The souls-like genre can be a tricky one to get right. Fans always look to FromSoftware’s games such as Dark Souls or Bloodborne as the high standard that the genre must live up to. I am inclined to agree with that statement, all of those games are incredibly well balanced and have a decent level of polish with them. With the Brazil team over at Massive Work Studios tackling this genre as their first game, I got to give them respect for trying to take a big swing, even if it kind of misses the mark in a few places.
In Dolmen, you play as a mysterious character you know almost nothing about and are stuck on this planet that is extremely hostile to insect-like aliens. Apparently, humans have colonized several planets in the solar system, but this one in particular they can’t fully control just yet. This planet is home to crystals that can be used for interdimensional travel, so of course the value is very high for humans to want to storm in and destroy the natives to take away its natural resource. There is one mode in Dolmen, and that’s single player campaign mode, but there is some co-op which I’ll get into later.
Upon starting your game, you are presented with multiple classes to choose from; Tanker, Bounty Hunter, Recruit, Sharp Shooter, and Hybrid. Each class comes with its own specific loadout and stat point distributions. What was an adjustment for me when getting to learn how to play Dolmen was learning to manage your stamina, stamina is used in most of your actions and I continually had to be mindful of how I wanted to move during fights. The scenery and character designs I thought were cool, but there was always a sense of unpolish. The aliens are standard insect aliens, which reminded me of something like Dead Space. For this being an indie game with a small team, I won’t try to knock them too much for the lack of original designs, but while sci-fi horror is very cool to play and see, there is a sense of unoriginality to this overall.
My biggest issue would be the gameplay itself not being as silky smooth as one I believe would want in a Souls-like game. There is a robotic element to the gameplay that made me feel there was attention given to the wrong areas in the game. There is a decent crafting system when collecting items from killing enemies, but I would have sacrificed it all if the gameplay felt more enjoyable to play. As the hours went by there was a sense of repeat to the overall experience I for the most part was not enjoying. As far as the co-op goes, other players can drop in during boss fights only, which I thought was a bit strange and a huge missed opportunity to go explore these maps with a friend. The boss fights though for the most part were pretty cool and decently balanced in my opinion.
I don’t have much else to say about Dolmen besides the fact that if you’re a Souls-like fan, this could be a fun one to scratch that itch or just upset you because it doesn’t meet the high standards of classics in the genre. For the small development team, they did pull off a lot of hard work, for the most part it does show in the game. I just hope in their future endeavors they hone in on their crafts and give their games that sense of polish, especially if they’re going to attempt a genre where something like that is extra important.
7/10
For more information, visit: https://massiveworkstudio.com/
Related: Reviews by Nick Navarro
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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