Played through the updated Solasta early access. Definitely has an indie feel to it, and from what I have seen so far story is basic, wouldn't say there is a lot of emotional depth but does have lots of heroics 😝 Playing a Paladin seemed right in this game. Interesting I thought the game started really well, its just a very straightforward plot, I don't think they built the game to incorporate consequence and choices, it is more a tactical RPG game with exploration and DnD rules. And it is 100 percent a DnD game with all of what that entails - dice rolls, per rest magic, etc. but the nice surprise is the devs gave a lot of options to turn that stuff on and off, it is pretty customizable, for instance I turned off the option that only allows you to try to unlock or remove a trap just once, so if you fail the dice roll no opening the chest (yep turned that off, hate that).
On its core rules game is pretty easy, didn't mess too much with the difficulty of the game, and found myself a little over leveled pretty quick, but there is a ton of difficulty options too, was hesitant to mess with them as they mostly involve tweaking the stats of the enemy upwards - more hit points, higher attack rolls, etc. Also I liked the idea of playing on the core DnD rules though so probably won't mess with them too much. I did turn on the Deadlier AI option though I think they could put some more powerful monsters with added magic and skills early on, and they still might it seems like they are constantly tweaking the AI and encounters through the early access.
Lots of magic weapons and some cool gear, maybe too much for my taste - only thing missing was a Holly Avenger and a Vorpal sword. The crafting feature is good in the sense that you can craft cool stuff, but crafting material is really rare so far and you need to make choices between what you craft with what you get, which kept it interesting. I really got into crafting poison arrows started to obsess on it.
Side quests are pretty straightforward - go here, do this for a reward, not much to them in early access will be curious if they build them out more. At the moment they are mostly setups for a unique encounter or a tough battle with tougher enemies.
Graphics are passable, though when I was in wide open spaces with lighting effects or water I needed to drop the detail as it was having frame rate issues. I think the graphic cut scenes feel like a French puppet show. Interesting that they kept all context in-scene, no subtitles or written descriptions outside of the occasional scroll or book you find on the way. So good for those who hate to read, but it can be kind of like watching a French puppet show.
I enjoyed the game, and about halfway through really started to get into the game systems and the exploring, and also wanted to see how the story ends. Will definitely finish it when it comes out. If expectations aren't too high and you like DnD it is alright all in all. They created a pretty good High Fantasy world, it feels more Dragonlance than Forgotten Realms, what with the Cataclysm and all, the main enemies / antagonists are very Draconic, the only things its missing is the Knights of Solasta 😋 If I would compare it to BG1/2 for all you BG fans, it is definitely more BG1 - it feels like they have been focused on creating the game systems and the story came second. Will have to wait and see how the story holds up and plays out when it releases - I remember BG1 had some fun twists, so hopefully Solasta will too.