Fans of the strategy genre will find plenty to enjoy in Slay the Spire 2.
78
Verdict
78%
Steam
—
IGDB
Verdict score based on confidence-adjusted Steam reviews?
Mostly Positive Steam reviews (78% positive)
Active community with 409,833 concurrent players
Limited professional critic coverage
Slay the Spire II is a roguelike deck-building game developed and published by Mega Crit as a sequel to their 2019 game, Slay the Spire. Similar to Slay the Spire, the sequel has the user select one character, using and gaining cards to defeat monsters and complete encounters as they travel through multiple levels of the titular spire. Slay the Spire II introduces two new characters in addition to three returning characters, and introduces support for four player co-operative play.
Runs well on modern hardware.
Updated 6h ago
I typically don’t write reviews this early into playing the game, but I felt like doing it this time. Slay the spire 2 is a very fun game, coming from someone who has barely touched deck builder games before. It’s nice and challenging, runs flawlessly, and is definitely worth its price. If you are unaware, the reason it says “mixed reviews” is due to 2 waves of review bombing. The first being from the Chinese playerbase due to the buffed door maker boss (which I believe is now removed) and the nerfing of infinite card combos, and due to heavy restrictions on Chinese social media, steam reviews were used as an outlet to vent frustration. The second wave of review bombing is due to the name “Anita Sarkeesian” being listed as a consultant in the credits for sts 2. Anita Sarkeesian is a feminist and founder of the website “Feminist Frequency” and was the target of a 2012 harassment campaign due to her stances and critiques on how women are portrayed in pop culture, specifically video games. (Source: “Anita Sarkeesian”, Wikipedia) overall the game is really fun and it sucks that it has been review bombed for pretty stupid reasons. I highly recommend checking it out. Obviously the game isn’t perfect, but the fact that it was review bombed down to mixed reviews is really unfair considering most people with negative reviews don’t even have valid critiques (not that there aren’t any valid critiques). (Also, sorry if I got anything wrong)
I've almost 1000 hours. Lots of replay and the online community is healthy and alive if you want to play with others.
The core gameplay and art style remain top-notch, but the numerical balance and enemy designs are deeply frustrating. Inflated Stats & Harsh Checks: Bosses and elites feel like brute-force DPT checks rather than tactical puzzles. Enormous HP pools and absurd per-turn regeneration instantly invalidate slower, defensive, or control-oriented decks before they can even set up. Punitive Enemy Design: Instead of engaging mechanics, enemies either deal unavoidable Chip Damage just to wear you down through full block, or slam you with 30–35 raw damage. This severe lack of margin for error completely destroys deck-building creativity, forcing players into a handful of hyper-optimized meta builds. Mismatched Expectations: A multiplayer mode should lean into hilarious, chaotic party-game energy (random bullsh t go). Forcing players into hyper-punishing min-maxing during co-op ruins the fun of playing with friends. The foundation is solid, but until the balance team tunes down the artificial difficulty, the negative review stays.
Reviews sourced from Steam. All reviews belong to their respective authors.
Data sourced from RAWG, Steam, IGDB, CheapShark, Wikipedia, HLTB, and GX Corner. Sources: rawg, steam, igdb, wikipedia.
All game titles, trademarks, and copyrights belong to their respective owners.
