Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Baldur's Gate 3 vs Solasta comparison

I've played this game longer in EA than I have most games in the last 10 years, so 10/10 for me.

I agree. But ultimately all ratings are subjective, including pro reviews. It's up to each of us to decide if someone's ratings matter to us or not. Me, I generally ignore other people's ratings (where those people are strangers to me) when I decide on things to buy/patronize (especially restaurants).

I think we're so used to gaming magazines using 6-7/10 to imply "literally unplayable". Anything under that is pretty much "I dislike the franchise/company/I have a personal grudge with someone who likes it/whevs" comedy score and the surprisingly not-at-all-rare 10/10 is "I'm trying to score a freebie/I have been given a freebie/my mate who I haven't fallen out with yet works there and might get me a job" leaving at best two or three usable scores, ranging from "meh" to "pretty good" based on a maximum of 20 minutes' playing time.

But the music and film press set the standard decades ago. Yeah, looking at you, NME, where the album reviews mostly consisted of some hack showing off his vocabulary of the obscure.

I might give Solasta 5/6 though in my personal rating, not weird going journalist's "anything below 8 is bad" rating.

To early to judge BG3, though so far it has to many fundamental control issues to be higher then 7 to me. Even if content will be superb, it is too tedious to engage with the content to be truly great.

Scores are stupid and meaningless anyway

rating something so subjective is just silly. I'd give fortnite a 0/10 because I would never in a hundred years recommend it or play it and I'd give FFVI a 10/10 because it is my favorite jrpgs from my childhood. Those numbers don't tell anyone anything useful about those two games though. I personally don't really enjoy Solasta because it's more of a tactical combat simulator than a role playing game. I play role playing games to role play, not to have an xcom-esk experience (xcom is an amazing game btw).

I know what Solasta reminds me of: Neverwinter Nights original campaign.

Well Dungeon Editor Beta in Solasta is not near anything what you could do in Nevewinter Nights original modules and persistent world creations. Persistent world is multiplayer world on a player driven server and n players canjoin it remote only. Neverwinter Nights 1 create adventures for single play is not restricted to Dungeon crawl. You can createa anything a forest adventure or perhaps underwater.

Neverwinter Nigths 1 in time developed even better graphics I played on a beautiful persisten Online World in Neverwinter Nigths 1. I olayed through also countless single player adventures.
punished people even killed them if they could not roleplay well enough. I
Paradise Never winter Nights 1 player driven servers? No not the Online playing. The servers were run usually by ultra hard roleplayers and if you died you lost permanently lots of experience on the server I played on. Add to that to some freak ultra hardcore roleplayer gamemasters that was like Gestapo on Nazi time. They punished me for trying to "powerplay" one said you only try to create your character more powerful and then sent a bunch of monsters that killed me so I died and permanently lost a lots of experience points.

What I liked though was trying to powerplay. There was crafting but rare minerals were often guarded hard. Well so my Elf formed and alliance with a tough Dwarf smith. We two together as team work went to mine for rare minerals which was very dangerous often Trolls there that respawned after a time.

Well so what is wrong with powerplay? Nothing according to me and it was not a PvP server.

While GM on that server had kind of God complex they wanted us always to do their story adventures and frowned on monster exp killing very much indeed.

Yeah, the NWN1 and NWN2 campaign creators are hugely robust (points toward the rebuild of Baldur's Gate 1 into NWN2's engine) in fact, I think it's fair to say that they didn't treat the original campaigns for each game as much more than "so these are some things you can build with our DM mode".

Well as long there is a fair normal GM like in pen and paper that I have had and not like those in the online persistent world that I played in Neverwinter Nights 1. I have had several GM in DnD pen and paper all of them at least ok GM and not really bad GM as in Neverwinter Nights 1 online server.

Do not get me wrong. I have nothing against roleplaying. However if it becomes a punishable crime to want kill monsters to get loot and experience points and to powerplay create your character really strong (in regard to what level you are) then you go to far as GM.

It was a super beautiful persistent world in Neverwinter Nights 1. I chose to quit playing there afer I got enough annoyed on GM. GM that literally sent monsters to kill me so I die and loose lots of experience points permanently due to I powerplay to much they even complained about my stats how I had set attributes in the point buy system.
Well this happened a really long time ago and not some recent history.

No complaints on modules single player adventures created. People could vote them so I avoided really bad scored adventures.

thats why I was refering specifically to that Neverwinter Nights original campaign, rather than in a general sense to the aurora toolkit and its products.

