Dungeons and Dragons is all about decision-making. Where will your party go next? Who will you fight? How will you get out of this unwinnable situation? Against all odds, at some point, the dice will roll in your favor, and it’s exhilarating. This is exactly what Baldur’s Gate 3 nails, and new DnD-inspired adventure Solasta 2 is coming up right behind it. With a difference in focus, Tactical Adventures’ sequel is one for all of us tabletop fans, and my time with the preview proves it.
Solasta 2 puts you in the boots of the Colwall siblings. Four orphans adopted into the same family, my merry band of misfits begin their journey by heading to the village of Tor Wen to meet their old friend Ellie, but unfortunately end up in a very different place. Between tremors, a dragon, bloodthirsty giant crabs, and an unraveling mystery, it’s your typical DnD-style adventure.
Like the first game, Solasta 2 is an RPG built on the Wizards of the Coast systems reference document, with some homebrew elements thrown in. That means dice rolls, character stats, and plenty of decisions to make. As a result Tactical Adventures’ new project shares a lot of DNA with Baldur’s Gate 3, but it’s also very different.
As birds chirp and soothing music plays, the Colwalls finally make it to Tow Wen. After looking around, talking to shopkeepers, and looting whatever I can, the party is reuinited with Ellie. Turns out there are deadly earthquakes threatening the townsfolk, so, naturally, we need to put a stop to them. Before I depart, I lie to merchants to get them to move their carts, steal from the mayor, and explore what’s left of the town – if you love the freedom from Larian’s latest, Solasta 2 has it in spades. You can intimidate, convince, or relentlessly quiz plenty of characters, and it’ll help you out in the long run.
As I leave Tor Wen, this is when Solasta 2’s focus on scale comes into play. I descend a giant, rickety elevator while admiring the glittering ocean and giant stone statues, taking in the sprawling open-world. Then I spot the silhouette of a dragon darting between the rocks under the waves. These are small details, but they give Solasta 2 a real sense of life right from the start. The world of Neokos is brimming with history and mystery, and Tactical Adventures shows it all off perfectly.
From here, I find some crabs who stupidly choose to pick a fight with me. The Colwall’s are made up of a rogue, paladin, sorcerer, and cleric-fighter during my preview, and this presents a lot of varied gameplay opportunities. You can use spells, weapons, items, and whatever else to come out on top. Combat is incredibly open-ended and expressive, as I use an explosive orb I found to take out the head-honcho crab, put some others to sleep, and bash another’s shell in with a Morningstar. Without relying on the comparison too much, if you’ve played Baldur’s Gate 3 you’ll get a real kick out of Solasta 2’s combat.
While my tools were a little limited in the preview, I did have plenty of spells to utilize during my fights in Solasta 2. These help me to dictate the pace and direction of each battle, and I even kept replaying fights to experiment with what each does. If you know your way around cantrips and spells on a DnD table, Solasta 2 gives you plenty of options.
Then, the kobolds show up. These dragon-like rapscallions are hiding in a cave, and I can either kill them in cold blood or talk them down to rescue one of the townsfolk that Ellie says is trapped here. I choose the latter. These kobolds speak funny and aren’t that smart, but getting them on my good side means they actually help me out in the preview’s final fight. They also grew on me very quickly, because I just love weird little guys. You’ll be glad to hear I didn’t reload a save and kill them for laughs.
I don’t want to spoil the final combat encounter, but it brings everything about my Solasta 2 preview together in surprising ways. Party positioning, collected items, spell usage, and even earlier decisions come back in big ways, giving all my previous choices a profound sense of impact. So far, this vertical slice of Solasta 2 shows a lot of promise, even if it does feel a little familiar.
Even after just a couple of hours with Solasta 2, it’s abundantly clear who this game is for. If you like Dungeons and Dragons, dense party mechanics, bountiful decisions, and, of course, Baldur’s Gate 3, it will not disappoint. The more time I spent with the world, characters, and mechanics of the game the more I enjoyed them. With a demo coming on Monday February 24, I recommend you try Solasta 2 for yourself.