Solasta 2 Preview: A Stunning CRPG

Solasta 2 was first revealed at The Game Awards 2024, a direct sequel to the 2021 Solasta: Crown of the Magister. The sequel builds on the original's turn-based tactical combat and rich storytelling, expanding the scope of exploration and adding new classes, races, and improved mechanics to enhance the overall gameplay experience for both returning players and newcomers. Like that first game, it’s also based on the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, and just like that first game, it’s launching into early access (at some point later this year, in fact). With the arrival of Steam Next Fest comes a demo for the title, but is it worth playing? Having played it, the answer to that question is: absolutely yes.

The demo drops you into the middle of an early section of the game, as a level 3 Dwarf Paladin. Your other party members are made up of a Human Fighter-Cleric multiclass, an Elf Sorcerer, and a Halfling Rogue, with the potential to pick up a temporary, non-customizable party in the form of a Siklas named Jabori partway into the demo.

There’s also, however, the option to just leave him. The biggest promise here, akin to several other CRPGs, is that your choices matter. Choosing to help one person over another could result in several deaths further down the line, and in most situations, you’re not going to be able to predict what happens. Coming off Dragon Age: The Veilguard, where a similar thing was promised, I was wary. How much would what I did matter in the grand scheme of things, especially in a demo? As it turns out, rather a lot.

As an example going back to the aforementioned Siklas, who is currently being held captive by several Kobolds for religious reasons, there are multiple ways to save him (or you could just not save him if you think it’s not worth the hassle). I could perhaps try to talk my way past the Kobolds, though failure to convince them of my need to see the prisoner could result in my death. I could fight them, though the positioning of my party wasn’t great, and one well-placed ranged attacker could end my entire run. Or, I could listen to my Rogue, who had a cunning plan.

She thinks it would be a good idea for her to break off from the party, sneak around the Kobolds, steal one of the Dragon Scales that they covet and worship, and then present this to them. This has the effect of making the Kobolds believe that you’re a member of the Dragon Cult that they worship, allowing easy passage through the area, and allowing you to talk to Jabori and figure out what is going on here. This is what I did, and it worked an absolute charm. The Kobolds were terrified of me and my party, thinking that we were Dragon Cultists and that we were sent by their leader. This meant that I could go up to the Siklas, talk to him about how he got there, and then persuade the lead Kobold to let him go, adding a temporary party member to my roster to make a later fight easier.

There’s also a quest in this same area where a group of Fishermen have gone missing, and it’s up to me to find and save them. I was completely able to just ignore this quest, rest up, and heal from some earlier skirmishes, but if I did then it was likely that the Fishermen would lose their lives. So I used all of my healing spells on my party and went off to find the Fishermen.

Once I found them, however, I discovered a problem: between me and them was a stretch of land long enough that it couldn’t be covered in a single turn without using my action to dash. Behind me were several enemies that had access to both ranged and melee attacks, and in front of me were the three Fishermen I’d been sent to rescue, but they were also surrounded by multiple enemies. I decided in this scenario that the best decision I could make for my party was to deal with the enemies near my party first, before sending party members over the block in the road between me and the Fishermen to help them.

This, as it turns out, was a dire mistake. My rogue was quickly taken down after being surrounded by crabs (the enemies here are acid-spitting crabs, who can very quickly take you down), and I had to use the turn of my Cleric to help stabilize her so she didn’t die. Meanwhile, while I was doing this, the Crabs further back all jumped one Fisherman in particular, killing him and leaving them with only two more targets. I’d already partially failed in my mission, and I was determined to not lose anybody else.

So I powered through, using my sorcerer to move as far as possible towards the other Fishermen in his turn before using a ranged spell to blow away the crab closest to a Fisherman. Through careful planning, several extremely lucky rolls, and a very clutch Lay-On Hands from my Cleric, I was able to save the two remaining Fishermen, who were grateful for my help. Yet I couldn’t help but feel I’d failed them, that I hadn’t done everything I could to save their dead friend. But I’d already made my choices: this was my failure, and I needed to learn to live with the consequences of my actions.

Dialogue choices are varied, too. As you choose what to say in a conversation, you’re given exactly what percentage of your words have to convince people of what you’re saying. Depending on your scenario and your previous choices, however, you can give yourself an easier time and make it so that you have a far lesser chance of failing. There’s one difference here from most other CRPGs that I quite appreciate, though: you’re not just given the option for your current player character to talk. No, instead you’re presented with the options for your entire party, meaning that if you’re trying to intimate somebody, for example, you can have your Fighter take the lead rather than try and intimidate somebody with a Paladin or a Rogue. If you need to be convincing, then you can have your Rogue take the lead. It opens up the amount of decisions you have massively, and it’s a brilliant decision on the part of the developers. It also means that as a player, I wasn’t restricted to one specific playstyle and I could take advantage of my entire party, which helps to replicate the tabletop experience.

But what if you do choose to just take the Kobolds down in a fight? What if you have a bloodthirst that just can’t be quenched, no matter how many souls you take? Well, you’re in luck! Combat here plays extremely similar to Baldur’s Gate 3 (and several other recent CRPGs, for that matter), and feels as good as it does there. It almost becomes a strategy game in those moments, attempting to work out the best action to take in any given scenario: sure, you COULD heal yourself for four hit points, thus allowing you to survive another hit. But there’s also always a chance that the next hit will miss, and you could have attempted to take an attack there to finish off this fight, so what is worth it in the end? Combine these strategic moments with multiple party members and you have to think about exactly what you want in a moment to moment, replicating the very best of a Table Top Role-Playing experience.

It's important to note that there’s no character creator for the demo. Players are given a pre-made team. However, the developers have promised that the final release will include an extensive character creator. It’s currently unclear what races and classes will be available. I will say, though, that judging by the sheer size of the eyebrows on some of the party members here I’m expecting a slider that allows me to create the most elaborate facial hair in the history of video games.

While this is obviously only a vertical slice of the game, and thus has the potential to not be representative of what the final product is (god knows we’ve seen enough examples of that in the past to not fall for it again), it is a VERY impressive demo. Graphically, it’s beautiful to look at. Some of the vistas were so breathtaking that I stopped playing the game just to admire them. The demo feels brilliant, supporting both keyboard/mouse and controller, each offering an ideal experience. This versatility ensures that players can choose the control scheme that suits them best without sacrificing responsiveness. Something I’ve found when playing a lot of other CRPGs is that playing the game on a keyboard/mouse could become extremely overwhelming very quickly, but Solasta 2 feels smooth and responsive to a fault.

If you have any interest in CRPGs, if you enjoyed Baldur’s Gate 3, if you’ve been looking for a little more from your role-playing experiences, then you should download the Solasta 2 demo and give it a shot. Take two hours out of your life to experience a well-crafted RPG, and get yourself ready for the early access release of the title later this year. It’s truly an incredible time and has gone from a game not even on my radar to one that I want to play more of as soon as possible.