Sci-fi action RPG Dolmen rolls onto Kickstarter next month

Sci-fi action RPG Dolmen is heading to Kickstarter next month, and I reckon it'll garner a fair amount of support. It's a mix of horror and heavy, deliberate third-person combat set on the strange alien world of Revion Prime. You awaken from a cryogenic slumber to discover that the rest of your crew is dead, and you have to venture out into the world alone.

Not exactly the most original premise, but if the gameplay is tight then it'll work. Expect some scares, and the main character's exoskeleton can't help but put me in mind of Isaac Clarke from the Dead Space series. The weapons look to be a mixture of futuristic firearms and giant swords that wouldn't look out of place in a fantasy setting, and there's a definite emphasis on dodging your enemies' attacks. I get the sense that your character can't sustain much punishment.

After heading to Kickstarter, Brazilian developer Massive Work Studio, which is being supported by the Square Enix Collective, plans to bring the game to Steam Early Access in September, where it will cost between $20 and $30. The trailer, above, does suffer from a few framerate problems, but it's still early on in development, so I'll reserve judgment until I see more. It looks like it's at least worth keeping tabs on if this is the kind of thing you're into.

You can read more about the game on its website.

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.