Solasta II

As it is now, not recommended. Waiting in hopes that it'll become better when it comes out of EA. The sole gripe I'm not recommending the game on, is the idiotic design of the Abandoned Camp location (the one with crystals and basilisks). It goes like that: - my lvl2 party drops down the ledge that leads to the basilisks; - my rogue successfully sneaks past everything and grabs the treasure without being detected, comes back to the party; - I try to backtrack to the entrance, as there is next to zero chance for my party to defeat the basilisks, considering the 4 spawners, *each of which* will spawn 1 basilisk *as soon as the battle starts*; - to my great surprise, *I can't get back up the ledge*; What gives?! This is a DnD-based CRPG! Why does even the freedom of temporarily retreating from a hard fight get taken away from me?!

I loved Solasta, but this is really nowhere near the mark. So far the story has been vague, confusing and nowhere near as exciting as Solasta 1, I understand that people try to avoid the 4 strangers meet in a tavern start as it's "played out", however the party being a family really doesn't gel well, and almost feels convenient/trite. The confusing quest from Maraike isn't interesting, I don't really care much for Deorcas and don't really see any immediate reason to find her. The next point to be made is the gameplay and UI aren't even close to being as good as Solasta, Solasta was crisp and felt purposeful, this UI is frustrating to deal with, the grid in the first game made it so much easier to understand exactly what was going on and the movement was far superior. I actually knew which spells were which. The UI needs to show more information and the levelling up system is horrdendous, I just picked my subclasses and I have no idea what they do because barely any information is presented to you. The only thing that's improved over the first Solasta is the graphics, however, the graphics aren't even that good, and in the genre they don't need to be good, the game engine needs to be better and the story needs to be better. Sure the soft lighting is nice but even that feels outdated, the game can't compete on a AAA level with graphics so it seems like a foolish move to have invested so heavily in it for a middling to low return. In summary this game feels like they've traded everything that matters in a good TTRPG sim for some outdated graphics and mediocre animation. Needs a lot of work.

First game was quite nice This one tries WAY WAY WAY too hard to be BG3 Most of the opening hours are cutscenes I hope devs will improve on the things that made the first game good - having actual mechanics from the tabletop

