Solasta: Crown of the Magister

Its hard not to compare this to Baldurs Gate 3. Solasta clearly has a lower budget, but still delivers a DnD experience that in some ways is better than BG3. Solasta is clearly more combat driven, while BG3 is story driven. So if you like DnD style battles and mechanics this is going to be a blast. Do you want high end, polished graphics, audio and AAA story telling, then its not matching up to those expectations. Mechanics are nice, especially how they did the reaction mechanic (that BG3 just stole ) works better in Solasta than in BG3 Graphics are old school but good enough to enjoy the game with, but the dialog can be greatly improved. Add some more voice actors, better angles. BG3 has this covered, and delivers 100% on that. Solasta doesn't have too many cutscenes and at least most of them easily skippable. Which makes exploring, battle and replaying the game much more enticing and easy. Something I have a hard time with in BG3, I cannot just pick up BG3 over and over. Solasta is the first game that I buy classes as DLC's purely because its a small studio and I want them to get income to polish the game as much as they can!

It's a good game but it has plenty of flaws. While it is no long an early-release game, it still feels like an early-release game. The game content is lacking as they are missing several classes and races that should be there. The level cap is too low and the story is too short for a $40 game. There are several bugs still in the game and some of them aren't just annoying as they break entire features of the game. IMO, this is still an early-release quality game regardless of whether the devs want to say that it is no longer "in development" or "early release". That being said it is a very fun game if you enjoy turn-based, tactical party games with a DnD flavor. However, it is not worth $40. Wait for it to be on sale for less than $20 because that is the most this game is worth at the moment.

Would love to offer a more thorough review of this game, however I could not resolve the Unity crash at "New adventure" start. I want to make clear I bought the "finished" version of the game. I managed to get a party of characters created, was excited to dive in to the game....crashed. Tried multiple fixes suggested by GOG and elsewhere on the web....crash after crash after crash. Strangely crickets from the developer? Threads with people reporting the same problem showed no replies other than others reporting the same issue. It's a shame that such a well documented, game breaking crash has not even appeared to be acknowledged by the makers of this game. I may or may not bother trying this again in the future. Perhaps only after they've fixed this, maybe in a year or so, and even then only if it's heavily discounted. As it stands in it's current state, even if it were free it's not worth the space it takes on my hard drive. It's a shame really. A shame the developers released a "finished" game that prevents anyone from experiencing any of the actual gameplay.

Just having finished the game on second hardest difficulty all I can say that it is a well made game that brings memories back to when I initially played Baldur´s Gate. The story is all in all great, since there is basicly allways something pushing you forward. There is also a wide variety of spells at your disposal, so if one doesn´t work you can get another to do the same thing or gear to do the same. The game isn´t without its flaws though. - Experienced one bug where I couldn´t recieve a side quest which apparently had been in the game a while. - Limited gear selection, or redundant gear. Playing it on the second hardest difficulty I went through most of the game with basic gear without any major issues besides being killed a bit in the beginning. Not to mention it is very few of the factions that are actually needed to get proper upgrades. So gear could have been better implemented. - Ending feels a bit rushed perhaps. I recieved a lot of items during the end part that just took up space. While this might seem more than a few flaws they are also so minor that it isn´t something that removes from the overall experience of the game.

but with pretty bad dialog. The game is a very literal translation of 5e D&D SRD rules to a computer game, and the developers built encounters well and developed a unique setting. Solasta really takes advantage of 3d battles, with enemies standing on walls and using fly as you might on the tabletop. I've played through the game 2.5 times, and it really is helpful as a demonstration of the "RAW" combat balance of 5e D&Ds classes and interesting it its own right. The maps give you a lot to explore and are usually nice to look at. There are a lot of magic items to find or craft, and they help your party feel pretty powerful by the end game. I will say on repeat playthroughs with a more optimized party the game gets very easy. Forget rogues when you can get expertise through a feat in Solasta and replace them with any of the 2x attackers [paladin, fighter, ranger]. The dialog (maybe due to translation from French?) is just kind of there, with even less personality than what random soldiers say in a game like the Firaxis XCOMs. That's the biggest weakness of the game, but it keeps the story going. The factions are another minor weakness--one of them gets you useful magical equipment, the others barely matter, so you end up mostly rep grinding with them. It feels like if the game were a little longer, there might be more to do with the others or at least more of a point to it.