Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Let me start with the good. I think the combat is solid. The grid works better than BG3’s freeform movement.
And I think that’s it. That’s the one thing it has on BG3. And yes, I’m measuring it against BG3 because I’ve seen people say S2 is the next BG3. It just doesn’t compare.
That’s not entirely fair. The overworld hex map is interesting and very reminiscent of a Westmarches game, but the travel vs. long rest limitation means you’re forced to rest more often than you need to, which trivializes a lot of the combats you do get into. So while I think it’s a positive, it still has issues to iron out.
Encounters would be more interesting if they didn’t feel like random arena fights and had more of that BG3 dungeon-crawling vibe, but I may just not have reached any major story dungeons. You can definitely get lost in the side content, though I did run into some repetitive encounters where the setup felt mostly the same with slight changes.
Controversial topic, but one that’s pretty prevalent in gaming right now:
Kinda woke with pronoun selection, and all the characters are just ugly. No one is allowed to be attractive. This might be early access, but it feels more like a choice. If you’re looking for it, you’ll probably see some dialog as well. I wasn’t looking for it and still noticed a few eye-roll-inducing lines. It’s not overt, but it feels mildly peppered in. YMMV.
On the topic of ugly characters, the graphics are kinda mid. The world feels bland. Again, early access, so I expect some improvement, but right now it feels overpriced for the quality. BG3 in early access six years ago surpassed S2 by a noticeable margin.
The writing is pretty damn bad. As someone who loves story, eight hours in I just didn’t give a fuck. I was done and ready to quit. Story is a huge motivator for me in games. Mindless slaughter can be fun, but most of the time I want a reason for it. It just didn’t hook me here.
Part of the problem may be the proper nouns. They’re too similar to feel distinct or iconic. Fantasy names don’t need to sound like you face-rolled the keyboard, and they don’t all need to end in vowel + N. Hyfrin, Gallivan, Colthannin, Falafyn, Gualafyn... Names like Neokos, Tor Wen, Caer Mar, The Beacon, Masgarth. They kind of fall flat. A lot of the names just blur together. Compare that to Neverwinter, Waterdeep, Baldur’s Gate, or Icewind Dale. Those are memorable without sounding like gibberish.
Character names are just as forgettable. After eight hours, I couldn’t tell you one NPC name. I closed the game and immediately wrote this, and I still can’t remember the name of the halfling woman we traveled with for most of it. T... E... something? She was basically just an extra attack for my action economy.
The storytelling is just as weak. Dialogue feels awkward and forced. There are obvious early access issues like lip flap not matching dialogue, and sure, that may get fixed by 1.0. But as of this review, it’s still bad.
Some of this might be helped by a camp screen where you can talk more with the party, but the game doesn’t really give you that same main character vibe BG3 does. There are some sibling bickering moments that I liked in concept, but they felt written by an only child.
The UI is passable, but but has issues. Let me see everyone’s inventory at once. Let me move items around without the current clunky swapping. Multi-selecting for selling or moving items, ability hotbar customization, and better ability icons would all help. It's all unnecessary friction.
A personal sticking point is that it feels like they don’t have the license for anything outside the SRD. When I play a DnD game, I want DnD, not random Joe’s version of DnD. There’s a lot of homebrew here. I liked some of the class mechanics, but one of the selling points was that this was supposedly more faithful to DnD than BG3. So it was jarring to see so much homebrew. I get why. Licenses are expensive. Doesn’t change how it feels.
The audio and voice acting also fall flat, especially the constant grunts and groans. Every jump, climb, or ledge hop is uhg, ooh, oogh, argh on repeat. It gets distractingly bad.
The real issue is the overall theme: flat. The game just feels flat. Everything is bland. If this game were a color, it would be beige. I don’t care enough about it to love it or hate it. After eight hours, it evokes almost nothing.
Even with all that, I don’t hate it. I’ll probably check back in at 1.0. But right now I have zero interest in launching it again. I hope they improve it. I want the competition. I want Tactical Adventures pushing Larian, and vice versa, because competition makes better games. But as it stands, I regret picking it up.
🕹️ store.steampowered.com/app/2975950/Solasta_II
📧 MasterGamingVR@Gmail.com
📺 twitch.tv/shadowsthoughts
#Solasta2 #SolastaII #CRPG #TurnBasedRPG #DungeonsAndDragons #FantasyRPG #TacticalRPG #RPGGameplay #FirstLook #Gaming #shadowsthoughts
Let me start with the good. I think the combat is solid. The grid works better than BG3’s freeform movement.
