{"id":13471,"date":"2020-11-21T01:12:27","date_gmt":"2020-11-21T09:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/solasta-crown-of-the-magister-early-access-review\/"},"modified":"2024-10-22T14:41:51","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T21:41:51","slug":"solasta-crown-of-the-magister-early-access-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/solasta-crown-of-the-magister-early-access-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Solasta: Crown of the Magister (Early Access) Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Solasta:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Solasta: Crown of the Magister
Tactical Adventures<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The physical tabletop version of Dungeons & Dragons has seen a huge resurgence in popularity in recent times, as evidenced by its high ranking Twitch.TV presence, among other things. And that\u2019s a great thing, as it gives people an alternative to the ubiquitous and frankly more wargame\u2019y Warhammer franchise. More options are always a good thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it\u2019s only natural that Dungeons & Dragons video games would once again become more popular. Larian Studios\u2019 Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/em> is probably the highest-profile Dungeons & Dragons offering right now. However, a lesser-marketed (although no less important) game called Solasta: Crown of the Magister<\/em> has also been making some waves as well. There are a few big differences between the two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshots<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First of all, while Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/em> is based on an officially licensed world called the Forgotten Realms and uses the Dungeons & Dragons 5th<\/sup> Edition rules. Solasta: Crown of the Magister<\/em> is an original world created by Tactical Adventures and utilizes the 5.1 Edition rules. Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/em> also features prettier visuals although, to hardcore Dungeons & Dragons geeks, that facet really doesn\u2019t matter much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Solasta: Crown of the Magister,<\/em> your adventures begin with the game\u2019s character creator, and it\u2019s a pretty good one. In this game, you design up to four characters that you\u2019ll have in your party, and pick from all of the standard things such as each character\u2019s race, class, background, abilities, and the like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Solasta:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once you have your ideal party set up, you begin the game in a city tavern where they all reveal how they got there. This functions as the game\u2019s tutorial and you get to learn (through trial and error) about most of the main game mechanics. From there, you\u2019ll take on your first mission\u2014and you\u2019re off to the races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While each character\u2019s physical customization options are a little on the limited side, what I really liked about Solasta: Crown of the Magister<\/em>, is its writing. You\u2019ll see and hear them talking among themselves and even cracking a few jokes here and there. It all seems organic and makes you feel immersed in their little digital personalities, as well as the world around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Solasta:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another great thing about the game is that once you get into your first couple of battles (they\u2019re all turn-based), you can discover how their individual abilities synergize with each other. For instance, my first party consisted of an elven wizard who could cast devastating spells on initial ranged targets; my rouge would then attack individual enemies. As the two sides closed the distance, my burly fighters could move in and clean up the leftovers. With the number of classes, abilities, spells, and abilities to choose from, you can come up with all kinds of fun and effective strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enemy AI is quite good, so you\u2019ll see them set up traps (or won\u2019t if you\u2019re too late), use elevated positions to attack from, and the like. If there\u2019s one thing that peeves me it\u2019s a game\u2019s terrible combat AI where enemies will just throw themselves at you blindly, so this was all refreshing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combat is tactical and meaty; you\u2019ll roll a lot of dice and leverage their results with Insights and various skill checks. This also transfers over to detecting things within the environments as well as modifying the various conversations you\u2019ll engage in with NPCs. I managed to avoid a number of battles simply by talking my way out of them in the first place. Surprisingly, I even gained a few experience points from this conversational\/diplomatic approach, which is something that other recent Dungeons & Dragons games have dropped the ball on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Solasta<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The exploration portion of the game is pretty well done, but as this is an Early Access title, there isn\u2019t a ton of content yet. In fact, the game\u2019s ending (as of now) ends on a cliffhanger that had me yearning for more. As it stands, however, Solasta: Crown of the Magister<\/em> is a very fun and intricately-designed Dungeons & Dragons experience that I could see potentially surpassing Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/em> in the future. I\u2019ll be back later in its development cycle for an updated review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RATING: 8.4\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solasta: Crown of the Magister<\/em> has some pretty good looking graphics that make its fantasy gameplay truly shine. However, you want to have a pretty beefy gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gamer<\/a>
GAMER ULTRA 3070<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Visit CyberpowerPC\u2019s website<\/a> to check out all of the other great deals as well!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Solasta: Crown of the MagisterTactical Adventures The physical tabletop version of Dungeons & Dragons has seen a huge resurgence in popularity in recent times, as evidenced by its high ranking Twitch.TV presence, among other things. And that\u2019s a great thing, as it gives people an alternative to the ubiquitous and frankly more wargame\u2019y Warhammer franchise.… Read More »Solasta: Crown of the Magister (Early Access) Review<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":12547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2724],"tags":[2520,741,2537,2488,1225,67,2486],"class_list":["post-13471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-4k-gaming","tag-cyberpower-pc","tag-fantasy-games","tag-game-review","tag-gaming-laptop","tag-gaming-pc","tag-ian-kane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17487,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13471\/revisions\/17487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}