Why is this game so popular?

[Blue Mage CXIV]

Not trying to start a flame war or make an inflammatory statement. Just kind of curious why it has a 94% positive review rating on Steam store. Is it just because the tactical combat system is closer to the tabletop 5e rules?

In my opinion, the story and companion interactions feel pretty surface-level. So I'm wondering if all the positivity around the game stems from the combat system?

[Blackmage]

Being 99% true to the 5e rules is a big part of it.

I do not know of any other D&D video game that has stayed as true to the rules as Solasta. There are usually such huge changes that saying it's a D&D game should be called out as false advertising.

Whether you like D&D 5e or not, it is the #1 most popular version of D&D ever. Its formula of success is in being simple and easy for new people to get into, and open-ended enough for DMs to homebrew more advanced options. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And so Solasta, in theory, should be no less accessible.

The two biggest criticisms against Solasta are the railroaded story, and the "bad" voice acting and graphics. In my opinion, these are completely cosmetic and inconsequential.

A railroaded story is a turn-off for a lot of people, but if you take the time to think about it, we've been enjoying railroaded stories in games for decades. Like Morrowind's main story is actually almost completely linear. The only real difference between a game like Solasta and Morrowind is how much freedom of exploration you have. That's it. And then we've all enjoyed games like Super Mario and Crash Bandicoot, which are 100% linear, but the fun value is in the challenge of getting from point A to point B.

The "surface level" voice acting and interactions I think of as B-movie charm. It almost takes itself so seriously that it's funny, and that's why I like it. It's like how Tremors is a far more fun movie to watch than Titanic, even though the former is a cheap comedy and the latter was a massive AAA blockbuster.

And if graphics were actually meaningful, then Minecraft should never have become popular and I wouldn't still be playing Metal Gear Solid or Doom to this very day.

[BlackguardRogue]

I enjoyed the combat most of all, for sure. It also does other aspects of the genre well, so it was fun to create and build up my party, and to explore some of the areas.

The story is functional at best. The dialog is kinda average, but the system does have some interesting wrinkles. There is a bit of world building that has some potential, but I'm not sure it will end up amounting to much.

The cutscene graphics need polish, but the gameplay graphics are pretty nice overall IMO.

I'm not a 5e player, by the way. Just like good RPGs.

[psychotron666]

Of all DND games I've played (which is pretty much all of them), this one nails the tabletop experience the best. From the attacks of opportunity and bonus actions to the PC personalities clashing with eachother and the party having different ideals and goals.

So to answer the question, combat system is a big aspect, but not the only one. Having your party argue, having them have different questions they ask in dialogue to NPCs, the personalities and alignment being part of the dialogue, and the overall dynamic between the party and how the party interact with the NPCs being just like a DND session is what is so cool about this game.

[IgnatiusJ.Reilly]

Looking at this from the context of an EA, the only thing I'd like more of is dialogue options and more branching to the story elements. Unfortunately, they've decided that all dialogue needs to be voice acted and this limits addition of those elements. Not the decision I would have made, as I don't care about cut scenes or voice acting.

But, yes, the combat is fantastic. It's an actual D&D game unlike many posers out there. It's the only party-based game that has done combat right in my recent memory.

[THAC0]

Originally posted by Blue Mage CXIV:

Not trying to start a flame war or make an inflammatory statement. Just kind of curious why it has a 94% positive review rating on Steam store. Is it just because the tactical combat system is closer to the tabletop 5e rules?

In my opinion, the story and companion interactions feel pretty surface-level. So I'm wondering if all the positivity around the game stems from the combat system?

sooo a few reasons
1) This game is EXTREMLY True / Faithful to D&D 5E, Games Like Baldurs Gate 3 which made promises before release, made a promise to be faithful and its not at all faithful
2) outside of Graphics / Voice Acting this game is eveything BG3 wish it could be
3) This company / community seems way more friendlyer / less toxic then the larien community over-all
4) the Combat is great
5) the story is not at all bad
6) this is a pretty balance / Good well thought of RPG for the most part (only 2 major complaints i have is graphics/voice acting but thats not that big truth be told)
7) Extremly nice UI / Character creation and such very nicely done / put together

Considering alot of D&D Fans have been waiting for a good / decent D&D Faithful game and we have gotten alot of Posers out there and games straight up lying / scamming ppl into believing its a D&D game this game acouly kinda delivors and the main reason why this game has gotten SO amazingly popular is becouse of this

Even the arguements vs the Story isnt realy that big of a deal as this guy pointed out.

Originally posted by BlackMage:

A railroaded story is a turn-off for a lot of people, but if you take the time to think about it, we've been enjoying railroaded stories in games for decades. Like Morrowind's main story is actually almost completely linear. The only real difference between a game like Solasta and Morrowind is how much freedom of exploration you have. That's it. And then we've all enjoyed games like Super Mario and Crash Bandicoot, which are 100% linear, but the fun value is in the challenge of getting from point A to point B.

