Developed by Massive Work Studio, and published by Massive Work Studio, Koch Media, and Prime Matter, Dolmen is a Soulslike action RPG set in a futuristic world where humanity has advanced to the point of colonizing planets. On Revion Prime, an accident causes the Zoan Corporation to hire a worthy combatant that can collect valuable resources for them and clear the infestation of monsters that plague the planet. As the story progresses, more challenging enemies and bosses threaten to erase the timeline and send the Corporation away from Revion Prime.
In Dolmen, Revion Prime is teeming with Lovecraftian monsters, but it's also rich with Dolmen crystals. Before the start of the game, Drillers were sent to Revion Prime to mine Dolmen crystals in bulk. This valuable resource is at the center of the story as the Zoan Corporation attempts to gather as much as possible before leaving Revion Prime. Dolmen crystals make interdimensional interactions and links between other realities possible, so collecting them is the top priority while exploring Revion Prime and uncovering its unnerving mysteries.
While playing, Dolmen fragments can be collected and are used to respawn bosses in order to farm for crafting materials and Nanites. The fragments can also be used to create a multiplayer session and fight a boss with others. Nanites are used as experience points to level up and increase attributes. As higher levels are reached, more Nanites are required to improve stats. Both Dolmen fragments and Nanites are lost upon death, so they should be used as often as possible to avoid losing them when entering a more difficult area. Dying also erases the timeline, and progress resets to the last beacon that was used.
The purpose of leveling up, increasing certain attributes, and upgrading gear are to take on increasingly difficult bosses. There are three acts in Dolmen, and each one has several bosses to beat before moving on to the next area. After a boss is defeated for the first time, it can be respawned using Dolmen fragments, and a multiplayer session can be hosted to make the battle easier. Each time a boss is defeated, it will drop a special crafting material. The materials dropped can be used to craft powerful boss weapons. A boss needs to be defeated three times in order to gather enough materials to craft a weapon. Other resources drop from regular enemies which respawn when leaving an aream and then returning via teleportation.
Crafting and leveling up are done on the ship, which can be teleported to using a beacon. The gear system in Dolmen includes a diverse set of melee and ranged weapons, as well as chest, hands, legs, and head armor. Choosing gear is more than just picking the armor or weapon with the highest stats. Every piece of gear equipped changes the active perks depending on if the item is Human, Revion, or Driller. For the most part, it's difficult to have top gear and stick to just one type of technology, but it should still be feasible to have three or four out of the nine perks active. Tying in perks to what items is equipped makes the game's gear system more important and strategic.
Along with perks, the elemental damage of each weapon needs to be considered. Every ghastly monster has an elemental weakness to exploit, but it needs to be discovered first. Both the ranged and melee gear slots allow for two weapons to be equipped, and they can be cycled through without needing to access the inventory. With a large number of enemies in each section, it quickly becomes important to keep at least one type of weapon for each element ready. Additionally, every enemy deals a specific type of elemental damage, so gear needs to be changed out for high resistances depending on the area. Acid, Fire, and Ice are the three types of elemental damage that a weapon or enemy can deal.
One of the most thrilling parts of Dolmen is the horror element that grows exponentially as the monsters become more difficult and much better at hiding. At first, most enemies can be seen from a distance, but they quickly begin to hide around corners, on the ceiling, or within the environment. A few jumpscares will lead to cautiously approaching every turn and inspecting all of the walls. Horror mixed with features like an intricate upgrade system, daunting combat encounters, and the ability to take on difficult bosses alongside some friends makes Dolmen an exciting title that delivers constant action and intense challenges.
Dolmen will be available on May 20, 2022, for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC. Screen Rant was provided a digital PlayStation 5 download code for the purpose of this review.