Venturing into a Souls-like is an experience like no other in gaming. You know that failure is inevitable, and a grind to victory is necessary to overcome gargantuan obstacles in the form of titanic enemies. Some forego this grind and stay away from the genre, but others take solace in improving their gaming skills to near perfection and defeating what once seemed impossible. The genre has seen several successors like Hollow Knight, Nioh, and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. How does an indie effort like Dolmen, exploring the sci-fi side, work?

In Dolmen, you are thrust into a bug-ridden space station. You must scour the station and defeat a bevy of enemies within. You’ll get the choice of a starting class; my first playthrough attempt had an emphasis on gunplay as I tend to prefer ranged combat. However, I found myself unable to get past the second area due to the inevitability of being overwhelmed by the number of enemies. It was a discouraging first try, but I gave it another go as a tank and found myself faring much better.

Dolmen encourages a healthy mix of melee and ranged combat. In fact, it is going to be a slog if you only rely on one or the other. I found that whittling away enemy health with a gun while they slowly approached me and then switching to melee while in swinging range, made the initial area a breeze. There were enough resources to gather between beacons to upgrade my equipment, but I had to do some digging to figure out how to level up my character. It’s frustrating to have everything basic in a tutorial, but have other necessities like leveling up hidden behind more vague details.

When it came to the first boss in Dolmen, I knew I was going to be in for a rough ride. Surprisingly, though, I was able to take it out in one try! It was a tough fight where the beast was able to send out several fodder enemies to attempt to overwhelm me. However, with the right focus, it was a pulse-pounding experience that tested my skills well. There was also the option to replay the boss, which is excellent for getting more equipment resources. Plus, multiplayer is available for a summoning experience with friends.

At the heart of the judgment of a Souls-like is how strong the combat and lore are. While the lore is injected every few minutes and is expansive, it’s a pretty standard sci-fi affair that doesn’t break new ground. Thankfully, the combat is going to feel familiar for fans of the genre. It doesn’t introduce anything that makes Dolmen a must-have, but it’s a truly noble effort from a fresh developer whose website shows their only other game as Tap Hitz, which I can’t even find in a Google search.

While Dolmen truly opens up to be a solid title, it takes some time getting there and I fear most players might not reach that point due to frustration with the difficulty. The journey from starting with a sword and a pistol into wielding a strong weapon and/or a rifle/shotgun takes a while. As a result, I can only recommend Dolmen for players who are willing to put in the time to learn the intricacies that are present in any given Souls-like.

A PC Review Copy of Dolmen was provided by Prime Matter for this Review.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

Dolmen

$29.99

6

Score

6.0/10

Pros

• Great Optimization
• Solid Lore and a great attention to it

Cons

• Poor Enemy Variety
• No Balance Between Classes
• Nothing Unique to Genre