Originally Posted by Telephasic
I downloaded it today, and have played a bit (now up to level 3). My thoughts.

1. Combat is indeed much more fun/rewarding in Solasta than in BG3.

2. The camera is super-easy to work with in comparison to BG3.

3. The interface is much simpler, though it feels a bit unfinished at the same time, insofar as the design doesn't seem entirely appropriate for a fantasy RPG.

4. The way that party dialogue works means the game has basically no roleplaying to speak of. You create all four of your characters, giving them unique classes, alignments, backgrounds, and a few personality traits. But when you talk to NPCs, you are basically given four options - one for each character. That means that there's really one, and only one thing each character can interject at a given time. The characters are all 100% voice acted, which is nice in a way, but there's simply not quite enough flavor put into each one to give a real idea that each of your characters has a unique personality. I mean, my mage chimes in with history/arcana lore from time to time, and people recognize their co-religionists, but my Paladin has said pretty un-Paladin things as well.

5. Once you take out all the mechanics stuff, it's just not as good of a game, period. The game appears to be almost entirely linear, and outside of combat mechanics, each encounter seems to have been designed to have one - and only one - successful outcome. This is much more simplistic than what Larian is attempting to design. NPCs exist just to hand out quests, sell items, and spit out some lore from time to time. The game setting and story feel like bog-standard fantasy - there's not anything really to hook you. It honestly gives a NWN sort of vibe in terms of telling a "basic" story of a party of low-level generic adventurers.

I will say I really liked how the turtorial was set up though - as a series of bar tales which the party members were telling to one another.


pretty similar to my breakdown a few pages ago, right now the gameplay of combat feels better (I dont think combat having multiple approachs is more true in BG3 than Solasta though, some environments are pretty diverse in solasta with multiple approaches, especially as you start getting more abilities). But in terms of the bulk of content, BG3 feels better. It's why I hope they look at Solasta combat and realise what they're doing wrong, as cleaning up BG3 combat would make it strictly superior in every way. But right now I get irked by too many things in BG3 combat to truly enjoy the gameplay.