As another party-based Dungeons & Dragons CRPG, Solasta 2 is of course courting a bunch of comparisons to the elephant in the genre: Baldur's Gate 3. But the developers at Tactical Adventures think their game is different enough to stand apart from Larian Studios'.
"I guess that from the start, we've tried to show our differences, but everyone is comparing us to BG3, so there's no way to avoid it," CEO Mathieu Girard says in an interview with interview with Eurogamer, before marketing director Pierre Worgague adds that "we're two different beasts." The relatively smaller studio is instead deciding to be very transparent about the ways Solasta 2 differs from Baldur's Gate 3, then.
Larian is a huge company that employs hundreds of full-time developers, as opposed to Tactical Adventures' 40-ish person party, and Girard says their D&D peers naturally "have a narrative depth for example that we cannot have." What Solasta 2 lacks in that department, it makes up for in combat flexibility, though.
"Our combat is very interesting and deep and gritty – lots of possibilities," Girard adds. "We have this world map exploration, which really makes you feel that you discover a world brought to life, with many options and many adventures. You play this full party and you live the story of a family instead of a personal quest of one character, so it's a different way of telling a story. It's more a tabletop story, actually, of four characters around the table telling the story of their party and their family."
Worgague also says the studio bought the entire development team copies of Baldur's Gate 3 when it came out, and they "absolutely loved the game" like millions of other RPG enjoyers.
But perhaps Baldur's Gate 3's far-reaching success is the key for Solasta 2 as well. Girard theorizes that Larian's smash hit has maybe created "an appetite for such games," so even if Solasta 2 can't reach the "same scope and dimensions" as Baldur's Gate 3, it might be able to offer something unique but familiar to people who "want to have more."
Solasta 2 is out now in Steam Early Access.