It's pretty early in early access but the game is shaping up well in my opinion. It's standard-fare D&D where you make a party of heroes and send them to maps to fight monsters, disarm traps, solve a puzzle or two, and come out carrying a pile of 18 shortbows to sell to a merchant. Compared to the original Solasta, there are many quality of life changes including default options on level-up for those who don't know the D&D rules, better visualization of odds and limitations, and a clearer character sheet. The story is acceptable and the voice acting for the NPCs is often excellent. Maps are pretty and some of the places are imaginative and fun to travel through. If you like this genre it's a must-have I think. I thought I'd spend the rest of the review responding to the negative comments I've seen about the game for those on the fence about picking it. Here are my views about various complaints: COMPLAINERS: Nothing Is Good Here vs. Me: Lots of Good Things and Updates OK, look, it's D&D with tactical combat, but they now show the limits of your movement on the screen, give you hit percentages so you can pick wisely without doing the math yourself, auto-cast light when you're in the dark, and let you cast guidance when it's helpful. The world map is now a hex grid and it tells you whether a square was explored or not, and the dungeon maps -- while often funneling you along a single path -- are entertaining. I enjoyed the cutscenes and think the voice acting is much, MUCH better than Solasta I. I'm genuinely curious to find out what's up with Deorcas and whether the Beacon are secret bad guys or not. By moving us to a new part of Solasta, they bring back the magic of exploration, with new antagonists and cultures to enjoy. Some parts are genuinely magical like the Ka'Umm's magic wind chime devices. I will definitely play the rest of the campaign when it's done. RAGERS: My Characters Are Ugly! vs. Me: Check Out My Freckles and Soul Patch For all the hate on the creation tool you'd think there were no options there. You do need to click to see some of the advanced options for faces if you want to totally resculpt your look, but you have a lot of choices here for shape of the face, eye and hair color, and markings like scars, face tattoos, and freckles. It has a neat tool where you can reposition and rotate the markings so the same tattoo can look like a little skull on your cheek or paint your entire face with a skull mask. It takes some effort to learn it but my characters looked good. You can also skip that stage if you want by picking more generic defaults. Right now if I had a complaint it's that there are too few hairstyles, but it's early access, and the ones that are there aren't bad. I have a girl with curly black Minnie Driver hair and a fellow with a hippy gray long cut and a halfling who looks like an uglier Sendhil Ramamurthy with a soul patch. It's good enough for me. HATERS: It Is "Dumbed Down" vs. Me: And Thank God It Is. A lot of choices are made so that the game is more accessible by default and picks things for you or makes suggestions about, say, having someone who can use lockpicks in your party. If you played Solasta I you know it could be pretty inaccessible to non-D&D nerds, and they've got the distance on making it playable for them while still allowing you to do all the wonky min-maxing yourself if you want. I appreciate the tutorials on light and how weight works. In Solasta I, I honestly restarted a few times when I realized my characters were missing key skills or spells. This time it seems more forgiving and there are smart changes like showing a progress bar with a dumbbell next to it to show how much loot you have left before getting encumbered, line-of-sight markers that show amount of cover during battle, and estimates of your hit percentage when attacking or casting. All these interface upgrades are great. Similarly, the ability to repick on rest your cantrips and weapon proficiencies mean it's less likely you pick longsword (b/c who doesn't) only to find that the best weapon you find is a vorpal glaive guisarme +4 that you can't use. It seems less punitive and I think that's a good thing. THAT ONE POLISH GUY: It's Sooooo Woke vs. Me: Who Hurt You, Bro? Anyone who has played games knows that there's always that one guy who thinks the game is super-woke because there a bit part with a gay NPC and you can make your characters have brown skin or use she/her pronouns with a masculine body. You can also make all blonde guys with no hair and metal tattoos if you'd like. If this is a huge deal to you then maybe you need to go outside. French game designers correctly understand that games will sell better if you market them beyond the most alt-right online troll on earth. Their audience is "human beings who buy games" and that is a larger group than you personally. WHINERS: "It's Too Hard / Easy!" vs. Me: Difficulty Is Calibrated If you played Solasta I, you quickly learned never to stand next to ledges in the dark because Soraks are gonna bump you off the ledge while your blind-ass humans roll at disadvantage for darkness. Those dang things are hangin' off walls and pushing boulders on you and leaving a hundred traps on top of a jumping puzzle. Solasta II has a few hard battles (notably one with a bunch of spectres that fly and prevent you from healing) but playing on the "authentic" difficulty I was able to beat most fights the first time, albeit with some unconscious characters by the end. Like most D&D games there is a tension between saving your items and spells when you can't rest and the times you need to burn everything to beat a hard encounter, and this is sometimes not telegraphed well. For the most part in Solasta II you will be long resting after most fights so you can afford to use all your spells and abilities. You can also set the difficulty level down, and some people honestly should do that based on the comments in the Steam discussion board. Characters should be min-maxed with few exceptions and if they're not, use a lower difficulty to simulate an easier DM. In sum, I am enjoying it a lot and while no game is perfect (especially in early access), Solasta II is a worthy D&D adventure so far. I hope they will keep fixing bugs and expanding the story, which currently goes only to 4th Level. I'll also be curious to see whether they add back in some of the missing ancestries and classes from the first game, or those will be relegated to an expansion pack. Time will tell. For now I'm taking a break from the game but I'll return to it when more of the game is finished.

As a fan of the first game, it pains me to give a thumbs down, i don't now why but this second game is lackluster compared to the first, at least in this early stages. Pros : - Better Graphics, guess that's all Con: - Worse combat area, almost no interactivity besides some traps, no hiding spot, minimal usable vertical area, worse yet the feeling of 'tactical' is diminished, i just don't know how is this possible coming from the same developer - Character creation focuses on the wrong stuff, idk why, it's an a crpg just make it simple, presets, male and female please, and the rest can be customised. - The story hook is not there, the ensemble being family does not matter, but please make the story more interesting, in Solasta 1 i was hooked from the get go, here, i'm staying basically just for supporting Solasta as a whole... Might change this review as the early access change parts of this game...hopefully

