Dolmen Reviews
Dolmen is an interesting Soulslike experience that is troubled by clunky combat, and an outdated UI, which hurts the game's chances of standing out in a crowded market with games that does what it does, but better.
For every frustration I had for not having quite as many “Aha!” moments when opening a door or discovering some lore, it’s equalled with other ways the game is working to impress. On offer is a solid nightmarish journey from the darkest depths to the dreadfully eerie conclusion at the world’s own horrific ground zero. This is held up by clever combat implementations and a rewarding sense of experimentation and exploration.
Dolmen is little but an average, derivative game with some serious balance issues. Now, this can be mended in time, and apart from that, it offers enjoyable exploration, decent gunplay, and pleasant stylistics. Still, for most players, that might not be enough.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Dolmen is yet another Soulslike that proves this formula is almost impossible to get right. It's a flat, boring experience with none of the spark and vigor it needs to transcend its many technical flaws.
Dolmen bites far more than it can chew, trying to merge the melee combat of any From Software game with the gunplay of Remnant from The Ashes: the result is an average game that tries to accomplish too many things at once.
Review in Italian | Read full review
It’s just disappointing that a lack of polish and modern sensibilities hinder the product at all turns, leaving what could have been a chunky and ambitious slice of indie action horror down a path forgotten and overshadowed.
Dolmen relies too much on the Soulslike playbook to be much of anything other than a middling iteration of the formula.
Dolmen isn’t a terrible game, but it definitely wasn’t ready to be released yet. Perhaps it can be improved by future patches, but as it stands, there’s no way this game is worth $20 in its current state, let alone $40. Pick up Dolmen if it shows up free on PS+ or Xbox Game Pass, but otherwise, go play Hellpoint or The Surge games if you want a futuristic Souls clone.
A unique world with some fantastic environment designs and challenging combat, let down by often unfair enemies and a story that just wasn't that interesting.
Dolmen emerges as a good entry in the world of soulslike and has its value, mainly due to the risks taken by its developer. Even so, the title has positives and negatives points in almost the same proportion, with AI, visuals and interface falling short of what they could be.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
As far as sci-fi Souls-likes go, Dolmen sits somewhere between Hellpoint and The Surge in terms of quality. It can offer a rewarding experience to Souls-like fans, but it falls short of the bar set by the creators of the genre. Still, for those who have patience and persistence, and like the idea of exploring a new, futuristic setting while engaging in challenging combat, it’s worth checking out.
The sci-fi action RPG inspired by the Dark Souls series tries to bring players an engaging experience. But the rough hero fails.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Dolmen may not be a contender for the title of game of the year, but for soulslike fans it will provide some fun. It is a pity that it is often a bit stiff, lopsided and far too simple.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Dolmen manages to take the Souls formula by giving it a twist and incorporating it into a space environment, with very exciting action-rpg and exploration properties.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Dolmen wants to put its mark in the Action RPG genre with a potentially intriguing Space/Horror tale that never really goes to space, and isn’t at all scary. It never feels good to play, broke on me constantly, and was an ugly maze of bland/blocky corridors. Retailing for $39.99 at launch I can’t in good conscious recommend this over almost any other game in the genre.
There are so few positive things to say about Dolmen. It combines Dark Souls and Dead Space together into something not nearly as good as either. It is such a generic game, that it looks like someone bought a bunch of sci-fi assets from the Unity store and hastily slapped them together. Even still, it is so unoptimized, it could be running totally smoothly one second and then start chugging the next. It is riddled with bugs, one day there was absolutely no sound and the next day the game tried to launch SteamVR every time I started it. The framerate is so inconsistent, especially during cutscenes, most flipbooks are smoother viewing experiences. Dolmen is a dull, incompetent clone of a FromSoftware game whose reach far exceeds its grasp.
More than just a really bad soulslike, Dolmen is a major disappointment. After more than half a decade waiting for this game, as well as constantly losing faith in it ever being released, I was expecting for these constant delays to result in it feeling more polished, more akin to more modern soulslikes. What we ended up getting was the complete opposite: a clunky, shockingly behind-the-times husk of an action RPG which would have been considered dated back in 2016, let alone today.
While Dolmen offers fun, challenging, and rewarding gameplay and a rich crafting system, its other features are a bit of a hit-and-miss.
Dolmen is a sci-fi Souls-like action adventure game that spent many years in development and it definitely shows.
DOLMEN is a new action RPG with influences from the Souls franchise, where we must travel to a hostile planet to find answers to what happened there while trying to recover the fragments of the DOLMEN crystal, which has the ability to transport us between realities. An interesting proposal that will satisfy lovers of this type of game.
Review in Spanish | Read full review