I played both and to my taste Solasta is much more enjoyable. BG3 is still EA yet Solasta gameplay feels more rewarding and it has a fraction of BG3's budget. BG3 has strange approach when it comes to rewarding player choices. For example, the consumable from the witch gives a temporary +1 ability boost until a long rest! Why? I think because they try things on the already flawed long rest mechanics. I mean instead of setting a clear resting mechanic they blackmail players by losing a cool buff if they take a long rest! BG3 is a game where you can take endless and conditionless ( c'mon now we all know food hording is no problem ) long rest yet you have only 2 short rest between long rests! This is just bad design. Why not just implement already working 5e rules? It feels like developers wanna do smth different but do not know what to do!

Solasta, on the other hand has clearly defined mechanics and it plays well.

Its' story is not based on player choices but a solid linear one, graphics are comical compared to BG3 which I really don't care as long as the gameplay is challenging, rewarding and satisfactory.

Both games has their flaws, BG3 is still in EA. However, you can use special arrows with rogues' sneak range attack in Solasta I know it is just an example but things like this are much more important to me than romance options in a CRPG game.

Reminds in which sense? Because, for example, I look at it and see Icewind Dale (probably second rather than first).

Well perhaps there is some truth in what you say but I rate games as I rate IMDB movies. There are not even several movies that I give 10/10 rating.

7/10 is good for me. Nothing special though.


I agree with RutgerF. Well so far this game has been very linear indeed.

I am not changing my vote from 7/10.
I dont know but I have real problems with the userinterface and DnD rules.

What you need somatic component hand free?
Your are constantly encumbered and no my characters are not weak in strength in general except the Wizard.

I experienced one crash in Solasta so far and it then suggested lower graphics from maximum FULL HD when restarted game after crash. I did not do that still maximum graphics FULL HD. Well to games credit it autosaved the game so did not need to fight again a battle. It crashed like 5 seconds after a battle.

Much telling is my view of this game if by now I have reached Outpost and found will not say what since spoilers but not gone away from there yet. Well and I am still level 2. Sorry I keep my vote firmly on 7/10 for Solasta it is not better then that. It is enough interesting to keep me going, but not really good like 8/10.

Why do I play only on FULL HD resolution Solasta and not say 1440k or 4k resolution? My gaming display is suitable for FPS games, but has maximum resolution only FULL HD.

What now you might think that dude Terminator2020 he is probably running Solasta maximum graphics FULL HD on a laptop that goes warm and generally has system crashes in many games?
My answer is no it is desktop not super new bought it year 2018 but still good for games specially if you run games only at FULL HD resolution maximum and do not care about fancy ray tracing. My desktop did not ran hot when I experienced my only system crash in Solast so far at least.

This is my desktop hardware, bought year 2018 so not saying it is super hardware by long shot, but good enough for BG3 and Solasta MAXIMUM graphics at FULL HD resolution.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Processor in TURBO mode 4.2 Ghz
Socket-AM4, 6-Cores, 12-Threads

Motherboard: MSI X470 GAMING PLUS, Socket-AM4 Motherboard, ATX, X470, DDR4, 3xPCIe-x16,
CFX, 2x M.2, USB 3.1, Mystic Light RGB

GPU: Nvidia 1070 Titanium 8GB DDR5

RAM: 16 GB to be more exact:
G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4 16GB KIT 3200Mhz
2x8GB, PC25600/3200Mhz, 16GVBK, CL 16

SSD: Samsung 860 EVO 500 GB, 2,5

HDD:Separately have none SSD hardrives one of them new:
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5'' HDD

Power: Seasonic Focus+ 650W 80+ GOLD PSU ATX 12V, 80 Plus Gold, Modular

OS: Windows 10

In the sense that I really like Icewind Dale, a game I have over 500 hours in apparently, with its BG1/2 approach to items and very short dialogues, good scene setting and consistency, excellent environmental design and hand painted backgrounds. While Solasta reminds me of NWN1's attempt at faithful 3rd edition in the blandest possible way with dull fights, too much exposition with environmental design having that same NWN feel. NWN original campaign feels like a half-finished tech demo to show off implementation of 3e in a video game, as does Solasta, but for 5e.

For me IWD works as a dungeon crawler designed around 2e, rather than a tech demo to show off 2e, while Solasta is bogged down and lacks any of the satisfaction.

I see your point, and tend to agree, just haven't thought about it this way. I completed NWN OC maybe twice at most, and it was what, 15 years ago, so it seems my memory has mercifully relieved me of these unsavoury details, considering that I can't recall them anymore

You are correct that Neverwinter Nights 1 main campaign, story etc was not great more like average. Well though it was not so super linear as Solasta.

