I played a bit more of Solasta - with the new patch - on Ironman Mode. Got as far as Master Mardracht before wiping after failing the check and not being fully rested. Just like in Baldur's Gate it is possible to "game" the game, since with Goodberry you can rest after every encounter, which I had generally been doing until this last one - whoops.

But playing it again just made me double down on my dislike of 5e. As has been mentioned, this game is a linear run about combat, but imo it doesn't even scratch that combat itch which might be a result of 1) too many irritating puzzles - if you are making a combat game it makes me cringe that the only other thing that was added in was some overly long, overly tedious puzzles, between combat set-pieces 2) boring turn based combat (not that turn based combat is boring by default, just that solasta turn-based combat is boring) - I can almost see this game working better RTwP, ive seen people compare it to IWD but imo there is no comparison because of the limitations of turn-based. 3) uninspiring level-design - even if things look pretty the way they are assembled just feels off when playing: crawl through hole and climb up on box syndrome makes it feel a bit like playing a jungle-gym simulator

Finally, the new Sorcerer DLC really shows up an issue with turn based - the slowness - Every time you use a Sorcerer spell you get a metamagic popup. Which is fine... for the first hundred times you don't want to use it, but after that it starts getting really stale. It detracts from the replayability because it makes things more tedious. Reactions to AoO stuff works well as a popup imo, but the metamagic one in combination with the other stuff drives me loopy. Metamagic should have been an upcast menu when picking a spell, not like how it was done - and imo its exactly what Larian would be worried about when designing reactions etc - slowing down combat to a crawl by adding endless clicks

I really want to like this game, but as I have said before a raw 5e simulator, no matter how well implemented, is still just a raw 5e simulator - and in Solasta's case a rather flat-feeling one.

And one of the classic complaints which I have never been able to get over - I really think tactical adventures underestimated the impact their uncanny valley character design was going to have; a lot of people feel a genuine distress and/or revulsion at the character models. its an interesting effect but most unsettling.


edit: i should say that something that Solasta gets 100% right and is a joy is the WSAD +QE camera movement + rotation. It works so well.

edit 2: One final thing, which some of you might have noticed, is that Solasta came our of early access and was officially released in a state that imo feels not quite done. People here have rightly complained about BG3 inventory management but I raise you Solasta inventory management which is also trash

Last edited by alice_ashpool; 14/07/21 02:46 PM.