A single D&D spell in Solasta 2's Steam Next Fest demo proved to me that not every RPG needs to be Baldur's Gate 3

Clearly, the D&D crown belongs to Baldur's Gate 3, but Solasta has been quietly making a name for itself as one of Larian's larger competitors over the past few years. So when Solasta 2 showed up in Steam Next Fest, I figured it was finally time to find out what I'd been missing out on.

Initially, I was a little sceptical. I loaded into a campaign scenario with a party consisting of four pre-made characters: a halfling rogue with edgy makeup; a bearded dwarven paladin clad in plate armor; an elven sorcerer with slightly-less-edgy makeup; and a human fighter to round out the team. My party - a group of adoptive siblings - were visiting a friend in a remote but bustling coastal town, but for all the apparent trade and industry, the world was a little sterile. Most NPCs couldn't be interacted with, and while Solasta 2's world is very pretty, I felt a little railroaded through it.

That was, however, a concern I was happy to gloss over, because Solasta isn't simply trying to be another D&D RPG. Instead, I knew that its unique selling point was supposed to be its devotion to recreating the tabletop game's combat as accurately as possible. So, obviously, I went looking for a fight.

It wasn't long before I found it. A group of feisty, territorial crabs weren't too happy when I interrupted their feast of drowned Kobold, but thankfully they didn't put up too much of a fight. Even in that initial skirmish, however, I could see that Solasta 2 was trying to emulate D&D's rules extremely accurately.

One of my carcinized foes had burrowed up from the sand behind a rock, which meant that my Sorcerer was of little use thanks to a D&D rule that gives enhanced protection to units behind partial cover. With only a sliver of claw unprotected, I had to rely on my rogue to get up-close if I wanted to deal damage. That flanking maneuver meant the halfling had an uninhibited chance to hit, but since Baldur's Gate 3 doesn't adapt the cover rule at all, even this early fight offered a steep learning curve.

A few minutes later - having Short Rested the 'proper' way by using each characters' individual hit die - I was in another fight, this time against that unfortunate Kobold's friends. This time, it was entirely my own fault - I'd snuck around to retrieve an item to let me avoid combat, and picked the corresponding dialogue options to placate my foes (no dice rolls to fail here). Wanting to test Solasta 2 on its own merits, however, I picked a fight anyway, freeing the Kobolds' prisoner in front of their very eyes.

Outnumbered and still nursing a few crab-shaped wounds, this fight could have gone pretty badly. The Kobolds were no great threat on their own, but in numbers like these they might have presented a problem for my low-level party. They might have, but for Solasta's interpretation of one of my favorite low-level D&D spells. Shatter is available for all of D&D's dedicated spellcasting classes from level 3, and for how early you unlock it, its 3d8 Thunder damage is pretty potent. So when a couple of low-HP Kobolds clustered together at the start of the fight, I wasted no time in lining up a Shatter.

In Baldur's Gate 3, I would have hit my two opponents with its circular spell indicator and probably moved on. But as I went to aim Shatter in Solasta 2, rather than the 2D shape I was expecting to cast, I was met with a big, blue sphere - Shatter's actual D&D description confirms that it casts in a ten-foot orb, even if Larian's recreation is a little flatter. That sphere meant that I could position the spell in exactly the right place to hit a third enemy, this one standing on the floor beneath the ledge that his allies were on. All three Kobolds failed their Constitution save, and all three were blasted apart by my Thunder damage, turning the fight immediately in my favor, even after some of their surviving brethren tried to use that annoying 'fighting from cover' trick on me again.

It was one simple detail, attached to a simple spell against enemies that I probably would have beaten with little issue anyway, but it was enough to sell me on Solasta 2. It seems to have very little of the narrative and world-building depth of Baldur's Gate 3, but it knows that, and perhaps what impresses me most about it is the fact that it's not really afraid of that. This is a D&D Tactics RPG from a team focused on bringing tabletop combat to life rather than competing in the dedicated CRPG space that Larian has come to dominate. If you're chasing the highs of Baldur's Gate 3's story, you probably won't find it here, but if you're the kind of player who's been busy crafting the perfect Paladin build since 2023, Solasta is a genuine contender.

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