Tactical Adventures are releasing Lost Valley expansion for Solasta soon, bringing along one new campaign, a ton of subclasses and virtually infinite possibilities for free content.
Initial thoughts
AltChar recently had the opportunity to preview the upcoming expansion for Solasta: Crown of the Magister , called Lost Valley, which left us impressed with the sheer amount of content players will get to enjoy once it's released. On top of that, the new features are backwards-compatible, which is our favourite thing to see in new releases and the way things look at the moment, it appears that Tactical Adventures nailed it.
New subclasses
When Primal Calling was released, two new classes were introduced and both of them were playable in the content that was released before the DLC. In the same spirit, Lost Valley introduces a total of nine subclasses that will be playable in all adventures.
While they are not as impactful as completely new classes, the alterations subclasses offer are significant. Having the ability to give your allies an advantage on their rolls is a game-changer for those that choose to make their Fighter a Commander, for example. This type of content is bound to refresh the gameplay across the board and the best part is that you can take it everywhere, including the content created with Dungeon Maker.
Tactical Adventures
Dungeon Maker enrichment
Just like the immense amount of mods that are usually connected to Bethesda games, Dungeon Maker has nigh infinite potential as fans create new adventures for the entire community to enjoy, for free.
Lost Valley is leaning into this feature as Tactical Adventures added new monsters and locations as tools to be used while creating your adventure. Furthermore, there is a plethora of free content and improvements that are coming with the same update, regardless of whether you purchased the expansion or whether you have access to the new adventure.
Adventures in the Lost Valley
According to the developers, the new adventure will last about 20 hours for an average playthrough but those who like experimenting might go up to 30 hours. Having gone through the content personally, I can also note that these numbers might go even further since the new environment and framework allow much more freedom than the base Solasta: Crown of the Magister.
The adventure is pretty open for you to explore as you wish, there is no linear path to lead you through the story other than the introductory phase. There are several factions you meet by the time it's done and from that point onwards, you are free to do as you please.
Tactical Adventures
Make friends, make enemies, maybe both. Or you could just be a berserk psychopath and murder everything - the devs accounted for that outcome as well. As such, Lost Valley offers unprecedented freedom in the world of Solasta, which is likely to be appreciated by players who wanted more of it in the base adventure.
This approach also offers more replayability, especially if you went through it with friends and your preferred choices were not necessarily the ones the group ended up picking.
The multiplayer
I only got to experience multiplayer briefly as it wasn't available to the public at the time but it didn't take long to make a good impression. Getting into a multiplayer session is as easy as the host picking the option from the main menu while the others find the session and join in. The UI is very simple and completes the objective of not bugging you before joining your friends for an adventure flawlessly.
Tactical Adventures
The party members get to vote on in-game choices like travelling or dialogue and in general, it boils down to feeling like you're in a proper tabletop adventure with friends, with the main distinction being that you're not listening to the DM's interpretation in order to immerse yourself. Instead, the world is presented to you through audio and visuals, courtesy of this wonderful medium called video games.
As good as this sounds, the best part is that it actually works for previous content as well - multiplayer is not only for Lost Valley and you don't even have to buy it, the devs made it free for everyone.
Conclusion
Lost Valley offers a brand new adventure for Solasta fans that offers more freedom than the game ever did. It is accompanied by a bunch of new features that undoubtedly make the product better and come April 14, 2022, the players will have something that was well worth the wait .
