Solasta 2 in early access seems better than the original in every way that matters

It's tough to pick a particular highlight of Solasta 2. It's a slight improvement in a bunch of ways, though no one change is dramatic enough to be a selling point on its own. A handful of name voice actors elevate the performances, the writing's a bit less cornball, the update to D&D's 2024 rules make weapon choices a little more impactful, and the character creator's less likely to strand you with a party of freaks—though it can be difficult to get meaningfully different-looking characters.

Which at least fits the fact you're playing as a group of four siblings. Adopted siblings, to conveniently explain why you might be a mix of humans, halflings, elves, and dwarves. (Other ancestries will be added later.) I guess this also explains why even with the wrinkle options it can be tough to make a character who looks properly old. The inciting incident that kicks off the story is your mother's funeral, and it would be confusing if it looked like you were the one who belonged in the ground.

The plot takes its time to get going, then finally cuts you loose with an agreeable amount of freedom. Where the first game's overworld map was a series of paths leading to quest destinations, Solasta 2 presents the wilderness of Neokos as a hex grid covered in question marks. Some represent permanent encounters that will wait for you to arrive, while others are temporary and might vanish if you don't push through a level of exhaustion to reach them before your next long rest.

You're crossing the land in search of your sister Deorcas (voiced by Devora Wilde of Lae'zel fame) on behalf of your brother Rickard (voiced by Ben Starr of upsettingly sexual Balatro clown fame, though he was also Clive in Final Fantasy 16 I suppose). Like the first game, the tactical battles are more important than the plot.

I've fought exploding rockmen in a burning town, terror birds that attacked from ground level while their masters fired arrows from a ledge above, and harpies who tried to divide the party with mind-control magic. (My cleric's Calm Emotions spell came in clutch as a counter.) Unlike the demo, this build makes good use of terrain and has NPCs who can navigate it—mostly. Some enemies lurked at the edge of the map in a couple of fights as if they hadn't noticed me even while their friends screamed into the attack.

The setpiece battles feel like playing D&D with a full table of miniatures and scenery. At one point I had to choose whether to side with a group of undead or the two-headed giant surrounded by traps they were attacking, which ended up being a messy fight up and down pillars and around spikes and caltrops.

I still haven't memorized all the conditions different weapons apply—there's a difference between "vexing" someone and "sapping" them, and one day I'll recall it without checking—but being able to slow a distant enemy with an arrow or give a close one disadvantage on their attack rolls is a meaningful choice my rogue can make each turn.

Swapping between two weapon loadouts is free, both to encourage this and to make spellcasting easier. Solasta 2 has a strict interpretation of D&D's rules and won't allow clerics holding shields to cast most of their spells, so I find myself constantly having to flip back to a crossbow. The first game had an option to get around that restriction by drawing a holy symbol on your shield, and I wish the sequel had kept it instead of transforming into the kind of stickler DM who says "um, actually" and makes your life less fun.

Early access is the time for changes like that to be made, and the roadmap has additional classes, co-op, and crafting all to come. I'm hoping the option to use a rogue's cunning action to hide gets added soon. Improvements to the character creator have been promised as well, though most of the vocal complaints about it come from dudes who are big mad the men don't look manly enough and the women don't look hot enough.

If you ever wondered who downloads all those Skyrim mods that make men look like Kratos and women like 2B I guess it's these weirdoes. The complaint I have about character creation is that you can't go back and tweak your choices after you start the campaign and see what they look and sound like in cutscenes, though that's always my complaint.

The rest of this year's updates promise to bump the level cap from four to six, let us play the start of act two, and add more customization and world events. A faction system is on the way as well—at the moment some of your choices do affect how different groups feel about you, which can limit what goods they sell, but the system's still to be rounded out.

It's all promising stuff building on a promising start, though at the moment I mainly recommend it to people like me who restart every CRPG a couple of times before we're happy with our characters and so don't mind revisiting act one while it's not quite finished.

Solasta 2 is currently available in early access on Steam.