Dungeons and Dragons, just those three words sends waves of waves of nostalgia rolling over me, memories of high school lunch times and weekend sessions in friends basements being hunched over tables, rolling odd shaped dices, guiding our personalised characters through the perils and triumphs of whatever fantasy world our dungeon master had deviously cooked up for us for that particular playing session. In hindsight it all sounds so cringey and nerdy but in saying that I look back on the memories fondly and even though I haven’t partaken in a D&D session in over 20 years (I’m showing my age as well as my geeky past here) I am sure that if I was invited to play a session of the game in this day and age I would probably jump at the chance.

Since I don’t have any friends into D&D these days as we all pretty much tend to bond over COD sessions or through whatever latest and greatest MMO that has hit the market.  I am a bit rusty on the D&D rule-set and I was completely surprised to find out they are up to the 5th edition of the original rules (I think they were up to around the 2nd iteration when we played back in high school), and it is this 5th generation rule-set that the latest video game inspired by D&D “Solasta : Crown Of The Magister” is built on, being single player only it is kind of an antithesis of what the socially dependent table-top version of D&D is all about, but that won’t stop me plunging forth into the depths of its darkest dungeons, and probably dying alone and miserable in some dark and cold corner.

In Solasta : Crown Of The Magister, as in any D&D campaign or RPG, you will find yourself tasked with creating your merry band of adventurers with who you wish to explore the virtual world with. Character creation in Solasta is a simple affair thanks to the slick UI and well laid out explanations as to how each and every choice you make impacts your character. You are limited to 5 core racial choices (Human, Halfling, Dwarf, Elf or Half Elf) after deciding your race you are then tasked with choosing a character class from the 6 available (Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue and Wizard.) After selecting race, class and gender for your starting party of 4 you are then tasked with selecting a backstory for your character, which is a nice touch. Your choices here have impacts on your characters personalities which can make them anything from a sword wielding braggart through to a suspicious and cautious thief type of character. There are really a surprising number of options available during character creation and you really can create a diverse and varied party and I must admit I mulled over a few of the options for quite a while here before finally decided on their final builds, especially due to the fact that background and personality choices will have a major effect on how your characters act towards other people in the world and even their fellow party members.

The place where character creation is let down though is in visual variety, there really aren’t a lot of options for customising the look of your band of adventurers and while you can diversify the look of your characters through choices in race and gender, characters of the same race and gender don’t really have many options from distinguishing themselves from each other. It’s a minor niggle especially when the overall character creation is so deep, but it is still disappointing. The character creator really is very intuitive though and does a great job of explaining how each choice you make will reflect upon your characters abilities and skills in the game, they have a done a great job with making what is a very complex system into an easily digestible and understandable experience for newcomers.

Once you have created your party of 4 adventurers it’s time to set forth into the world of Solasta.  The game explains that many years ago that Manacalon which was a flourishing and powerful Elven empire was decimated and turned into a wasteland by a disastrous and mysterious cataclysm and that the forces that caused this are reported to be reappearing in the region again, your party is tasked with exploring the mysterious incidents, reporting on them and putting an end to them. Upon entering the game, you are presented with a series of tutorials that teach you the basics of traversing through the game world and also help you to get your grips with the games combat system, though most people who have played other RPGs especially D&D based ones such as Baldur’s Gate or Neverwinter Nights should find most of the mechanics here very familiar. The game also has a plethora of options so both players who are new to games in this genre and battle hardened and experienced players should be equally satisfied with the amount of customising they can do in order to tailor the game to their preferences.

There are two ways to move around in Solasta, one is via the map which is what you will use to traverse to and from each major location and city in the game, while journeying across the map you will have options to rest which will help your party members recuperate lost health and select new spells and also participate in several random encounters that pop up the further you travel, upon reaching cities and during fight scenes the game switches from the map view to an overhead view where the usual point and click standard mechanics for a tactical RPG game are used to move around locations. When entering into fights a grid-based system is employed to determine how far your character can travel each turn, with each character also able to make one offensive or defensive action per turn. The effectiveness of each use of ability or attack is determined by standard D&D dice rolls which are displayed in a pleasing matter at the bottom of the screen for each attack you attempt.

Battles are also multi-dimensional with height influencing how battles turn out and you also have the ability to destroy the environment around you and send it toppling down onto your foes, this is a great mechanic and never gets old. Sneaking also plays a big part if you choose to be tactical you can sneak around the map trying to gain initiative and get the jump on your enemies before they see you, also light sources in the game can have the effect of either attracting enemies and giving your location away or causing enemies that are afraid of light to turn and flee and regroup. The UI displayed during battles is incredibly intuitive and it will only take a few battles before you feel completely at home with where all the skill, action and attack options are located. In a lot of games that feature tactical, turn based combat I tend to get bored very quickly, but in Solasta the combat is a refreshing change from similar games and a joy to take part in. The combat system is incredibly diverse but also extremely user friendly.

All the locations in Solasta, whether you are traversing dark, dank dungeons, desolate wastelands or any of the other many types of terrain are intricately crafted featuring crisp and sharp visuals that really help to immerse you into the world. Likewise, the character animations while walking around and also the attacks and spell effects are suitably up to par. Where Solasta does fall down visually is during the many cut scenes in the game, many of them feature front on shots of your party of adventurers with various dialogue choices displayed next to them and there is just something off about the character models here, they look rough and are nowhere near as good and the cut scenes become quite jarring because of this, similarly the voice acting while not absolutely terrible, is not going to win any awards. Dialogue has the tendency to sound out of place like it is being read off a script rather than a free-flowing conversation between the characters in the game.

Whilst the story in Solasta won’t be winning a Pulitzer Prize any time soon and is full of the usual tried and true fantasy tropes which in this case consist of searching the world for eight mysterious at the councils request. Even with the shortcomings of the voice acting and the story, I found the excellent combat system and wonderful and intricately detailed locations are enough to keep you interested in the game and pushing through the plot, the story does however start to weaken considerably once you reach the third act of the game, and this might be enough to cause some people to lose interest. Solasta whilst not the best game ever released based on the Dungeon and Dragons rule set is still an extremely interesting and enjoyable tactical RPG, which is saying a lot as this is not a genre I usually enjoy, but I had a blast playing this game. The pleasingly designed and intuitive user interface, complex character creation system, excellent combat mechanics and intricately designed locations ensure that anybody who even has a mild interest in tactical RPG games will find something to like here, even if you have never played D&D or a tactical RPG before and you are looking for something new to try then there is plenty to like here, give it a go.