Slay the Spire II

The long-awaited followup to the acclaimed deck builder roguelike, Slay the Spire 2 certainly generated its share of hype upon its announcement and even more upon its Early Access release.  But does the sequel live up to the legacy of the first, or does it spiral into oblivion?

Slay the Spire is a game I was absolutely enamored with; between the desktop version on Steam and the mobile version on my phone I sunk a solid 300 hours into it.  Just an impressively deep, fiercely addictive experience, and each run lasts about 30-40 minutes so you don't feel too crushed when you get close to the end and don't quite make the final push.  So of course when Slay the Spire 2 was released on Early Access, I went and grabbed it as quickly as I could.  I was reluctant to do a review for a long while since it's still in early access as of this writing, but the gameplay and mechanics are largely finished and the game just seems to be awaiting some final polish and art assets, so I think it's in a good enough state to review now.

The core gameplay remains largely unchanged from the original - you progress through a randomized path of rooms on your way through three increasingly difficult dungeons, with each capped off with a boss battle.  Each room contains a battle, a semi-random event, a shop where you can spend money on new cards, relics or to thin out your deck, or a camp where you have the option to rest and recover HP, or forge one of your cards into a more powerful form.  The strategy of course comes in as you try to hone your character's build and tweak your deck to deal out and defend against damage efficiently, and make the best of whatever random drops the game sees fit to hand you.

Combat also remains largely familiar.  Attack cards inflict damage, Block cards decrease the damage you take that turn, and various debuffs and buffs can be added by both you and your enemies to gain advantage or weaken the other side.  Some of these can get pretty insidious too, like enemies poisoning your cards to increase the damage you take if you play them, or "freezing" them to prevent you from playing them at all that turn.  Boss battles in particular also like to nullify the effects of relics or other permanent buffs, ensuring they remain formidable even if you get a really good build going during a run.  Some even have unique mechanics to contend with - one in particular is called the Insatiable, and it's a sandworm that will slowly draw you toward it, swallowing you whole for an instant kill if you get too close.  At the start of the fight you get five temporary cards that will let you delay this by a turn, but their energy cost gets more expensive each time they're played, so ending the fight quickly is still paramount to victory.

In addition to may new cards to play, attributes can be applied to existing cards to give them further upgrades.  These include Sharp (extra damage), Replay (plays twice for the same cost) or Sly (the card plays for free if you discard it during your turn).  One wonders if they took a cue from Balatro when designing these; it wouldn't surprise me considering how ridiculously popular that game got in a very short time.  Of course, there are also plenty of new relics to uncover (some universal, some character-specific) and many new potions that are in the same boat.  Two notable ones being that occasionally you'll find a "foul potion" that damages you when you use it, but you can sell it at the shop for a good amount of gold, and a rather humorous "potion-shaped rock" that simply gets thrown at the enemy for damage.

As you'd expect of a sequel, there's more playable characters this time around too.  The watcher is no longer present (at least in the current build), but the Ironclad, Silent and Defect all return, playing similarly to how they did before with a few added tweaks and gimmicks.  Two new classes are currently included, and both add some new gimmicks.  The Regent is a comically arrogant character who spends each run seated on a throne carried by two servants, and their best attacks are fueled by a resource unique to them called Star power.  They also summon a sword called the Sovereign Blade whose damage can be gradually upgraded mid-battle until it becomes a beatstick capable of doing hundreds of points of damage and buffing your defense in the process.  The other is the Necrobinder - an undead sorceress who automatically summons a skeletal hand named Osty that serves as both an attacker and a shield to protect her HP.  Osty at first only has a single hit point, but by playing cards that apply Summon, its maximum HP will increase (and should it die during a turn, it will revive again the next turn with 1 HP).  The Necrobinder also places heavy emphasis on a resource called Doom - playing cards accumulates it on enemies, and if their total Doom exceeds their current Hit Points at the end of a turn they die.  Some cards (and enemies) can also apply Doom to the player, though, so that's another danger to consider.

A new addition this time are "Epochs" that also serve as a creative means to reveal the game's backstory.  Basically, as you complete certain goals you'll unlock panels on a storyboard, with each containing some character motivations, dialog or simply humorous flavor text alongside a piece of artwork.  Like a good portion of the card and event art at this stage of development, though, many currently only appear as crude sketches rather than fully polished art pieces.  Presuably these will be finished up as development continues.

Slay the Spire II is what you'd expect - it's instantly recognizable as a sequel to its predecessor, just adding in a little more of everything and polishing up the balance considerably.  Most stage-clear rewards now feel like, well, rewards rather than side-grades (or outright downgrades), it's got two new fun characters to play as and the returning three get some new gimmicks and plenty of new cards to experiment with.   All this, plus the constant reward of unlocking new cards, epochs, relics and of course the increasingly difficult Ascensions and daily challenges, make it another exceptionally fun and captivating deck building experience.  Basically, my favorite roguelike of all time gets even better; this is an easy contender for my favorite game of 2026 even if it's not finished yet.

 

Developer: MegaCrit
Publisher: Humble Bundle
Platform: Windows

Released: 2026 (Early Access)

Recommended Platform: Currently the game is only available on Steam as an Early Access title.  Presumably it will be ported to consoles (and possibly get native Mac and Linux ports) once it's finished.

Slay the Spire

 A deck-building roguelike game that, while not the first of its kind, inspired a slew of similar games over the following years.  But is Slay the Spire still one worth playing, or is it outshined by others that followed in its mold?

