I've completed Solasta: Crown of the Magister and wanted to share some thoughts on the game. I'll start with what I most enjoyed.
Combat. This is turn-based tactical goodness where positioning matters. It can certainly unfold slowly at times, and there were a few enemies usually of the flying variety who would cause the game to hang up on their turn, but overall was not that bad. The developers set out to create encounters worthy of a pen and paper adaptation, and this they achieved. There were noticeably less random fights when exploring key locations and more set-piece affairs, and this contributed to the approach of a D&D session at the table where combat is less frequent but weighty. Criticisms toward the 5th edition ruleset is irrelevant, since that is the foundation the game stated it would be built upon. I have a number of 5e sourcebooks, so I'm familar with mechanics such as advantage/disadvantage and legendary actions. There were no surprises here, and while I would not say I love this edition, as an AD&D player it feels comfortable. I find that if a developer knows what he is doing, a Dungeons & Dragons adventure can be well crafted, regardless whether there is a bloated system slapped on or something more scaled back and bare bones. Solasta's design succeeds in this area.
Party building. I've always said that Dungeons & Dragons role-playing is about a party of individual Player Characters. Again, Solasta delivers on this front. From the opening vignettes that were allowed to each party member, actually playing through a small scenario before meeting up at a tavern, to the background and personality traits that were assigned; this gives further definition the player's characters. The side-quests that popped up mid-game tailored to each character were an unexpected and welcome addition. Finally, letting the player choose who would interact with the central narrative device was such a relief as opposed to the developer forcing a role on a "main protagonist". Solasta captures the essence of low-level adventuring, with all the preparation that goes with an enterprise like this, including detailed overland map travel with events to navigate.
Now some things I was not too fond of. The cinematics were a wee bit overbearing. I understand this is the story the developers wanted players to experience, and this is how they wanted to present it. Outside the party's group conversations while dungeon crawling, the Legacy Council stuff was particularly unfortunate. When I start getting the impression I'm watching a bad cgi movie, that's not a good thing. What is most bizarre is the juxtaposition with the otherwise faithful tabletop representation. For a game that knows its way around the pen and paper origin of the hobby, it is unusual to see this kind of importance placed on scripted visuals, which never had anything to do with playing Dungeons & Dragons. If it were up to me, I think I would have limited the cut scenes, and stuck with dialogue boxes.
I found the pacing of the adventure to be somewhat curious. Our party reached level 10 right after the arena in the Lava Forest dungeon. This was before doing the Cradle of Fire, another few sidequests, and the whole end chapter. Thus, it seemed the level cap was hit prematurely. In addition, characters reached level 5 right before the fight with Aksha. I explored the next area, turned in a quest and returned to defeat Aksha, which netted enough experience to reach level six. To me, that is too quick to rise through middle levels. I understand the appeal of brisk advancement, and I am fine with a 10 level cap for a Dungeons & Dragon module, but perhaps the leveling should have been spread out more.
The camera. Oh, the camera. Let me first start by stipulating I ran the game on low end specs . Perhaps if I had a top of the line graphics card and used the ultra setting, then camera control would have been buttery smooth. Now I did not mind the lesser graphics quality, and performance was actually ok, which is most important. But the panning of the camera just seemed to me too fluid. I would pan or rotate the camera with the appropriate keyboard commands, but even when I stopped, the camera kept moving. In fact, when playing a game like this, I don't want to be working the camera. Admittedly, it is a product of the type of three dimensional environment that is at the core of Solasta's area design, nevertheless I would have liked the camera to just follow the selected character or group of characters. The need to fiddle with the view constantly made exploration not as fun as it could have been. I think the fact that maps have multiple waypoints for the player to zip around and fast travel maybe acknowledges that it would be a chore to backtrack through these multi-level locations. Revealing the presence of all chests or lootable objects when opening up an area map meant that exploration was largely driven by going to these icons point by point, which felt a little less emergent. Another thing, the levels themselves seem to be well built with nice details (even on low graphics!) but there was a lot of space not even accessible. For a game that boasts so many tools to enhance navigation such as spiderclimbing, levitation and flying, there were far too many messages... "no path to destination". Or the mouse arrow being x-ed out altogether. Again, I realize the developers wanted to build some hard to reach areas for special treasure or alternative paths, but it could result in frustration when even with greater mobility, characters still faced obstructions that were not apparent how to bypass or if they even could be. I would have liked to seen a more open and accessible map, and then the player could send their characters anywhere as long as they had the appropriate means at their disposal. It's not that Solasta's environments are small, but it seemed they restricted movement more than they should have. One final comment on a specific example of a map communicating misinformation to the player. There is a location that has a chest visible, which would not be able to interact with until a later sidequest was triggered. That was rather aggravating, trying to reach an object that looks like I should be able to interact with it from every angle, but there was no way until the quest was activated.
Despite these last few concerns, I still enjoyed the game. I look forward to more Tactical Adventures, hopefully with an emphasis properly placed on combat and party customization, which is where Solasta shines.