The "surface level" voice acting and interactions I think of as B-movie charm. It almost takes itself so seriously that it's funny, and that's why I like it. It's like how Tremors is a far more fun movie to watch than Titanic, even though the former is a cheap comedy and the latter was a massive AAA blockbuster.

And if graphics were actually meaningful, then Minecraft should never have become popular and I wouldn't still be playing Metal Gear Solid or Doom to this very day.

[Orbital Drop Spicy Taco]

I would say, there are surprisingly good amount of RPG player base who wish to play CRPG game based on D&D 5e rules, as pure and faithful as possible to original D&D 5e rule set. I think that is small niche of this game which separates itself from BG3 and other CPRG games.

In case of BG3, Larian already declared that they are not heading to strict D&D adaptation to BG3.
https://www.techradar.com/news/how-baldurs-gate-iii-devs-are-crafting-the-definitive-dungeons-and-dragons-video-game

So is Vincke concerned that players will already have their fixed idea of what the game should be?
"Baldur’s Gate was the definitive D&D game of it’s generation, and that’s what we’re trying to create," says Vincke, "but we’re also trying to make a good video game first and foremost, rather than a strict D&D adaptation.

So, look around the market, I can't find CRPG games which are based on D&D 5e rule as close as possible. I think this part maybe related to the fact that D&D 5e TRPG become very popular recently, constructed widespread fanbase.
(For BG3, I will use D&D balance mod, which makes BG3 close to D&D. Current one is really good, but not perfect. I'm sure someone will make a perfect D&D mod for BG3 in the future after full release)

Second, I think there are tactical turn-based strategy game fans, like playerbase of XCOM or XCOM-like games. Though it is not tactical like XCOM2, this game has some potential to become very tactical game in the future with more covers, vertical elements, random elements on the map.

[Zeel Ara]

You have to remember what steam rating means. 94% doesn't mean that the game is 94% of a perfect game. It means that 94% of people found it worth playing. It's like Rotten Tomatoes.

And in that light the rating makes all kinds of sense. It's a good game. The things that are wonky or simplistic don't make the game unenjoyable. There's a bunch of things that there could be more of, and plenty that could be fleshed out. But none of it makes the game bad.

A game that everyone agreed was a 6/10 would have 100% steam rating.

[THAC0]

Originally posted by Turbulent:

I would say, there are surprisingly good amount of RPG player base who wish to play CRPG game based on D&D 5e rules, as pure and faithful as possible to original D&D 5e rule set. I think that is small niche of this game which separates itself from BG3 and other CPRG games.

In case of BG3, Larian already declared that they are not heading to strict D&D adaptation to BG3.
https://www.techradar.com/news/how-baldurs-gate-iii-devs-are-crafting-the-definitive-dungeons-and-dragons-video-game

So is Vincke concerned that players will already have their fixed idea of what the game should be?
"Baldur’s Gate was the definitive D&D game of it’s generation, and that’s what we’re trying to create," says Vincke, "but we’re also trying to make a good video game first and foremost, rather than a strict D&D adaptation.

So, look around the market, I can't find CRPG games which are based on D&D 5e rule as close as possible. I think this part maybe related to the fact that D&D 5e TRPG become very popular recently, constructed widespread fanbase.
(For BG3, I will use D&D balance mod, which makes BG3 close to D&D. Current one is really good, but not perfect. I'm sure someone will make a perfect D&D mod for BG3 in the future after full release)

Second, I think there are tactical turn-based strategy game fans, like playerbase of XCOM or XCOM-like games. Though it is not tactical like XCOM2, this game has some potential to become very tactical game in the future with more covers, vertical elements, random elements on the map.

which is sad considering b4 the EA of BG3 was released and such they made a promise to keep faithful to D&D 5E and now they just done care
welp Larien lost my respect.

[THAC0]

Originally posted by Fluffeh:

You have to remember what steam rating means. 94% doesn't mean that the game is 94% of a perfect game. It means that 94% of people found it worth playing. It's like Rotten Tomatoes.

And in that light the rating makes all kinds of sense. It's a good game. The things that are wonky or simplistic don't make the game unenjoyable. There's a bunch of things that there could be more of, and plenty that could be fleshed out. But none of it makes the game bad.

A game that everyone agreed was a 6/10 would have 100% steam rating.

I personaly never find popular option a good indicator of how good a game is, Reading comments and doing some reserch is way better. If the thumbs up or thumbs down is mostly ppl going 'game gud' or 'game bad' then its just silly Nonesence and possibly Biased as all hell.

[etalian]

I'd say it's just because it delivers a simpler Dungeon crawl experience and things like being able to build a custom party.

If you want to make a party of all dwarves or all halflings there's nothing to stop you in the game....

