OPINION | GAME ON: ‘Solasta: Crown of the Magister’ has some of that good old D&D style

It has been many years since there was a video game that authentically captured the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop experience, and while "Solasta: Crown of the Magister" doesn't roll a natural 20, it's definitely going to be a hit.

"Solasta" is a single-player, turn-based role-playing game that will take adventurers through ancient ruins, deserts and dark caves to majestic cities and haunted castles.

Players fight all manner of classic D&D foes. Opponents will include fellow humanoids, wolves, goblins, vampires and even a dragon as your adventurers uncover secrets and try to stop a cataclysmic threat.

The approximately 40-hour campaign starts with creating four Level 1 adventurers (or, choosing the four ready-made characters), although by the time the game starts after a tutorial section, they'll all be Level 2.

A major downside is that the maximum level is 10, instead of 20, as in traditional tabletop D&D, but there's always hope that if the game is successful, more content could be added.

To veteran D&D players, "Solasta: Crown of the Magister" isn't the full 5E experience, which has been expanded through multiple lore books published over the past several years. Instead, the Paris-based Tactical Adventures studio uses what's called SRD 5.1 (system rules document). This is a limited license that gives access to basically the core rule set of 5th Edition.

In "Solasta," playable races are humans, elves, half-elves, dwarves and halflings. But the limited license means no variant humans, no dragonborn, no gnomes and so on. And some of the classes are missing -- no Druids, barbarians, monks or warlocks, although the sorcerer class is coming in the near future.

Also, there's no multi-classing, although there's really no need for that.

To add variety back into character creation, there have been a lot of custom races, classes and feats added. For example, a Wizard subclass gives access to bows and a number of the Druid-theme spells. Unfortunately, that's just the way it is — the owner of D&D, Wizards of the Coast (owned by Hasbro), is notoriously tight-fisted with its intellectual property.

Enjoy "Solasta" for what it does have: engaging turn-based combat that follows clearly defined rules and allows for chess-like tactics and battle planning.

Something that "Solasta" offers that no D&D video game has done before is the level of verticality that gives noncombat spells and abilities a chance to shine. You'll never be shut out of the main quest for not having a particular spell or ability score, but many optional rewards rely on being able to solve puzzles and navigate 3-dimensional space, such as using a Spider Climb spell to walk up walls and across ceilings, or making a long jump with a high Athletics skill score, or through judicious use of the Misty Step teleportation ability or Fly spell.

Of course, those spells also have combat utility (for example, letting a squishy spell caster stay untouchable above a horde of melee enemies, or allowing a melee fighter to soar through the air to combat a flying enemy mage).

Something special that "Solasta" also offers, and that greatly enhances its replayability, is that it includes a Dungeon Builder, letting players create, share and download their own customized dungeons. The dungeon-making tool is very slick — place elements such as walls, pillars, treasures, enemies and traps on a 2D map, and then the game renders a 3D dungeon.

Players can create nonplayer characters, branching dialogue options and more, and the finished dungeons can be connected, basically giving an entirely new experience. The modification, or modding, scene also promises to be pretty robust, and will likely create more custom races, classes, items, spells and so on.

"Solasta" also gives players a lot of control over the rules, just as a Dungeon Master would be able to customize and homebrew a tabletop campaign. Don't like encumbrance rules or somatic requirements to cast spells? Check a box and those go away. Find the combat too easy? You can increase the difficulty, making enemies stronger and smarter.

For example, in the typical game if they knock a character unconscious with zero hit points, they'll then move on to the next person still fighting, but increase the difficulty and they'll try to execute the injured character.

All told, for the product of a small studio, "Solasta" is a pretty entertaining game that gives an authentic-feeling D&D experience. For those new to 5th Edition, it'll walk you through how the game works, and you'll be a pro in no time. And if you're a veteran, just turn on Cataclysm mode and see how long you can survive.