Is Solasta 2 like Baldur’s Gate 3?

Baldur’s Gate 3 was one of the most successful game releases in recent years, becoming the first game in history to win Game of the Year in all five major gaming award ceremonies. The game picked up lots of praise for being complete and relatively free of bugs on launch (after a lengthy period on Steam Early Access) and for not separating content into DLCs to be purchased later. To this day, if you buy BG3, you get everything the game has to offer in the one purchase.

This strong performance and consumer-friendly strategy from Larian has been a breath of fresh air for many gamers, and suddenly brought the traditionally niche CRPG genre into the mainstream.

While there are many people still playing BG3, enough time has passed that many players are hungry for a similar experience, be it a sequel or a similar game in another franchise. The good news is that another CRPG in a similar vein to BG3 is already on the horizon, in the shape of Solasta 2.

In this article, we’ll have a look into Solasta 2, and see how it compares to Baldur’s Gate 3. Could it be a continuation or even an improvement on the lofty heights set by Larian’s flagship title?

See also: Solasta II Builds and Guides

Solasta 2 – Is It the Next Big CRPG?

While Baldur’s Gate 3 was gaining popularity during Early Access, another CRPG was going mostly under the radar. That was Solasta: Crown of the Magister. It is another DnD-inspired CRPG, one that sticks even closer to the tabletop rules and game mechanics. There were a couple of rough edges in this title – the character models were a little crude and it wasn’t open-world in the same way that BG3 is, with its world being divided into many smaller areas that are accessed via a travel mechanic, and later on by fast-travel.

But most of the gameplay was very similar to that of BG3, taking its inspiration from the same places but choosing a more textbook implementation of the tabletop rules. While it wasn’t massive, Solasta I was a great title and I recommend it to anybody who is looking for another “BG3 fix” right away. But what we are really here to talk about is its successor, Solasta 2.

Tactical Adventures, developers of Solasta, have already released a demo of Solasta II, so we got to see a pretty solid preview of how Solasta II is going to look. Graphically it’s pretty similar to BG3. The UI perhaps needs some more work, but some things are done arguably better than what Larian managed.

For example, Solasta 2’s implementation of the tabletop rules seems to be just as traditional as Solasta: Crown of the Magister. This can result in slightly longer turn-times, but since they focus on these mechanics more centrally than BG3, it is much easier to see exactly what’s going on with the combat in any given moment.

BG3 tends to relegate most dice rolls to the combat log which is minimized by default, while Solasta 2 shows you the roll of every dice happening in the UI. Before BG3, this approach might’ve been overwhelming for mainstream audiences not too well-versed in tabletop rules and mechanics. But now that millions of gamers have had a gentle introduction to it, courtesy of Baldur’s Gate 3, there would seem to be more potential for such a system to catch on, especially given the improved graphical polish of Solasta II compared to its predecessor.

One thing that really struck me as being done better in Solasta than in Baldur’s Gate 3 was that my entire party behaved like individuals throughout the game, not just during story-important moments. Don’t get me wrong, the characters in BG3 are well-written and wonderfully voiced. But the non-verbal nature of your player-character took some getting used to, and the manner in which your party members do not participate in most dialogue interactions at all, relegating themselves to dutiful disciples of your main character, apart from the occasional quip.

Solasta II takes a different approach. During dialogue, you’ll be given several options at each prompt, typically one for each character in your party. The options available depend on the personality and skills of your party members. This way, you can effortlessly roleplay your entire party, and it feels like all four members of your party are active and engaged with the world around them at all times, instead of just going along with the whims of your party leader. You also quickly feel a bond forming with the characters you created at the start of the game (yes, you can make your entire party in Solasta), recalling the personality traits you gave them and seeing how they play out as your characters progress on their adventure. It all feels very dynamic and engaging, and the dialogue in Solasta is one of my favorite parts of the game.

At first, I was worried that these features might’ve been given special attention for the Demo of Solasta II for the purpose of generating hype, but then I began playing the first Solasta game and found the same system was already implemented really well in that game.

More broadly speaking, the general gameplay concepts and combat will feel very familiar to you if you’ve played Baldur’s Gate 3 already. Long Rests, Attack Rolls, Saving Throws, Skill and Weapon Proficiencies, etc. All of these concepts are implemented similarly in Solasta II, but sometimes in a manner that has taken less liberties compared to the original tabletop inspiration. For example, after the Early Access of BG3, Larian decided to remove the racial bonuses to Ability Scores to reduce the need to chase a meta setup for your class. Solasta tends to avoid making adjustments like these.

The end result of this is a game that is reminiscent of BG3 while also staying true to its own formula. If you liked BG3, then it’s very likely that you’ll like Solasta II at least as much, as long as the developers keep doing a good job in the remaining development time.

We hope you found this introduction to Solasta II interesting. If you want to learn more about the game, check our Solasta II Homepage. You can also watch the Solasta II announcement trailer below.