Dolmen

The goal of the developers was to merge space science fiction and horror elements.

Game mechanics

In terms of gameplay, Dolmen is part of the popular souls-like trend. The combat system is skillful and requires careful observation of enemies, and the attacks with melee weapons (swords, axes) consume stamina points. We can also use special guns to perform distance attacks - they are powered by the energy accumulated by our hero which is the equivalent of a mana bar. They don't do much damage, whether we use light or heavy fire mode. However, they can be used to inflict negative effects on enemies, such as freezing or poison. In addition to the usual opponents, we will also face powerful bosses with unique attack sets. Lost health is regenerated at the expense of our energy, and we block attacks with a special energy shield. A perfect parry of the opponent's attack makes them immobilized for a brief moment, giving us time to plan our next actions.

Killed enemies give us experience points and various items. We use the former to improve the statistics of the main character, which we do only on our ship called "ZEO". These stats determine how much damage we inflict with various kinds of weapons, how many health points, stamina or protection we have against specific types of damage. We move to the ship via terminals which also serve as save points that revive opponents as well as a locker for our materials. We use the acquired items mainly to create new equipment or improve the current one. There are also special blueprints that we can use in two ways - we can construct new suits, or we consume them to get an immediate bonus to one of our attributes.

Technical aspects

Dolmen was created on Unreal Engine, however, due to the developer's budget limitations, the graphics aren't that great. Individual locations have a very organic design - the platforms we move on often resemble bones or muscles of living organisms.