"Faithful 5E combat trapped in a level-4 Early Access shell"
About
Solasta II is a turn-based party RPG built on the Dungeons & Dragons 5E rules (here the updated 5.2 SRD), and it plays them straight: you build a party of adventurers, roll dice for actions, and fight grid-based battles against Shadwyn's dark force across the land of Neokos. Between fights you explore towns like Caer Mar, travel an overland map, and make dialogue choices that steer the story. Ben Starr and Devora Wilde head the voice cast, and companions show up in cinematics. This is an Early Access release: the level cap sits at 4, several classes and subclasses are absent, and systems like crafting and scribing are only partly in.
Verdict
There's a very good combat game hiding in Solasta II, and when a fight clicks the fidelity to 5E is the best the medium has managed. The trouble is everything wrapped around it: a campaign that ends at level 4, a class list with obvious gaps, a UI that fights you, and stability problems that reach as far as deleting your saves. As an Early Access foundation it's promising and the tactical bones are real, but right now you're paying full RPG money for a fraction of a game with rough edges everywhere. Worth a bookmark and a revisit once Tactical Adventures fills in the content and stops the crashes.
You'll like it if …
- +You want a rules-accurate 5E tactical combat sandbox and can accept a thin campaign around it
- +You enjoy deep character creation and don't mind waiting for the class roster to fill out
- +You're comfortable buying into Early Access and treating patches as part of the experience
You'll dislike it if …
- −Lost saves and mid-fight crashes will sour you no matter how good the combat is
- −You need a finished class list and a campaign that runs past level 4 on day one
- −Clumsy UI and stiff exploration movement break your immersion
Breakdown
- +Turn-based combat sticks closely to the 5E ruleset and reads as the most faithful video-game version many reviewers have seen
- +Higher difficulties scale the tactical challenge in ways players find satisfying rather than cheap
- +Cunning Action and similar rules-accurate options give fights real positioning weight
- −Hit registration confuses players: a stated 60% chance that whiffs repeatedly erodes trust in the numbers
- −Out-of-combat movement is a common complaint, stiff and fiddly enough to make simple traversal a chore
- −Navigating environments and finding the way forward frustrates a large share of reviewers
- +Character creation runs deep, with a slider system and enough dials to satisfy build tinkerers within what's available
- +The tactical foundation clearly has room to grow as more content lands
- −The level 4 cap slams the door on higher-level spells and build payoffs
- −Missing classes and subclasses (Bard, Ranger, Barbarian, Champion) thin out party variety
- −A roughly 15 to 20 hour campaign leaves little reason to replay right now
- −Crafting and the scribe mechanic are present in name but not finished
- +Voice work is a genuine strength, with Ben Starr and Devora Wilde anchoring the cast
- +Some players find the worldbuilding of Neokos intriguing and the companions likeable
- −Writing splits the room, with a chunk of players calling it flatly bland
- −The adoption-sibling family setup lands awkwardly and feels forced to several reviewers
- −Personality systems for characters read as underdeveloped
- +A visible step up from the first game in art direction, with armor design drawing specific praise
- +Animations and general fidelity improved over the demo build
- −Facial animation is stiff and often out of sync with the dialogue, called horrible by more than one player
- −Performance falls off a cliff once you leave the starting city, even on strong machines
- −Clipping, pop-in and broken character models show up regularly
- +The reworked movement system, whatever its exploration quirks, is a clear upgrade some players outright enjoy
- −Crashes and save-file corruption cost players progress, including manually saved games that vanish
- −The UI, especially the action bar and icon layout, is hard to parse and widely disliked
- −Unreal Engine 5 optimisation problems drag down resource use and stability for many
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