How does this game compare to The Temple of Elemental Evil or old Black Isle games ?

[MaroK]

First time poster here, long time cRPG player.

I think I played everything the market offers to this date what is worth mentioning except this game. I am still a bit hesitating with Solasta as it's on my radar for a long time but it came out from Early Access just recently and not sure if I like the pricetag on it. But I am willing to jump in if I convince myself that this is what I am looking for.

Truth is, a very few titles in the genre grabbed my attention. The last great crpg I played was Pathfinder. I think it was really great. And you might be surprised , but I pretty much liked Tides of Numenera too. Unfortunately I can't say the same about DoS games and Pillar/Tyranny was just ok for me nothing special. Baldur's Gate 2 was my favorite game of all time back in the days and I completed that game at least 10 times in my life. Was kinda disappointed when I saw that BG3 is just a DoS reskin because Wizards wanted them to make it like that. But thats ok, people love DoS so they can at least enjoy another similar game. Not saying these are bad games at all, the user ratings speaks for themselves but I am more of an oldschool player therefore it's not for me. I don't feel like it can recreate that old 90s vibe.

If a new modern game can recreate that oldschool vibe for me, I am all in even at full price tag. But this is what many games failed to do for me. Temple was my favorite game when it comes to combat. Troika did a really good job but that was almost 20 years ago. And wherever I look I see people comparing Solasta to Temple which to me sounds great on paper but....is it really the case ?

I see people here complaining about stuff like ugly portraits etc but I don't really care about things like this. All I am looking for is just pure classic oldschool D&D vibe and gameplay which I was experiencing two decades ago. Not looking for new inventions, ideas or anything like that. Just a brand new games which play the old classic way.

How is Solasta in this regard ?

[Frostfeather]

ToEE is miles away from Solasta in terms of complexity, but despite that, I'd still say to give Solasta a try. It's definitely one of the better turn based D&D/Pathfinder/whatever games to come out recently (mainly due to lack of competition). It doesn't capture the old school vibe for me exactly, but it's close enough.

[Cartesian Duelist]

Solasta isn't really going to give you an oldschool feel because it uses the D&D 5e rules. It also is strictly turn-based so it doesn't play at all like the old BG games. If that turns you off, this might not be the game for you. I quite like the game, but it is a matter of taste and it's not for everyone.

That being said, it is very faithful to the D&D 5e rules. If you're familiar with them, the game won't hold any surprises. The main campaign isn't bad but is somewhat spare. The main focus of the game is on combat although there are some RPG elements involved. They focused quite a bit on innovating three-dimensional combat so many of the maps are filled with ups and downs meant to get you to use some tactical planning in the battle. I think the real draw is going to be what people start doing with the dungeon maker that they've built in and apparently the game is mod friendly.

[MaroK]

Originally posted by Cartesian Duelist:

It also is strictly turn-based so it doesn't play at all like the old BG games. If that turns you off, this might not be the game for you.

I love turn based combat games :-)

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

BG3 is not a DoS reskin and with each patch it gets closer to 5e RAW (for example, in the upcoming patch 5 they are fixing Disengage to work just like RAW). It's only a matter of time before BG3 is 95% 5e with only a hint of Larian's quirkiness.

[Frostfeather]

Originally posted by pandariuskairos:

BG3 is not a DoS reskin and with each patch it gets closer to 5e RAW (for example, in the upcoming patch 5 they are fixing Disengage to work just like RAW). It's only a matter of time before BG3 is 95% 5e with only a hint of Larian's quirkiness.

Your obsession with BG3 doesn't really address op's question.

[MaroK]

I hear you. And I am not going to argue as I have no right because I didn't played bg3. However no matter how I look at it, I don't feel like it has anything to do with bg1 or bg2 thats my problem. It is just sharing the same name that's all. And 95% or 100% doesn't make any difference for me. Witcher 3 is at 97% and I didn't liked it either. Numenera is at what 55% ? And I loved it.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Originally posted by night4:

Originally posted by pandariuskairos:

BG3 is not a DoS reskin and with each patch it gets closer to 5e RAW (for example, in the upcoming patch 5 they are fixing Disengage to work just like RAW). It's only a matter of time before BG3 is 95% 5e with only a hint of Larian's quirkiness.

Your obsession with BG3 doesn't really address op's question.

My response specifically addresses the part where he says that BG3 is a DoS reskin.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Originally posted by MaroK:

I hear you. And I am not going to argue as I have no right because I didn't played bg3. However no matter how I look at it, I don't feel like it has anything to do with bg1 or bg2 thats my problem. It is just sharing the same name that's all. And 95% or 100% doesn't make any difference for me. Witcher 3 is at 97% and I didn't liked it either. Numenera is at what 55% ? And I loved it.

