Wccftech have published a Q & A with Kiev Martins, producer of sci-fi Soulslike action roleplaying game Dolmen which releases next week.

Perfect timing to capitalise on Soulslike Elden Ring's stellar launch three months ago.

We'll take a look at a few of his more interesting responses.

What makes Dolmen unique, then, in your opinion? Is it the setting or the gameplay?

Dolmen has a few unique qualities. One of them is the space kind of environment and lore. This is not a medieval game, this is a sci-fi adventure, something like space opera. I think that's the right word here, but we also have the mixing between melee and ranged combat that is not a quality you easily find in other Soulslike games. We tried hard to inject this unique quality. So we have the different and unique space theme and the mixing between melee and ranged.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is currently the number 4 selling Soulslike on Steam but like gaming in general, fantasy dominates.

Given his answer to a later question we're not sure this qualifies as "space opera" but there could be a sizeable audience eager for a sci-fi Soulslike.

We share his impression that Soulslikes favour melee, but Elden Ring has already bucked that trend with both bows and also some of gaming's most scintillating spells.

You've also confirmed that there is a co-op, but just for boss battles, right?

Yes. We were inspired by other games like Monster Hunter, where you can call your friends to defeat bosses, but not regular enemies. We also realized that many players just want to fight that specific boss again, and they don't want to restart and do everything from scratch. So, we implemented a mechanic when you can respawn bosses and when you do, you can also call your friends again.

Seems a shame to limit co-op like this.

The joy of co-operative gaming isn't just in overcoming enemies.

If the concern is one of balance, just double the health of regular enemies with two players.

On the plus side, being able to respawn bosses without starting the game over will be popular.

There is no PvP in Dolmen, right?

No, no PvP so far.

Okay. Did you get any feedback from the community requesting to add it in the future? Is it a possibility?

So far people are more interested in knowing how good the game is going to feel, and they didn't give us any feedback about PvP. I don't know about the future so far. If the community demands something like this, we can of course prospect the possibility, but so far we didn't receive any request about PvP.

This is fascinating.

Our personal experience is that more players favour PvE (player versus environment, i.e. AI enemies).

Elden Ring is not to our tastes in this respect because co-operative multiplayer also allows random players to invade your world and disrupt your fun, i.e. PvP.

How important is the story in Dolmen? Is it any more important than in the average Soulslike game?

No, no. You don't need to spend hours to understand what's happening. It's a straightforward kind of narrative. We invested a lot more energy in the lore, in the environment. So you can feel the planet, feel the alien atmosphere, feel the aura in the details, but the narrative is kind of simple to understand your missionary and it was hired to solve a problem. You are not that save one. You are there to save the company's investment on the planet. I don't think that you will feel that you are a hero when playing Dolmen.

He's not overselling the story then.

While we're fairly certain he meant mercenary, the idea of playing a sci-fi missionary hired to protect corporate interests on an alien planet is now firmly lodged in our brain.

Damn.

Although, swap out corporate for Imperial and that's the surface layer of Dune's story. With a game having just gone into development.

Dolmen releases on PC, Xbox and Playstation on May 20.

[ Main Image: Dolmen. Credit: Prime Matter via Steam. ]

References

Palumbo, Alessio (May 13, 2022). Dolmen Q&A – The Sci-Fi Soulslike Will Be the First Game to Support FSR, DLSS, and XeSS. Wccftech.

Steam. Dolmen. Prime Matter. (viewed May 14, 2022)

Steam. Top-selling Soulslike games. (viewed May 14, 2022)