Sci-fi soulslike Dolmen shows off its bug-smashing arsenal ahead of next year's release
It's like if Doom, Dead Space and Dark Souls all had a spider-stomping baby.
In space, nobody can hear you talk about your sci-fi action RPG Dolmen. But Gamescom isn't in space, and tonight we got our first update on a Soulsy sci-fi adventure that rolled onto Kickstarter back in 2018.
Showing up during the Future Games Show, Dolmen's latest trailer sets the scene with your usual sci-fi disaster. There's a research station out there that's gone to shit, one that requires an astronaut-turned-exterminator wielding an arsenal of increasingly-silly axes, guns and space magic to rescue.
Despite being formally reintroduced this year, gameplay footage of Dolmen made the rounds at shows back in 2019—showing 30 minutes of our far-future spaceman hacking apart spiders with an axe and shield, using guns to freeze foes before going in for the slash. Tonight's footage showed us a game that's grown a lot more dynamic in the years since, using an array of firearms and weird alien weapons to dance around foes—inflicting devastating status effects before going in for the kill.
More importantly, it looks like fashion will be a crucial part of Dolmen, with outfits ranging from space military chic to the still-dripping chitinous shells of your insectoid foes.
Dolmen is being published by Prime Matter, a new label announced earlier this year that, among others, is publishing Payday 3 and a new Painkiller game. Dolmen is set to release on Steam sometime next year.