The Bhaalspawn saga reached it's conclusion. It will never have a sequel because it's finished. That said, BG3 will have narrative ties to to BG and BG2 and even some returning characters (Minsc is confirmed to be in BG3).

[Silverquick]

Originally posted by MaroK:

First time poster here, long time cRPG player.

I think I played everything the market offers to this date what is worth mentioning except this game. I am still a bit hesitating with Solasta as it's on my radar for a long time but it came out from Early Access just recently and not sure if I like the pricetag on it. But I am willing to jump in if I convince myself that this is what I am looking for.

Your direct answer is YES... it plays mechanically very very similar to ToEE. But it runs on 5E ruleset rather than 3E. Stylistically the way its done here plays much closer to 1st ED or AD&D to either one of them. And then closer to Basic/Expert D&D of 1st Ed.

It is like playing a cross between Temple of Elemental Evil and Neverwinter Nights 2.

Story wise its not as dark or "moody" as ToEE, and plays more similar to NWN2's but with the gameplay of ToEE. Mechanically the battles outside the first half of the game are not near as hard as ToEE, they start challenging... then become much less complex as the game goes on, with only a few exceptions.

It also has a Toolset and Workshop like NWNs where you can play player made dungeons. But those aren't as complex as the NWN toolset creations at present.

[chrismyco]

TOEE is maybe my favorite RPG ever. Solasta is not really that close. pathfinder kingmaker with the TB option turned on is what you are looking for. there are also extensive mods that add massive amounts of pnp content. Solasta is more like the lighter DnD gold box games and pools of radiance. It's a very good game. it is mostly that the 5E system is fairly simplistic and that is reflected in the game play of this game. the Game is excellent nonetheless though.

[dulany67]

To me, Solasta is more reminiscent IWD in TB than ToEE.

[Gregorovitch]

@OP: Well I've played 1000's of hours of cRPGs from BG2 to Pathfinder Kingmaker, including ToEE, and I'm playing War of the Righteous Beta now too. I'm just getting to the end of Solasta. My personal observations for you are:

* Although similar to ToEE in principle (faithful implemention of RAW etc) in practice Solasta is nothing like it for the simple reason that 5e is nothing like 3.5e.

* Compared to Pathfinder 5e is like a Fisher Price D20 kiddies clone. It's not even in the same league. It's not even in 3.5's league. It is incredibly restrictive, for example you can only wear three active magic items at a time and many spells are "concentration" spells meaning you can only have one active at a time (meaning you can cast slow on the enemy and haste on your own characters, you can't cast bless and also cast bane of the enemy etc). There are also very few feats you can give your characters and those you can often come as an alternative to, not as as well as, stat increments.

* Being turn based as well as having these overly restrictive rules means that combat at times, in fact quite a lot of the time get a bit one dimensional. TB is much simpler than RTwP and relies, much like tabletop play, on relentless focusing down of enemies one by one. There are also rules that allow adjacent characters to block enemies attacks etc. Which means that generally it's best to simply keep your party in a tight formation and systematically chew through your foes one by one. Rinse and repeat. It's also true that some concentration spells are so much better than others that you almost always use them which is another form of rinse and repeat.

That being said it's a really nice game well worth playing. It's story and characters are a bit naff but the combat is beautifully executed and some of the areas/levels are outstanding which goes a long way to counteract the limitations of 5e. In short it's an ideal introduction to 5e, for what 5e is worth, and as a long term D20 game fan you probably owe it to yourself to actually experience it.

The main lesson though for me is 5e needs significant enhancement and extension for video games. It may work well on the tabletop, I don't know, but a video game is different to a table top game. One hopes Larian beef it up for BG3.

[Alealexi]

Originally posted by MaroK:

And I am not going to argue as I have no right because I didn't played bg3. However no matter how I look at it, I don't feel like it has anything to do with bg1 or bg2 thats my problem.

If you are talking about the bhaalspawn saga then the story is dead since Murder in Baldur's Gate which you saw the death of the last bhaalspawn and saw the resurrection of Bhaal. This was the last sequel to the bhaalspawn saga. BG3 will have a connection to the old games but that will have to wait for the release of the game to be seen. But as the other guy said this is no DOS reskin.

[Alealexi]

Originally posted by Silverquick:

Your direct answer is YES... it plays mechanically very very similar to ToEE. But it runs on 5E ruleset rather than 3E.

ToEE was run on the 2e AD&D system. Not 3e.

[Ichthyic]

Originally posted by dulany67:

To me, Solasta is more reminiscent IWD in TB than ToEE.

agree. fwiw, both this and IWD are much more stable than TOEE was. pretty much had to run mods on TOEE to fix all the bugs. still, I loved TOEE and was quite sorry to see Troika go down as a dev.