And I think that’s it. That’s the one thing it has on BG3. And yes, I’m measuring it against BG3 because I’ve seen people say S2 is the next BG3. It just doesn’t compare.
That’s not entirely fair. The overworld hex map is interesting and very reminiscent of a Westmarches game, but the travel vs. long rest limitation means you’re forced to rest more often than you need to, which trivializes a lot of the combats you do get into. So while I think it’s a positive, it still has issues to iron out.
Encounters would be more interesting if they didn’t feel like random arena fights and had more of that BG3 dungeon-crawling vibe, but I may just not have reached any major story dungeons. You can definitely get lost in the side content, though I did run into some repetitive encounters where the setup felt mostly the same with slight changes.
Controversial topic, but one that’s pretty prevalent in gaming right now:
Kinda woke with pronoun selection, and all the characters are just ugly. No one is allowed to be attractive. This might be early access, but it feels more like a choice. If you’re looking for it, you’ll probably see some dialog as well. I wasn’t looking for it and still noticed a few eye-roll-inducing lines. It’s not overt, but it feels mildly peppered in. YMMV.
On the topic of ugly characters, the graphics are kinda mid. The world feels bland. Again, early access, so I expect some improvement, but right now it feels overpriced for the quality. BG3 in early access six years ago surpassed S2 by a noticeable margin.
The writing is pretty damn bad. As someone who loves story, eight hours in I just didn’t give a fuck. I was done and ready to quit. Story is a huge motivator for me in games. Mindless slaughter can be fun, but most of the time I want a reason for it. It just didn’t hook me here.
Part of the problem may be the proper nouns. They’re too similar to feel distinct or iconic. Fantasy names don’t need to sound like you face-rolled the keyboard, and they don’t all need to end in vowel + N. Hyfrin, Gallivan, Colthannin, Falafyn, Gualafyn... Names like Neokos, Tor Wen, Caer Mar, The Beacon, Masgarth. They kind of fall flat. A lot of the names just blur together. Compare that to Neverwinter, Waterdeep, Baldur’s Gate, or Icewind Dale. Those are memorable without sounding like gibberish.
Character names are just as forgettable. After eight hours, I couldn’t tell you one NPC name. I closed the game and immediately wrote this, and I still can’t remember the name of the halfling woman we traveled with for most of it. T... E... something? She was basically just an extra attack for my action economy.
The storytelling is just as weak. Dialogue feels awkward and forced. There are obvious early access issues like lip flap not matching dialogue, and sure, that may get fixed by 1.0. But as of this review, it’s still bad.
Some of this might be helped by a camp screen where you can talk more with the party, but the game doesn’t really give you that same main character vibe BG3 does. There are some sibling bickering moments that I liked in concept, but they felt written by an only child.
The UI is passable, but but has issues. Let me see everyone’s inventory at once. Let me move items around without the current clunky swapping. Multi-selecting for selling or moving items, ability hotbar customization, and better ability icons would all help. It's all unnecessary friction.
A personal sticking point is that it feels like they don’t have the license for anything outside the SRD. When I play a DnD game, I want DnD, not random Joe’s version of DnD. There’s a lot of homebrew here. I liked some of the class mechanics, but one of the selling points was that this was supposedly more faithful to DnD than BG3. So it was jarring to see so much homebrew. I get why. Licenses are expensive. Doesn’t change how it feels.
The audio and voice acting also fall flat, especially the constant grunts and groans. Every jump, climb, or ledge hop is uhg, ooh, oogh, argh on repeat. It gets distractingly bad.
The real issue is the overall theme: flat. The game just feels flat. Everything is bland. If this game were a color, it would be beige. I don’t care enough about it to love it or hate it. After eight hours, it evokes almost nothing.
Even with all that, I don’t hate it. I’ll probably check back in at 1.0. But right now I have zero interest in launching it again. I hope they improve it. I want the competition. I want Tactical Adventures pushing Larian, and vice versa, because competition makes better games. But as it stands, I regret picking it up.
🕹️ store.steampowered.com/app/2975950/Solasta_II
📧 MasterGamingVR@Gmail.com
📺 twitch.tv/shadowsthoughts
#Solasta2 #SolastaII #CRPG #TurnBasedRPG #DungeonsAndDragons #FantasyRPG #TacticalRPG #RPGGameplay #FirstLook #Gaming #shadowsthoughts