*IN CURRENT STATE IT'S 50/50* Monumental caveat that this is Early Access and several of my gripes would be solved with higher levels unlocked perhaps - but this goes to show what should and shouldn't be in early access. Overall, huge improvement graphically over the first game. Characters are still a little funky looking but far less egregious than last game. Some of the voice acting is decent, some is awful, annoying and flippant - if I had to attempt to suffer a whole game of the way my rogue speaks I wouldn't bother. What is frustrating - as previously mentioned which may be solved by higher levelling - are some of the encounters which totally lack nuance in scaling and some locked in events. The basilisks are a slog, the entire design of the encounter is awful. You can sneak and collect what you want but you HAVE to fight them and even if your party is split you can't get back up the ledge you use to get in? Needlessly contrived to force people in an RPG to go the combat route and essentially have 1 party member running around alone to destroy the nests which when destroyed still kick out an extra enemy. Who thought that was a good idea? Then after one of the main quests, I leave and rest, only to be ambushed - fine - by hunters and terror birds. To a max level 4 party the hunters do a lot of damage but are mostly manageable (except the guy who kicks off the round and two shots my rogue), terror birds are fine to fight but taking them all out is a decent combat. Suddenly I have to chase the final hunter and lo-and-behold 4 fresh terror birds are spawned in (on replay 5 were spawned) with most of my party running low. This is my main issue with the games current state. It's made great strides but some of the encounter design is very much all or nothing, like the designers one trick is to suddenly chuck a load of extra enemies in at the end to make it 'harder' which is either ridiculous or tedious. If it stays that way much of the roleplay will be lost and it'll turn into a boring min-maxxer fest.

Итак, пришла сюда после бг3, полностью прошла ранний доступ. Резюмирую: + Начало сюжета и завязка отличные, прям интересно, что будет дальше. + После бг3 очень легко влиться в механику. Она почти такая же, просто немного другой интерфейс, он более цветастый и подробный. Но после бг3 никаких проблем не возникло, я разобралась буквально за полчаса. Можно переключаться на ходьбу через wasd. Или управлять мышкой, как в бг3. Для этого на экране отдельная кнопка есть, можно делать в любое время, это очень удобно. + Есть система характеров. То есть ты можешь задать каждому из персонажей главных свой характер, свои особенности и роль в семье, и они будут вести себя в диалогах и кат сценах в соответствии с ними. Это классно, меня прям этот момент подкупил. + Перемещения на большие расстояния по карте, прям как в днд. То есть, чтобы дойти от точки а до точки б (не в одной локации, а как бы переход между локами) у тебя, как в днд, будет выносливость отряда, надо будет останавливаться на долгий отдых. Если нет припасов, идет проверка и они ищут припасы в дороге. + Графика окружения прям хороша, виды красивые. Но у меня почему-то в лесах начинается какая-то сильная зернистость, я не знаю, почему, возможно, дело в моем пк. + Подробный редактор создания персонажа, где можно объединять шаблоны лиц, чтобы сделать уникального перса. Оно ещё работает криво, но задел хороший. Я надеюсь, что разработчики доделают и исправят. Потому что сейчас лица объединяются криво и совсем не по тем процентам, которые указаны на иконках. Те, кому не понравился редактор или показался слишком душным — ребят, вы просто не умеете с такими штуками работать). После 10 лет игры в симс - это детский лепет. + С тобой могут бегать сюжетные нпс в группе, которые являются полноценными юнитами в бою, с ними шанс на победу возрастает. - Лицевые анимации ещё явно сырые. Проработаны они только у некоторых лиц из списка в редакторе и у некоторых нпс. У одного из гг у меня в диалогах лицо периодически перекашивает, когда он разговаривает. - Уровень можно повысить только на долгом или коротком отдыхе. Это подбешивает немного. - На огромное количество действий нет горячих клавиш на клавиатуре. После бг3 я прям выла от этого. - Та самая система характеров все еще криво работает. Например, гг, которая у меня "властная" и по описанию должна меньше говорить, но говорить четко и по делу, самая первая во всех диалогах и заставках бежит радостно болтать. - На карте нельзя поставить свою метку. Это плохо, потому что локации большие и ты не можешь понять нормально, как найти торговца в огромном городе. - К концу раннего доступа я немного взвыла, потому что мне просто тупо не давали сделать долгий отдых. Он прерывался драками, после окончания драки "доспать" нельзя, заклинания у волшебников и паладинов не восстанавливаются за этот огрызок долгого отдыха. Короче, пришлось переигрывать два раза последний бой в рд. - Извините, но анимации направления аое заклинаний - это жуть какая-то. Я уверена, что это допилят, но сейчас выглядит так, как будто это "прицеливание" делали не специалисты, а я — человек, который даже не все горячие комбинации на клавиатуре знает. Если обобщить, я думаю, что большинство минусов можно поправить к полноценному релизу. Надеюсь, разработчики это сделают. Романов тут нет, насколько я поняла. Возможно, будут потом, но мне кажется это маловероятным. Обычно система романов в подобных играх очевидна сразу. Игра больше про семью, про их взаимоотношения внутри, чисто путешествие сиблингов и семейная драма. Хотя для меня это не критично, я прониклась атмосферой и сюжетом. Игру могу порекомендовать, хотя должна отметить, что цена для такого малого количества контента какая-то больно высокая... Будем ждать обновлений.

