Solasta: Crown of the Magister

Many people compare this to Baldur's Gate 2, but I find it feels more like an updated Neverwinter Nights 2 without depressing story lines and falling rocks. It has a lot of cut scenes for advancing the story line. These are well done, and sometimes quite funny. I have encountered no noticeable bugs, The game is quite customizable. I have played with dice everywhere, and then again with a more streamlined and faster version. Both work well. You can save anywhere, any time. I like the graphics at 4K, maximum quality. The small touches are well done. For example, shadows are cast by the characters, and armor changes are pictured both in portraits and in game. Locations are spectacular. Many have a big vertical component, and I find they handle the third dimension better than other isometric CRPGs. It feels effortless. The combat is turn based, with all that entails. If you are used to real time you might find it slow. Strategy is different, as is the tension. I'm often thinking and adjusting each turn. You have a plan, and then your ranger botches all of her attacks. What will your wizard do now? Fun. Character customization is excellent. Classes and backgrounds affect skills, quests, and conversations. This game plays a little differently from classic tank/killer/healer/mage. Each character can benefit from skill in both melee and ranged attacks. I played with two rangers, a healing cleric, and a wizard, and had no problem successfully completing the main campaign. The game provides a powerful framework for mods, and I have found multiple fan-made quests and campaigns online. You can easily extend your gaming to four or five times the length of the main campaign. Minor negative points: The characters you create can be, well, ugly. DLCs addressed that to some extent. As others have pointed out, there are not enough voices available. A DLC with a few more choices would be nice. I would buy more DLCs and another game from these developers. Highly recommend.

This game is about as 50/50 as I have ever seen. For every good thing it does there's a keyboard smashing negative. The pros are an interesting character creator, the characters speak on their own based on the personality traits you give them, and while the story isn't amazing the world is at least interesting. However, the negatives drag that all down, specifically the RNG. Enemies will consistently rolls 15s or higher while your group will stuggle to roll above a 10. Skill checks are the same, I have a character specifically made for for skill checks and I don't think she's ever passed an intuition check even though she has a plus 11. Other negatives include, too many skills that aren't used in the campaign, and a very linear story. You have a world map similar to the Pathfinder games, but zero freedom to move around it. Game is 2.5/5.

An enjoyable take on D&D. Tactical fights are engaging and you need to keep in mind all the strengths and weaknesses of your characters. As usual in a D&D CRPG a balanced party seems to do the best. I completed a run, and am on my second with a cleric, barbarian, theif, and wizard and doing well. Dialog is hit or (mostly) miss, and the main story is adequate enough if not best-seller attention keeping. I would rate this as not worth origingal full price, be a great one to get when on sale that you'll enjoy if you enjoy D&D rules (and restrictions!). However, its unfortunate they haven't come back to fix some glaring, well published bugs, like the fact when you use the boots of flying your character can no longer go through doorways ... and removing the boots doesn't help, you need to wait at least 8 hours game time!

Congrats to the developers! I put 67 hours into this game, completed it, and even though the game has some shortcomings, it was well worth my time. PROS - game mechanics are straightforward, clean, clear and well-functioning - the closest adaptation of the D&D 5e ruleset to PC I have yet played - clean user interface; inventory and crafting options not overwhelming - excellent for tactical experience with a simple narrative that connects major encounters CONS - graphics could have been improved, but the mediocre visuals don't get in the way of the fun - voiceovers and dialogues could have been better Regarding the cons, it is worth noting that Tactical Adventures is a fresh company on the market (hence the low budget for elements beyond the core experience, I suppose), so I really hope that they can gather enough resources through the success of Solasta to develop a sequel with better graphics, better voiceovers and dialogues, and a more original story. All in all, a near-perfect CRPG I highly recommend for those who want to have an 'XCOM meets D&D' experience.

I don't get why this game is praised. I'm just 4,5 hours in so far, but this game... Alright, let's start with the positives: The races that and classes that are available, seem to be implemented well, except for the elves's trance (I''ll get to that later) The combat feels mostly like your usual dnd5e tabletop, which is why I got the game in the first place. There are many options to change difficulty and bypass missing features (Paladins and Clerics can't place holy symbols on a shield, so you can simply deactivate somantic components) You can switch a weapon-set once per turn as a free action I think that's it. Now the bad things: SPOILER Already the first quest in Cear Lem has a bad writing with (with an invisible lizard spawning right in the middle of an area, only one person to fight it and die, and nobody noticed how it broke through a wall, as this secret passage had clearly a wall moments ago, and only two out of three of the survivors manage to flee with you?!) END SPOILER While the idea of the height-layers and the controls for it are a nice idea, the execution of it is quite lackluster. You can move the camera only at certain points, making it quite difficult to actually find the right spot to misty step to get to a certain treasure-chest. Leviation seems to be only useful against enemies. Sneak attack sometimes seems to not proc at all, even though you have either advantage or an ally is next to the enemy (yes I know it only works once per turn) Fly.... fly is a joke. I'm currently in the tower, had to use a fly-scroll to fly up, and had fly still active in it. But I couldn't get to the targeted area, as there is no "destinated path".... had to stop the concentration on fly EARLY just to JUMP over the gap.... Why can't you fly over it?! What's the point of fly if you can't fly over gaps? except only when the developers force you to use it.... I get it's due the story, but I'm still missing some races and classes (and subclasses)...