I've seen the Solasta Steam reviews that say it's better than BG3, as troubling as that is, but I don't really believe it. I'm waiting for BG3 Enhanced Edition before I jump in as I've played all the Larian games, I've played DOS in beta and regretted it and I know Larian and what they do and when I should play, so I can't really give any comparison between the two.
However, while I usually avoid Early Access games, I was just a little too curious to find out a bit more about these developers so I went in early to check it out.
What I discovered is there's really not very much there.
The combat system works very well, the GUI is clean and accessible. It's a great 5E setup. However, the combat encounters are surprisingly few and all very easy. I did have my fighter pushed off an edge to his death at one point but I never had to reload.
The game is very linear and I think it could be better with some optional hard paths and out of depth encounters. But based off a "dream" high-level encounter, where you control a 150HP paladin fighting off small and large of the same monster, I'd guess there are very few exciting encounters to look forward to when the glimpse of whats coming is pretty much the same monster rescaled into a big version.
I think a lot of players will actually enjoy the easy encounters. But if you're the type of player who always plays on hard then you will walk though this early access offering.
What is unique about this game is the reliance on light sources to avoid disadvantage rolls, which isn't really fully realised, and a somewhat missed opportunity for puzzles with the interactive blocks and beams that can only be pushed one way. In Dark Souls, you would sometimes kick down a tree as a shortcut back the way you came and opening shortcuts felt satisfying. But in Solasta I feel like there's really no point forcing the player to kick down a beam every few steps to fill in the linear path forward. Considering there's only 2 or 3 encounters per map, I would prefer to spend more of my time fighting than watching movement animations that cannot be avoided.
In town, you'll find most of the shops have required reputation to buy their items that can be raised by deciding who gets the relic. But, at this time, it's mostly just +1 junk and not very exciting.
There's also an interesting Scavenger NPC who is supposed to automatically sell all the left over trash loot from the maps, but the feature is still work in progress and doesn't work.
There is a lot of talking in the game. Those who like a storyline are well enough catered for and it's easy enough to make a party that can speak all the languages and make all the dice checks so you'll never miss anything. There's so little content that it does make sense to let the player see it all, but there won't be anything missed to discover on a second playthough.
Also of note is the traveling is kinda cool with little flavour events like saying the party sings a song or finds some tasty mushrooms, gaining extra rations.
The graphics vary from very nice in the maps, though requiring a lot of manual camera rotation, to pretty average in the conversations where the faces close up are not great and often reused.
Overall, I think there's a strong foundation there in which to build a solid game. But there is a lot of work left to be done. It's clearly a small team with a small budget, and I don't see much genius to their design like I do with other small developers such as Human Head Games with Grimrock and Druidstone. But, again, others might find HHG to be too puzzley or so tactical it becomes a puzzle and really enjoy never feeling overwhelmed in Solasta. So, I think Solasta is a decent game with a lot of potential and even more work to be done to realise it.
PS.
In case anyone was wondering, my party is a fairly generic one with a
Dwarf fighter, 2handed weapons, Champion spec.
Human Cleric, background that allows Martial weapons, Life domain.
Human Mage, background that allows Medium armor, Combat spec.
Halfling Thief
I used the old dice roll method and got a couple of 18s so they're pretty strong.