Slay The Spire 2 Review
The King of Infinite Strategy Gameplay
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE MAY CONTAIN DISCUSSIONS involving SPOILERS FROM Slay the Spire 2. CONSIDER WHEN AND WHERE IT WOULD BE APPROPRIATE TO READ THIS PIECE.Platforms
We Reviewed our copy of Slay the Spire 2 on Steam. Slay the Spire 2 is currently only available on Steam as an early access game.From a small indie beginning to the king of strategy roguelikes, Slay the Spire had an incredible rise to the top of its genre upon release in 2019. Of course, Slay the Spire 2 (STS2) is the sequel released in March 2026 and it had an even more incredible release than the first game despite it being early access. Hundreds of thousands of purchases and players within the first days of its release, and over a hundred thousand concurrent players daily since. It is rare for an indie game to be met with this much success, and even more rare for a strategy roguelike like STS2. After playing it extensively, STS2 is so popular for good reason – it is simple enough for anyone to pick up but has enough depth to be challenging for the most experienced of players. All this to say that the game is definitely not perfect, but it is still a good game with broad appeal.
The original Slay the Spire was a niche roguelike strategy game that mainly appealed to players who are experienced in that genre. STS2 has added a couple new features, which I will discuss later, that brings the game into the mainstream spotlight. This is something that all video games try to do but often fail because they stray too far from the concepts of the original game. That, or they create a carbon copy of the first game with a few reskinned elements. STS2 walks the tight rope between these two failure points to make itself unique enough from its predecessor to be a new game while sticking to the same core identity and values. As someone who has now played both the original and STS2, I am happy to say that STS2 is better than its predecessor while also feeling and playing very similarly.
Before I break down exactly why STS2 is a good game that appeals to many gamers, I want to briefly highlight the rough development cycle it had. STS2 was supposed to be released in 2023. However, the game engine provider that powered the first game made massive price increases and revenue sharing rules right before its release. Despite their success, the small team at Mega Crit (indie developers of Slay the Spire and STS2) would have lost a lot of money with these new rules. Instead, Mega Crit made the tough decision to abandon the game engine and their fully built STS2. From scratch, the developers learned and used a free game engine to create the STS2 that is now released. Despite all this, the game is still a massive success without being on the “better known” game engine.
Gameplay and Mechanics
As mentioned above, the core gameplay loop in STS2 has stayed largely the same as the original. The player chooses a character to enter the spire with, which determines the base set of cards they get and can find. Progressing through the floors of the spire awards loot in the form of gold, a new card, and sometimes a relic or potion. All these things allow the player to build their deck and become stronger for the tougher floors above. The player also gets to choose from a few paths up the spire. However, each path equals a total of 48 floors with a random number of elite enemy encounters and three major bosses. It is the player’s goal to build a good deck and preserve enough health to be able beat all 48 floors. In true roguelike fashion, successfully defeating the spire means the player must start all over again. For every completed run, the player is rewarded with new cards, characters, relics, potions, and difficulties, making every attempt at the spire feel fun and different.
Before breaking down all the jargon above, I want to quickly break down what a floor of the spire plays like. Most floors are either basic enemies or a random encounter. Basic enemies make the player fight between one and four enemies with the current deck they have put together. The player has a certain amount of energy per turn (usually three) and each card in the deck has an energy cost. The enemy’s intentions are always known, so the player needs to play the right cards to counter their plan. The goal is to efficiently defeat the enemies while also losing as little player health as possible; Elite and boss encounters play very similarly to this but are more difficult. Random encounters are generally non-combat events that present the player with a set of choices, the best of which usually come at a cost. Lastly, there are vendor floors that allow the player to purchase cards, relics, and potions in exchange for gold.
Moving onto the jargon like relics and potions, these are the things that make each run feel different. Relics are the most sought-after items in the game and are effectively ongoing buffs that affect the run positively– they impact each run in a variety of different ways. Potions are one-time use items that have different effects from damaging enemies to giving extra energy. Characters are essentially the archetype that determines how the player approaches beating the spire. Different characters have various play styles, all of which are different from other characters. The differences cover all aspects of the gameplay, from what cards the player can find to the relics and potions that can be earned. Finally, cards are the most important part of the gameplay loop, and I will let you find out what they all do by playing the game.
New Features
One of the 5 playable characters
There are only a couple of new features in STS2 that were not in the original, but they are extremely transformative. First is the addition of multiplayer that allows up to four players to take on the spire together. In multiplayer, the enemies are tougher and the rewards are different for each player, adding new levels of gameplay complexity that were not in the original Slay the Spire. Multiplayer is also what brings STS2 into the realm of mainstream gaming. The vast majority of the ongoing most popular games in today’s gaming community are multiplayer, so having a multiplayer mode is a massive boon to any new game. Since Slay the Spire was already popular without multiplayer, it goes without saying that it would get even more popular with it.
Multiplayer is great, but it is not the most transformative new feature of STS2. The two new characters take that title. The original Slay the Spire had four characters, three of them return in STS2 and are joined two new ones. All five of the characters have new cards, card effects, mechanics, relics, potions, and more. Although, the two new characters have by far the newest things because everything about them is new. One is a former ruler that commands cosmic powers, and the other is a necromancer that summons a pet skeleton and communes with the underworld. These new characters are extremely unique and that alone definitely makes STS2 a tier above the original game.
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Neow the exiled god
As I have hinted at above, STS2 is easier and therefore more accessible to a wide range of players. Even players that do not usually play roguelike and/or strategy games will likely have a good time with STS2. The game starts off easy so new players can ease into it, becoming familiar with strategy elements of the game, then gets more difficult as the player continues to play. The game is also great for strategy game connoisseurs with its ascension level system that makes the game harder every time they complete a run. Even though it is not super pronounced, there is also a story that explains why the player continues to confront the spire:
Neow, the exiled god of resurrection, is trapped at the base of the spire and needs it to fall to be free. Neow recruits the characters to take on the spire by promising them resurrections when they die. However, the characters were tricked. They do indeed get resurrected upon death, but there is no way take down the spire. When a character reaches the top of the tower where the architect lives, they are easily dispatched and forced to climb the spire eternally.
I will be first to admit that it is not a very strong story, but no one plays the game for its story. It is played for its unique take on the roguelike strategy genre, which it does well. That is not to say that everything is perfect. For example, I think the luck-based parts of the game are a bit too overbearing, meaning getting unlucky basically just ruins a run. Also, the characters need to be balanced better, a couple characters feel good to play while the other three feel too tough to win with even on the lowest difficulties. Despite this, the pros heavily outweigh the cons of STS2.
Between the multiplayer mode and the new characters and cards, STS2 presents itself as a notably different game from its predecessor. For people that did not play the first game, there is no need go back and play it – just pick up STS2 as it does everything better. STS2 is still in early access, so there is also a high likelihood that even more content will be added in the future. At its $25 price point and less than a gigabyte of file size, it is a great game have for a quick 10 minutes or several hours of play. It can also be played without internet, so it can be saved for a rainy day. No matter how you like to play, STS2 is a game that supports it all and I definitely recommend it to all gamers.
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Matt
New video game, movie, or TV show? Matt probably has it on his radar, and he might even be in the middle of reviewing it. This digital entertainment enjoying dude is a Content Writer during work hours, then plays games, watches movies, binges shows, and writes about all of it in his free time.