Solasta II

It's everything you'd expect from a Solasta game, only better. My highlights: - animation are a lot smoother and, importantly, FASTER - The grid-based maps aremore detailed and still have the same kind of depth in terms of positioning - graphics are much better, still kinda indie, but really good imo - faced are alright, which is a big improvement upon the ugly ones of Solasta 1 - the story and the dialogues have been improved to a point where I don't ignore most of it this time around - the world map is more interesting and it feels like actual exploration to be travelling around - the game is just overall less clunky Highly recommend if you liked Solasta 1

This opening bit is more of a warning to people looking to try the game in early access, which regards the game's performance. This is something EVERY early access game struggles with and there's no reason to assume it wont improve with time (hopefully), I just thought I should share my experience. I think the biggest thing anybody should look at before purchasing Solasta II (while it's still in early access) is to look at the minimum spec requirements, because they are actually quite high. While I was playing the opening of the game it was shaky but playable, but as soon as I got to the night segment after the first shortrest performance tanked to a basically unplayable level (at the lowest possible graphic settings). In my opinion, a GTX 1070 is a bit too high for a minimum graphics requirement, and I hope optimization and performance can be improved soon because my old GTX 1060 just can't handle it. As somebody who thoroughly enjoyed CotM I was really looking forward to checking this out. I'll be able to play it eventually, I'm sure, my PC is certainly due for an upgrade sometime in the coming years if those requirements never come down. But, if you've got an older middle-end gaming PC or hell even just a middle end PC the game probably won't be in an enjoyable state when playing. If there's some secret setting I haven't found that instantly improves performance then by all means comment and tell me what it is and I'll amend the review, because I really genuinely want to play more. As for the genuine meat of my review: -I gave this game a positive review for literally one reason: the graphical fidelity (ironic considering the first half of this review I know). -It's a big step up from the first game, and its nice to see a proper modern character creator. -I by no means think graphics make games, but art direction does. CotM just didn't have the quality to match the realistic style they chose, so its a relief to see this game look as good as it does. The one thing that the devs of this game need to avoid is how they approached dlcs in the first game. -Additional campaigns that even link to the main story (Palace of Ice)? Perfect excellent, no notes. -Entirely new campaigns that even change up the main gameplay loop (Lost Valley)? Again, amazing experience I had a lot of fun. -Locking classes, races, and subclasses BEHIND said dlc? Nuh uh, not again. The game just does not exist in a space where that is a reasonable purchase. I don't know if the devs have spoken on whether or not they plan such an approach, but I highly recommend all base 5.5e SRD classes, races, and subclasses are available at launch. If they don't, I believe they'd be pricing themselves out of a lot of their potential player base. If you're expecting a bg3-esque experience, there's some things to consider -Solasta (at least from my experience in CotM) isn't so concerned with dialogue options and player choice having impacts on the story and having dozens of layers of branching flags. -It's more a wide selection of curated straight lines that exist alongside the main story, with most player choice being whether you fight an accessory npc not relevant to the plot. There was some of that faction-esque branching story in the Lost Valley DLC, so take my words with a grain of salt. I don't want this game to be bg4, I think Solasta occupies a unique space away from it while being of same genre. People need to understand that Tactical Adventures is not Larian, the latter has hundreds of employees. It's amazing that Solasta 2 looks the way it does with the size of dev team they have, and that CotM had as much content as it did. As the development of this game progresses, I think they'll be in a very good spot as long as the game launches with all of the classes, races, subclasses, etc. and that the campaign is a serviceable story of around 30-50 hours with plenty of side objectives. That would be the sorts of things I would look at when considering if this sequel is a worthwhile upgrade to the first game, outside a shiny coat of new graphics and better voice actors. Is that a reasonable demand? I've got no clue I'm not a game developer. I just know where the genre sits right now and what the expectation of a new entry in it is. It wouldn't hurt to make the game open to modding, either. I hope for Solasta 2 a long life of many DLCs and a healthy modding community, and as somebody who discovered CotM recently I'm hyped to be along for the ride at the very start this time. I wish the devs luck, and I'm excited to see where this goes.