Dolmenis one of those releases that attempt to endorse an increasingly common genre, the soul-like. A genre that, as we well know, was born from the work of FromSoftware. The Japanese studio with its multiple works has generated a fever that makes us have more and more imitators of this magic formula. This fever has been such that we have an exclusive genre for this type of game. Titles that have diabolical difficulty, with paths and shortcuts that fit perfectly into its complex universe. At the same time, we have devastated worlds, cryptic stories and a very particular combat and progression system.
A large part of these strategies is seized Dolmen. The work developed by Massive work studio and which comes under the seal of Prime Matter, tries to add its own personal touch to all of the above. A touch that this time goes through terror, or at least an environment that tries to be oppressive for the player. For it, the game takes us to a science fiction universe in which humanity has already begun its race through space. Arrive at a system known as Reviam. This system emitted radiation different from other systems, suggesting the possibility of other universes. This possibility seems closely related to crystals such as dolmens.
Now with all of this Our job will be to launch ourselves to the planet Revion Prime to destroy the extradimensional species that have appeared, as well as to collect samples of these crystals. With this premise, our adventure begins. If you want to know all its details, do not miss the following analysis.
Dolmen the ninth passenger
The first thing that catches the eye of this title is its marked artistic section. Dolmentry to create this atmosphere of terror through an atmosphere that automatically reminds Extraterrestrial and on many occasions to a classic from the world of video games such as Dead space. However, his storylines for many moments become somewhat flat when trying to mimic the interiors of the planet’s facilities. This, yes, still maintaining a somber tone, with corpses and traces of blood strewn throughout its rooms.
That said, the art of the game will increase as the adventure progresses, encountering scenarios typical of the art of HR Giger. However, Many times, you will have in your mind this feeling of “I’ve been here before”. And it is that, on many occasions, we will find literally identical areas, even more so when we are in rooms that have that look of a ship, with its different doors and such. Moreover, its sound section is not particularly striking, although it serves its purpose. In addition, we appreciate that a game of this budget has reached us translated into our language.
Accompanying these scenarios and this artistic direction, we come across a few creatures that fail to stand out. i could say that Dolmen tries to do something different, but the reality is that it is far from successful. Its monsters and creatures often encounter stereotypes, an example being the typical zombie or flying creature we’ve seen on many other occasions. It might be a minor detail, but it makes you feel like there’s nothing new about this proposition when you play. It is very likely that in addition to this are the similarities with another independent title such as hell point or the resemblance of our character to Isaac Clarke.
classical mechanics
Leaving that aside, if we focus on what happens when we put ourselves in charge, we will find the following. First of all, the game gives us the possibility to create a character around a series of classes, each of which has unique attributes and weapons. One of the characteristics of this title is the fact of being able to use firearms. A detail that becomes interesting thanks to the consideration of the elementary properties (fire, ice, acid…) and the use of energy. This last concept is perhaps the most interesting among the proposals of Dolmen.
Energy is represented by a blue bar that accompanies the resistance of our character and his life. Energy consumption will allow us to attack from a distance, although it will also give us the possibility of recovering our health. This means that we must manage it properly in order to overcome the difficulties of our adventures. Now it can be picked up using stacks, which act like the mythical estus flasks of dark souls. That is, they will regenerate when we die or when we hit a beacon. Although we haven’t talked about it so far, beacons have the same functionality as bonfires, although to level up we will have to go to our ship. Note that, as usual, if we die we will have to go find our bodies to recover our consumables.
That said, in terms of combat we find it fairly standard, although it does have some depth thanks to elemental states and ranged weapon use. As usual, we will have a fast and heavy blow, as well as a powerful jump attack. You can also take cover or parry if you manage to do so at the last moment. Moreover, as we mentioned, weapons, mainly ranged ones, will spread altered states to our enemies based on their elemental weaknesses. With this we will get an increase in our damage.
Discover Revion Prime
During our tour in Prime Review, we have quite a few things that are needed to try to create a connected mapping like FromSoftware works. So, We will have access to different shortcuts, as well as secret or secondary paths. All this is found in its parameters and it is essential to discover them since we do not have a map or the possibility of teleporting to past places. That said, I think that last point isn’t something particularly positive and can be tedious on many occasions.
The game itself tries to show us complex mapping, but the feeling it gives me is that it never succeeds. Mainly because of the difficulties presented by his artistic style. The fact that everything “looks alike” causes a lot of integers to be lost in the analysis.
Already at this point, I think it is necessary to talk about the difficulty that accompanies Dolmen. In this direction, the game meets the usual standards in this type of game, it is a title in which any enemy can kill you in a few blows if you are not careful. If it’s true that mechanically I didn’t find any particularly demanding creatures, but the game tries to make up for it by putting a good handful of enemies in each room. On the other hand, your boss fights, the great crown that all games of this genre aspire to, how do you feel?
The truth is that in this aspect I taste bittersweet. There are fights that have been very interesting with good ideas and mechanics and others that have been excessively tedious.. Dodging an enemy’s attacks for two minutes without being able to do anything but run until they change phases seems like overkill to me, for example. I think these are issues for the team to work on and balance. Something we know they do.
Complexity is not a virtue
Leaving that aside, I have to point out one of my least favorite issues with the game, its complexity. Lately it is common to think that the more stuff a game has, the better its end result will be and no. I’m afraid that couldn’t be more wrong. When I talk about complexity, I refer to the number of numbers and values it shows us on the screen. Dolmen. And that’s it, it’s not at all clear in what influences each of them and can be a bit chaotic. In its desire to differentiate itself from the famous dark souls, the team attempted to play this card. However, the result is not at all what was expected.
Because of this concept of the more the better. the game adds a crafting system with which we can create equipment. Depending on the faction to which our equipment belongs, we can obtain certain advantages or others. It will therefore always be interesting to wear outfits from the same faction. In addition to this, the game attempts to make sense of dolmen crystals, allowing the player to replay boss fights in exchange for them. A mechanic that I found interesting since it will allow us to take advantage of their bosses again.
Likewise, the game It offers us the possibility of fighting these bosses in cooperation. Just before these fights we will have a kind of console with which we can activate its multiplayer mode.
Technical issues
To end this analysis, we have to talk about the technical section of the game. Dolmen, is a game that somehow navigates between the waters of a double-A and an indie. This obviously means that the technical requirements cannot be excessively high. Likewise, at first glance, the game doesn’t look bad at all, however, it does bring with it some performance issues that are worth noting. One of the main ones is its issue with the framerate in its quality mode. In this graphics mode, the game is unable to reach 30 FPS. An extremely mediocre result if we take into account the graphic quality of the title.
Similarly, we encountered some weird and annoying errors, such as enemy attacks going through columns or hitting us very arbitrarily.
Finally Dolmen…
Dolmen is another of those titles that tries to imitate the works of FromSoftware, yes, trying to transfer this formula to a new universe and with original concepts. Without a doubt, one of these concepts is the use of energy, perhaps one of the unique points of this version and that makes its fights have an additional strategic point. On the other hand, despite this marked artistic section, the game fails to wrap drive in Revion Prime slots, sometimes becoming repetitive. Regarding its playability, the game follows all the expected basics and adds the already mentioned energy usage, but it also adds a complexity in its menus and interface that hinders the experience.
Finally, we can conclude that Dolmen try to follow the steps of dark souls and in a way he succeeds, but it also shows him that the road is very long.
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Psychologist who enjoys cooperative games, RPGs and shooting anything that moves.
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