Anyway the what made Neverwinter Nights 1 great was:
1. First Dungeons Dragons game that was truly 3D. Unfortunately this makes the graphics very outdated and rude in main campaign.
2. Tool to make modules community made modules the best of them better then main campaign. I would also add the best of them had better graphics then main campaign.
3. Community driven persistent worlds though big problem with them majority of them was to hardcore extreeme roleplayers that was cruel. Opposite of warm and welcome community worlds Multiplayer like in a MMO persistent worlds and part of them PvP oriented others only PvE.
4. While graphics is outdated the music is ok.

Well and yes BG1 main campaign and expansions story was better then Neverwinter Nights 1 main campaign.

I would recommend these modules of Neverwinter Nigths 1. I do not remember every very good modules, but these are among best modules created a long time ago by Adam Miller:

Shadowlords
The Shadowlords campaign begins with your first level characters and takes them on a lengthy quest across Faerûn and beyond. Along the way, you'll meet up with interesting characters who will join you on your quest. Expect romance, intrigue, and a good dose of mystery.

Dreamcatcher
The Dreamcatcher Campaign continues the adventure started in Shadowlords. The scene opens in Waterdeep, where you find yourself and your companions resting after your last journey. These modules are intended for characters around level eight, either solo or with a small group.

Demon
The story ends in the places beyond the world. Discover the mysteries of your origin and reclaim what has been taken from you.

Well then a more modern time created Neverwinter Nights 1 module that is very high rated it is Aielund Saga, but I have never played it myself and it was created so late as year 2019.
I can say modules Shadowlords, Dremcatcher and Demon were not only good story. No they had better graphics and special effects better then Neverwinter Nights 1 main campaing for me.

Neverwinter Nights 2?
Adam Miller campaign the modules:
Dark waters

Out of BG3 x Solasta x Pathfinder WoTR, Pathfinder is getting nearly all my playtime. And its still in EA.
How about comparing to that game? More classes, more playiable NPCs, party of 6, day/nights, great story, great dialogue, classic yet modern CRPG style (turn base AND Realtime with pause) , a solid D^D 3.75 <Pathfinder> system...
Solasta while has a great D^D system is very easy to criticize for everything else compared to BG3.

Well I have not played the new Pathfinder AlPHA.

Here are the reasons for that:
A. I bought the first Pathfinder game. I did not like to sandbox game, No thanks. It was not bad in my taste but more like an average game.
B. Pathfinder system is even clearly more complicated then DnD 3.5. They do not have what I would say good tutorial in second Pathfinder game from what I have heard.
C. The cost of playing ALPHA Pathfinder 2 is enormous 120 euro despite full game to buy cost only a small part of that. Why would I pay 120 euro to enter a ALPHA?

I think I wait for full reviews and the need to be really high like 9/10 for me considering buying Pathfinder 2. I bought first Pathfinder game and never finished it. On the other hand I never finished DOS2 (and I have never played DOS1).My brother finished DOS2, but never finished Pillars of Eternity 1.

I did play through Pillars of Eternity 1. My brother has said he will buy BG3 when it is released and play the campaign with me. He is not interested to play in ALPHA states games.

Well and my brother is another kind of gamer then you. He also likes none turn based combat and play n other games, He does not play games in ALPHA.

I don't think the comparison between Solasta and NWN holds AT ALL.
They couldn't be more different in concept.
One is a game that tries to get the closest it can to be mechanically a "pure D&D experience" while the other was a mechanically clumsy game that tried to "broad the appeal" of the system turning into a dumb point-and-click action game and giving up entirely on managing a party.

And yeah, Wrath of the Righteous is currently my most anticipated game this year (on par with the rumored "Marvel XCOM" from Fireaxis, which has yet to prove it can live up to XCOM 2 War of the Chosen, anyway).
Not that WotR beta doesn't have its fair share of issues to iron out, anyway, starting with the most atrocious pathfinding* I've ever seen in a game of this type when played in turn-based mode.
Not to mention at least a couple of encounter designs that reek a bit of "sweaty DM trying to score points against the players with some cheap gotcha moments".

*Quite ironic, given the license involved.

I am sorry here we have different taste. Solasta is to hardcore DnD rules for my taste and very ugly graphics for being new game. I hate that that they need Somatic for casting spells. Well and then you are encumbered almost always.

In Neverwinter Nights 1 solo modules and main campaign you can pause anytime you want and give commands. Neverwinter Nights 1 is NOT an Action game.

In multiplayer persistent worlds in Neverwinter Nights then you can not pause. In addition Neverwinter MMO that is an Action MMO Dnd 4th, but that gameplay is not same as Neverwinter Nights 1 which is not an Action game since you can pause and give commands.