Solasta - Lost Valley DLC Review

HiddenX

The Elder Spy
Staff Member
Original Sin Donor
Original Sin 2 Donor
Joined
October 18, 2006
Messages
19,813
Location
Germany
The Vaniverse Gaming checked out the Lost Valley DLC:

Solasta CoTM Lost Valley DLC Review & Gameplay July 2022



The Lost Valley is a paid DLC for Solasta Crown of the Magister. It adds hours of new content and additional subclasses to the game along with the ability to play it multiplayer. It is worth the price for all of you Solasta fans!
More information.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
19,813
Location
Germany
This game system has steadily grown on me to the point now where I really enjoy it. It has the potential to be the new goldbox game, so hopefully they'll keep at it. This particular expansion has some good elements, but at times I felt a bit locked into early decisions during conversations. There are some decent plot twists toward the end, and it left me wanting a replay. All in all a good value for the money.

In terms of this game, there's a bit of a learning curve adapting to the new 5e edition. It's worthwhile playing the first campaign to get the hang of it. Not all of the subclasses (both original and new) are created equal, and I think they could use some rebalancing. The party size of four characters feels a bit small at times, but some classes allow a controllable animal companion.

People have spoken highly of the user modules, even claiming they are better than the original campaign. That hasn't been my experience, although they can be enjoyable at times.
 
Joined
Mar 22, 2012
Messages
5,521
Location
Seattle
Are the devs finished as far as single-player DLC now or is there still one more planned?
There's definitely more coming - they sent out a survey asking people what they wanted in the next DLC after Lost Valley. Probably even more than just one more. But the original campaign was complete long ago. Now Lost Valley is a separate level 1-12 campaign. So Solasta is basically two games in one at this point. Likely more than that in the future. I don't think anyone knows what the truly long-term plans are?
 
Joined
Sep 26, 2007
Messages
3,444
Wasn't a fan of this game but the campaign mods eventually swayed my opinion. Still rather play NWN 1&2 though but I'll keep my eye out for their next game.:)
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,179
Location
Spudlandia
Wasn't a fan of this game but the campaign mods eventually swayed my opinion. Still rather play NWN 1&2 though but I'll keep my eye out for their next game.:)

The one area Solasta outshines the NWN games is the combat. After all these years I will still fire up NWN 1&2 and play user-created adventures.
 
Joined
Aug 28, 2010
Messages
2,838
Location
Wolf Light Woods
The one area Solasta outshines the NWN games is the combat. After all these years I will still fire up NWN 1&2 and play user-created adventures.

Agreed. The turn based combats of Solasta are pretty fun. But I wish character building was more complex, closer to the Pathfinder games. As it is, it feels fairly limited. Perhaps 5th edition DnD is a lot to blame for that.
 
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
1,271
Location
Quebec city
Agreed. The turn based combats of Solasta are pretty fun. But I wish character building was more complex, closer to the Pathfinder games. As it is, it feels fairly limited. Perhaps 5th edition DnD is a lot to blame for that.
Yep, 5th edition, plus level cap of 12, plus not having the normal D&D 5E feats and other things available (due to licensing) so they had to make up a lot of their own stuff.

Their combat implementation is amazing, and the game is so polished overall, but the character building isn't in the same league as the Pathfinder games or KOTC2. (I don't do EA, so I haven't tried BG3)

Also, a 4-character party in D&D feels way too limited and I guess BG3 will suffer from the same problem.
 
Joined
Sep 26, 2007
Messages
3,444
Agreed. The turn based combats of Solasta are pretty fun. But I wish character building was more complex, closer to the Pathfinder games. As it is, it feels fairly limited. Perhaps 5th edition DnD is a lot to blame for that.

It feels like they kept the character building limited in order to finish the original campaign. That being said, there's still plenty of character variety available. I've tried multiple different class/race variants to see how well they work in combat.

BTW, the latest update (out today) has a few issues. Looks like somebody didn't do their regression testing...
 
Joined
Mar 22, 2012
Messages
5,521
Location
Seattle
It feels like they kept the character building limited in order to finish the original campaign. That being said, there's still plenty of character variety available. I've tried multiple different class/race variants to see how well they work in combat.

BTW, the latest update (out today) has a few issues. Looks like somebody didn't do their regression testing…

It certainly has quite a few options but after the two official campaigns and a few user-created modules, I feel I have explored everything I could / wanted to play. There aren't that many option on how you can configure a warrior, for example. I cannot even specialize in a weapons (weapons that feel all too similar, btw).
 
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
1,271
Location
Quebec city
Agreed. The turn based combats of Solasta are pretty fun. But I wish character building was more complex, closer to the Pathfinder games. As it is, it feels fairly limited. Perhaps 5th edition DnD is a lot to blame for that.

Yes indeed, we have been truly spoiled by 3rd edition for the last 20 years of D&D and D&D-likes.

Solasta's restricted 5th edition is very much more like a halway bridge between the old 2nd edition and 3rd edition.

It more involved than 2nd edition, but with slightly less interesting spells.

Having said that, it's still a lot more than most other games can provide and it definitely suits party-based adventures more than single character adventures, which is the main area IMO where it improves on NWN.
 
Joined
Nov 1, 2014
Messages
4,762
It certainly has quite a few options but after the two official campaigns and a few user-created modules, I feel I have explored everything I could / wanted to play. There aren't that many option on how you can configure a warrior, for example. I cannot even specialize in a weapons (weapons that feel all too similar, btw).

If you want to experiment with moarrr..., take a look at Community Expansion 2:

https://www.nexusmods.com/solastacrownofthemagister/mods/212

I've heard there are some issues with the latest update (because Solasta doesn't officially support mods), but I'm sure it will get fixed in due course.
 
Joined
Mar 22, 2012
Messages
5,521
Location
Seattle
Back
Top Bottom