[h1]且玩且珍惜了，CRPG真的是玩一部少一部的！[/h1] 《索拉斯塔2》是一款以DND规则为核心的CRPG，这类游戏本身就很少，最有名的也就《博德之门》系列和《神界：原罪》系列了。喜欢这类游戏的玩家虽然也是小众，但对游戏的质量和规则要求都挺高的，因此能在CRPG这个类目留下名号并流传下来的游戏，基本都不会太差，而《索拉斯塔2》是继前作《Solasta》（《索拉斯塔：魔导师之冠》）大获成功后，打磨了5年才折腾出来的续作，目前还只是EA抢先体验版的阶段，虽说目前游玩起来并不是沉浸式的CRPG，但凭借它优秀的战斗系统，也足够让它在玩一部少一部的CRPG游戏类目里留下名号了！ [h1][quote=] [table] [tr] [th] 欢迎关注 [b][u][i]U_U鉴赏家培养计划[/i][/u][/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [th] 关注U_U鉴赏家，开启精彩游戏之旅。 [/th] [/tr] [/table] [/quote][/h1] 《索拉斯塔2》对比前作最为明显的提升当然是游戏画面了，毕竟是采用如今最新的虚幻5引擎制作的，森林、遗迹、海岸和各种地下区域都有着更加丰富的光影层次和画面表现，法术特效也更加绚丽。尤其是在高低起伏明显的地图上战斗时，镜头能够更好地展现立体地形带来的优势，也让我们能更好的利用地形优势来战斗，平白增添几分游戏冒险沉浸感。而且角色建模也更加细腻，面部表情和角色动作都比前作要自然了很多，也难怪游戏在剧情推进的时候，敢于频繁让我们捏的角色大头出境（这里友情提示下，捏的赏心悦目一点对后面的游戏体验大有裨益哦！）。 《索拉斯塔2》的故事发生在前作《Solasta》成功击退索拉克入侵的数十年后，主角四人组都是孤儿，但被养母的女儿给坑了，莫名其妙就被传送到尼奥科斯大陆去完成所谓的“圣约”了！没玩过前作没关系，这故事世界观是独立的，也和前作没啥关系！而且《索拉斯塔2》毕竟是最为纯正的DND规则游戏（还是SRD 5.2 版本规则的），自由度超高的！反正把命运里一切的一切都交给手上的那个骰子就对了！ 游戏里无论是探索、对话还是战斗中的判定，都遵循SRD 5.2规则体系。一次成功的检定或许能够避免战斗，一次失败的判定也可能让原本无比顺利的计划出现意外。这种充满未知的体验，也让每一次冒险都多了一点不可预知的乐趣。 《索拉斯塔2》的世界地图不只是简单的各地相连，对比前作多了许多可以主动探索的区域，探索过程中走正路推进固然能推进剧情，但稍微偏离路线，也有机会发现隐藏地点、随机事件或者额外奖励。 《索拉斯塔2》能在《博德之门》和《神界：原罪》的包围里杀出一条血路，主要还是靠它那套根据DND规则建立起来的较为特色的回合制战斗系统。在随机投骰的基础上，每一步都要思考站位、地形、高低差、法术距离和各种行动的后果。同一场战斗，在随机投骰判定的加持下，就算是同样的职业搭配和出手顺序，结果也可能会完全不同。这样的战斗体验，比普通RPG单纯只顾爽快的战斗体验要更好！ 整体而言，《索拉斯塔2》没有想着成为另一部《博德之门3》或者是《神界：原罪2》，它把更多精力放在更为爽快的战斗和DND规则本身。当一次成功的检定改变整场战斗的走向，那种属于桌面游戏的魅力依然可见。虽说现在还是EA抢先体验版，但从目前的内容来看，它已经有着一个相当不错的开始。相当值得期待的！

Would not recommend this until the character creator is properly fixed. I tried to create a group of four high elves, but instead ended up with four androgynous characters with similar Afro-Asian facial features. There’s barely any variation, and it makes the whole process feel limiting rather than creative. With a character creator like this, it’s hard to feel invested or to build distinct identities for your party If you’re going for a fantasy setting, consistency matters. Traditionally, elves are depicted in a certain way, so choices like giving them full beard options (even for female elves) feel out of place and poorly thought through. It really makes me question the direction taken by the team behind the game.