Another month, a new game is coming to the table, based on tactical RPG bones. This time it’s from Solasta: Crown of the Magister, a new entry in the genre from aptly named developer Tactical Adventures; That pretty much sums up what this game is. I believe the term is nominative determinism, where people end up doing a job that fits their name, and so it is here. Anyway, enough chatter, let’s go on an adventure and see what the world has in store for us.
The story is always where I start a review, mainly because I much prefer a game with a strong story, one that almost unwittingly pulls us in and pulls us to the end. Without going into too much detail (otherwise we’ll be here forever) the bones of Solasta: Crown of the Magister are these: we play as a group of four adventurers summoned to become representatives of The Council. As delegates, we are charged with different objectives, and as such we have the power to go where we want, virtually whenever we want. Since the game world is huge and full of unexplored, forgotten dungeons, a simple walk through the landscape can quickly lead us to adventure.
As we travel, we are asked to go to a fortress outpost to find out why communication with the castle has been lost. Arrived, the place is in flames, goblins are running around and it looks like we’re going to have a fight. And from there on, it just gets more involved, but you’re not going to get any spoilers here.
It is the presentation that is an interesting aspect of Crown of the Magister. As you’d expect with a game of this type – it was first released on PC in May 2021 – you see the PC game framework under the nailed-down console conversion. For example, the font used when explaining things is small, and I had no prayer to read the text from the couch, but instead sit cross-legged in front of the TV like a naughty schoolboy.
The graphics are also quite small, and while you can zoom in to a certain extent, it doesn’t allow you to see what’s going on. There’s no worse feeling in a CRPG than having the enemy make a series of moves while you have no idea what they’re up to. The actual landscape graphics are pretty good though, with a pleasant verticality to the landscapes that come into play in the battle, and the enemies are very well designed too.
Sound design works well too, but the dialogue is pretty weak, friendly, with about as much inflection and passion in the voiceovers as in the original Resident Evil way back when. The actual battle sounds are perfectly usable, so this can be overlooked, but the comments from members of the team get annoying after a while.
Introductions to the team form the tutorial for Solasta. You can tailor your party as best you can to play the way you want, but I went for the classic “Try to Balance It” playstyle, with magic users, healers, and close-range fighters in the mix. The character creator is very good, allowing you to design your boys to look exactly the way you want, or you can just hit the random button and see what you get! Guess which path I’ve taken? Suffice it to say Dave, my wizard looks like a refugee from Kiss in the 80’s; all weird face paint and a bald head. The rest of the squad isn’t any better to be honest, and when it came time to play the tutorial, it was taken in turns from each character’s point of view, in the form of the story of how they came together. Stealth, combat, healing and rest are all introduced this way, and there is certainly a lot to remember and try to absorb.
The gameplay is straight from the Dungeons & Dragons playbook, the SRD version 5.1 Ruleset. I think this will mean something to the highly invested among us, but for me it just meant having a new mechanic to get my head around. You see, at the start of every combat encounter, or every time you make an attack, the dice come into play; displayed on the screen to show what is happening. This is new and I haven’t seen it in an Xbox game before, so it immediately sets Solasta apart from others in the genre. Having to roll for initiative when encountering an enemy immediately took me back to my days spent playing tabletop RPGs; it is indeed a very nice gesture.
Aside from the dice mechanics, the rest of the game is pretty much as you’d expect: each of your characters has a certain amount of action points that can be spent moving, attacking, or a combination of the two. For example, you want your magic user to stay out of reach of the enemies so they can sprint and use all their action points to get some separation, while the melee characters can use their points to close the enemy and then defeat them with a foil. If you’ve played one of the many games in this genre, you’ve come to the right place.
Solasta: Crown of the Magister is huge, there is a lot to do and the challenge is relentless. A nice touch is the way the map can be used to your advantage, with bridges that can be collapsed, walls that can be pushed onto enemies and so on. The 3D element with enemies above you (bad) and below you (good) adds to the action. In fact, aside from the dodgy voice work, I really enjoyed this trip to D&D land.
Solasta: Crown of the Magister brings enough new details to make it a recommendation, especially since it comes with the promise of online co-op and a Dungeon Creation tool. There’s more than enough here to keep you rolling your dice for the foreseeable future.
Solasta: Crown of the Magister is available at the Xbox Store
Another month, a new game is coming to the table, based on tactical RPG bones. This time it’s Solasta: Crown of the Magister, a new entry in the genre from aptly named developer Tactical Adventures; That pretty much sums up what this game is. I believe the term is nominative determinism, where people end up doing a job that fits their name, and so it is here. Anyway, enough chatter, let’s go on an adventure and see what the world has in store for us. The story is always where I prefer to start…
Solasta: Crown of the Magister Review
Solasta: Crown of the Magister Review
2022-09-04
Paul Renshaw
Advantages:
- Awesome D&D ruleset, including dice
- Good story
- Action is relentless in combat
- Verticality keeps things interesting
cons:
- Voice acting is bad
- Making progress feels quite slow
Information:
- Thank you for the free copy of the game go to – Bought by TXH
- Formats – Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC
- Version Reviewed – Xbox Series X
- Release Date – June 27, 2022
- Introductory price from – £30.99
TXH score
4/5
Advantages:
- Awesome D&D ruleset, including dice
- Good story
- Action is relentless in combat
- Verticality keeps things interesting
cons:
- Voice acting is bad
- Making progress feels quite slow
Information:
- Thank you for the free copy of the game go to – Bought by TXH
- Formats – Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC
- Version Reviewed – Xbox Series X
- Release Date – June 27, 2022
- Introductory price from – £30.99
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