Slay the Spire is an indie game that spent a good while in development, first appearing as an Early Access title on Steam in 2017 but eventually being released across a number of platforms from 2019 to the present.  Its premise was a simple one - pick a character, build a deck and tweak your stats from a random assortment of cards and relics you find along the way, defeat enemies and bosses, and eventually, slay the spire after several successful playthroughs.

Of course, getting even one successful victory is an ordeal in itself.  Each character starts with a very basic deck; usually just one or two cards themed to their specific archetype, with the rest being generic "Strike" and "Block" cards.  As you work your way through groups of enemies, random events and shops, you'll be given numerous opportunities to find new cards, upgrade, discard or change your existing ones, and over time, gradually shape your deck to deal with progressively more dangerous threats.   Each of the four characters goes about this slightly differently, with the Ironclad mostly focusing on his durability and strong attack cards to get by, the Silent using a variety of status effects and barrages of shivs, the Defect milling magical orbs and the Watcher relying largely on deck-manipulation.

Battle is of course a big part of this, with the player having to manage a resource called Energy to play most cards.  Each turn begins with five cards drawn and three energy to spend, and as long as they have cards to play and energy to spend, they can do as many as possible within a single turn.  One can also see in advance what each of their enemies will do (attacking, casting status effects, blocking, et cetera), which allow them to adjust their strategies accordingly.  For example, if most enemies are defending or casting a status, that's an opportune time to attack, while if they're defending, they may wish to play cards that build up Block instead (which lasts until their next turn and cancels out damage taken).  All of the cards in one's hand are also discarded at the end of each turn, so making the most of each hand you're dealt is essential.

Of course, as with any good collectible card game, bending the rules in place with your deck is a major element of the gameplay.  Some cards get added effects that let you get more mileage from them, like Retain (cards with this effect are not discarded at the end of a turn); Exhaust (that card is removed from your deck for the rest of the battle after use), Innate (that card will always be one of the first you draw), and Ethereal (that card is removed from your deck at the end of your turn, whether you use it or not).  Others allow you to draw more cards, reduce the cost of other cards, boost damage of other cards, add more energy, recover some hit points, and Block and deal damage at the same time, or add a variety of buffs to yourself and debuffs to enemies.  Fragile will cause anyone affected by it to take extra damage, for example, Weak will reduce the damage they dole out, and Poison will inflict defense-ignoring damage at the end of the turn, counting down by 1 for each turn it's in effect.  Positive effects include Energized (beginning a turn with more Energy), Metallicize (which adds some Block at the end of your turn), Strength (adding to damage inflicted) and Artifact (which blocks one negative effect).

Over the course of the game, one will also undergo a number of events that can change up their stats.  These primarily come in the form of Relics, which grant a number of effects that are mostly beneficial, but can also prove a detriment to some builds.  While a few of these are relatively mundane (just boosting max HP or having your first attack deal extra damage), others will drastically change up the way you play.  One example is the Unceasing Top, which will cause you to draw an extra card each time your hand is depleted; a very useful thing to have for builds that rely heavily on 0-cost cards like Shivs or Claws.  Some that can be a double-edged sword include Ectoplasm, which boosts your maximum energy but makes it so that you cannot earn any gold for the rest of the run.  The Calling Bell is another example, giving you three other random relics but also sticking an unplayable Curse card in your deck that cannot be removed; not too big a deal for most builds, but if you're planning on using the effect of the Unceasing Top to keep drawing cards... it can definitely be a detriment.

Other events may give you "colorless cards", which are cards usable by any character and generally have effects more powerful than mundane cards, or potions.  Potions can be used at any time during your turn and also have a wide variety of effects, from adding a buff to dealing damage to letting you draw cards.  However, you can only carry three of them at a time (five with a certain Relic), so using them sparingly and knowing when to trade a lesser potion for a better one are both important.

Like any good roguelike, Slay the Spire pulls no punches with its difficulty; getting through the game is punishingly tough and monsters will beat you down time after time, yet it's rewarding enough to keep you coming back for more.  Playing rounds of the game, whether you successfully get to the end or not, will gradually unlock new cards and relics for your characters to use, and learning to adapt to whatever the game throws at you is a gradual but enjoyable process.  But even after you've unlocked all the characters and cards and successfully slain the spire, each day brings new Daily Challenges, putting the player into a preset scenario and random seed and challenging them to get the highest score on a worldwide leaderboard.

Slay the Spire may not have been the first deck-building roguelike ever, but it's easy to see why it became such an influential one.  The roguelike hook of being a relatively short game (about 40 minutes per run), but having high challenge is there in spades, and tweaking and upgrading your character and deck quickly proves to be an addicting experience.  One Step from Eden and Hades expertly mixed action into the format, but it's nice to have a roguelike that's just built on strategy, execution and improvisation once in a while, too, which Slay the Spire does expertly.

Developer: MegaCrit
Publisher: Humble Bundle
Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux, Playstation 4, Switch, Xbox One, iOS, Android
Released: 2019, 2020, 2021
Recommended Version:  Having played the Android and Xbox One versions, I see little functional difference between them save for the slightly clumsier controls on the Android port that require dragging cards onto a target to activate them.  The Steam version seems to be the one to play, though, as it supports player modding for extra replayability (including the excellent fan mod "Downfall", which lets you turn the tables and play as the boss monsters defending the spire from would-be slayers!).