.Īll of this is fine when it’s at its best, which isn’t a terrible thing. Choosing between a one-handed weapon and a shield or two-handed weapons, which element to focus your weapon crafting for, and which perks you assign to any given weapon or piece of armor are the keys to truly excelling at the game, and each choice has impacts on the combat that will immediately be felt.

Upon returning, you’ll also be gathering everything you lost at the place you died if you can and trying harder next time. 'If the heavily tread ground of Dolmen’s resource hunter/fight for survival story structure doesn’t tip you off to the uninspired game you’re in for, then the gameplay surely will.' It has ruthless enemies that make for punishing combat, different classes with various status point allocations to set them apart from each other, and of course beacons that serve as spawn points to which you return every time you’re inevitably slain. From top to button, this is a by-the-numbers Soulslike game that rewards cautious exploration and enemy attack memorization. If the heavily tread ground of Dolmen’s resource hunter/fight for survival story structure doesn’t tip you off to the uninspired game you’re in for, then the gameplay surely will. Unfortunately for Dolmen, it has more in common with the latter than the former. The good news for Soulslike fans is that many of these games have, in fact, brought enough of their own flavor to the table to more the justify their existence, but that doesn’t mean the genre is immune cheap knock offs that are more interested in standing on the shoulders of the games before them than actually doing anything interesting of their own. Or at least deliver an experience that feels worthy of its inspiration with a solid execution. Given this, you’d think any Soulslikes that releases after 2020 or so would put in the effort to do something a little different to avoid immediately fading into the background.

#DOLMEN GAME SERIES#

What was once a niche series of games, became a specialized subgenre, then became an extremely popular series of mechanics that have been iterated upon countless times by countless games now.

The Soulslike genre is about as saturated as it can get.

Dolmen game