[BW022]

Originally posted by Blue Mage CXIV:

Not trying to start a flame war or make an inflammatory statement. Just kind of curious why it has a 94% positive review rating on Steam store. Is it just because the tactical combat system is closer to the tabletop 5e rules?

In my opinion, the story and companion interactions feel pretty surface-level. So I'm wondering if all the positivity around the game stems from the combat system?

Several reasons I can think of...

EA Most EA games get higher reviews simply as people are still rating it on potential and can overlook things which a full release game (even if good) might be missing.

5e D&D There are some 9.5 million 5e players. The D&D brand also carries weight in terms of getting people interested or to at least try it. You also have a long line of D&D related games -- from BG, IWD, NWN, ToEE, etc., etc. -- which are pretty long in the teeth so some pent-up demand.

BG3, Pathfinder, DOS2 No secret that there is a bit of a resurgence in turn-based games and D&D specifically. BG3 has obviously gotten a ton of media coverage, forum discussions, etc. Thus, there are more people out there interested in it, willing to try it out, etc.

It's Well Done Solasta is simply well done in what it does -- implementing the 5e rules. It immediately benefits from all the advantages doing so does -- balance, how encounters play out, etc. They get all the benefits in following 5e rules simply by being close it to.

They Focused the Right Things Solasta clearly spent their time in the rules to get the 5e play experience in combat. This was a smart decision over graphics, lots of character options (besides licensing issues), complex story, dialog options, etc. This was smart in that PnP games show that you don't need fancy graphics, stories or dialogs to have a fun time. Most of the time is spend in combat and many D&D stories are work fine even being insanely simplistic.

Its Potential Is Clear With Solasta, they have such a solid base, you really can't thing that the final game wouldn't be good. They could simply push out content and it would be a good game. We aren't worried it wouldn't be good without say... new classes, UI fixes, camera fixes, bug fixes, etc. Some face options might be nice, but otherwise... just add more and more content and it should be good.

[hyperion]

I found it a very fun RPG in early access. That's probably why, it's fun.

[Alilatias]

Quite frankly, Solasta appeals to people who care more for the combat design than most other things. To many, Solasta's narrative pitfalls can be more easily ironed out over time, or the combat will mask said pitfalls anyway. The game's pretty clearly designed to be a fun tabletop-style journey, and some might just appreciate just how earnest it is in that aspect.

BG3 in comparison chose to focus on the narrative instead of combat balance. That's fine for a lot of people, but disappointing to some with how their combat system has turned out so far. Considering I've noticed how combat encounters are currently tuned around the absurd action economy in that game, BG3 has a lot more work to do to please the combat enthusiasts, compared to Solasta needing to put more work on the narrative aspect. The jury is still out on whether Larian is capable of reining in some of the potential long-term imbalance issues that a few of us are worried about, considering their track record of it in their Divinity games has been... Poor at best, requiring enhanced edition re-releases to completely re-balance the latter half of both Original Sin games.

Back on the appeal of Solasta, it helps that most other similar games chose combat systems that depart even further from something you'd see in tabletop, such as the many RTwP cRPGs. Solasta is probably the first relatively major game with such an accurate representation of tabletop DnD combat since Temple of Elemental Evil, which was released nearly two entire DECADES ago.

[rpmaia]

There could be several reasons:

1. There is a renewed interest in D&D inspired games, probably thanks to the *other*, high profile, high budget, 5E inspired game. This is nothing new, is pretty much the same thing that's happening with chess, which is gaining lots of new players thanks to The Queen's Gambit sucess;

2. I don't want to go into a BG3 vs Solasta competition, as we players can only gain from having both games, but I feel Solasta's combat is just better, in a more streamlined, polished way. The combat's UI is so clean, every info is so well presented. Of course, Baldur's Gate 3 gets so many points for it's character creator and so so many options regarding non combat option (including now a Pacifist route)

3. Solasta's developers are no n00bs in game development. Tactical Adventures founder was also Amplitude's founder, so there's a pedigree.

[boarass]

A lot of people are talking about how this is a faithful recreation of 5e, but one thing I haven't seen mentioned is that this is the first game to faithfully recreate 5e OR 4e.

D&D 4e came out in 2008, and ever since then -- so, for over a decade -- I've waited for someone to make a CRPG based on it. Literally no one ever did. It was heartbreaking. Sure, some games came out with a 4e "brand," but none of them followed the actual mechanics of 4e (marking, encounter powers, etc).

So if you've been waiting for an RPG based on post-3e D&D, you've been waiting for 12 years. Sure, I'd have preferred a 4e game over a 5e game, but the fact that Solasta even exists is massive. It doesn't really matter how dumb the story is or how crappy the graphics are. As long as the interface is functional and you can live out your D&D ideas without having to put together a human group, that's a great gift to the community.