Take one part extremely well-made deck builder, put in a dash of a bad rogue-like reward loop, and sprinkle in some cheap bullshit and you get Slay the Spire - an extremely satisfying roguelike deck builder that will let you build yourself up and feel great before pulling the rug out from under you, kicking sand in your face, and laughing at you.

Slay the Spire genuinely has some incredible highs, but the lows of having what feels like an invincible deck and then getting the perfect combination of bad card draw and enemy attacks that results in your sudden defeat feels bad. Nothing feels better than feeling like you’re in control of how well you do in a game. Consequently, nothing feels worse than feeling like a loss was totally out of your control. Making it worse is how long the runs are and how little you get when you finish one.


My favorite roguelites are the ones that respect your time. The ones that let you progress and unlock meaningful upgrades whether you win or lose a run. Slay the Spire has no interest in this. It has no interest in rewarding you for your time. The best you’ll get are a couple more relics and cards added to the pool. Nothing that helps you feel like you’re progressing and certainly nothing to make future runs easier. Your success in Slay the Spire depends 100% on 2 things - your ability to build a good deck, and a decent amount of luck… and maybe more patience than I have.

I’ve spent hours dying in countless other games in this genre. I’ve got no problem losing in roguelikes and lites. What I do have a problem with is spending over an hour in a single run with nothing to show for it at the end of that time. I ain’t got time for this. I’d rather spend my time playing something that respects my time. And yet, as I sit here bitter about my most recent loss to the bullshit final boss, all I can think about is booting the game up and starting another run. Because despite all the parts of the game that feel unfair or unsatisfying, the core gameplay is just so damn good.

+ Genuinely some of the most satisfying deck-building I’ve ever played
+ Getting a good deck together that synergizes well feels real good
+ Addicting

- Losses often feel unfair and kind of bullshitty
- No cross-run progression
- Runs are too long
- Heavily luck-based
- Ugly art style

Where it Shines:
Card System - 9/10
Replayability - 8/10
Custom Runs - 7/10

The Good:
StS is undoubtedly the gold standard for Rogue Like Deckbuilders. It deserves the praise it gets, for the most part.
Runs feel satisfying, you learn quickly, and the relics, shops, events, cards, etc, all feel really fun. It's definitely the "Just one more run..." game.
The game on steam also has an incredible modding community and there are tons of extra characters, modes, modifiers, and other changes to breathe life into the game once it gets stale.

The Bad:
For all it's praises, the game really does have a lot of flaws. It's easy to just 4 star review this and move on, but I want to highlight areas where I think it really desperately needs some attention.
- music is serviceable, but very generic
- artwork feels like an early 2000's flash game. You'd have expect to see homestarrunner and his gang pop in
- only 4 main characters, half of which are very basic and make runs too easy, the other half of which are overly complicated and runs feel like a coin toss
- good run customization, but the game needs a sandbox mode where you can experiment without restriction
- ported a ton of times over the last 6 years but no real improvements made at all
- some relics and run modifiers just flat out suck. Like trash garbage, unusable.

Summary:
So is it good or not? I think base StS, although hands down is the best out there, still has flaws that drag it down. However, it's still fun overall to play. Will you get bored of it? Sure, but that could be 20 hours in, 30, 40, 100...it depends on how into it you are. And then you can mod it to get even more life. It's probably the most average game I've put over a hundred hours into and counting, which is maybe why I'm so critical of it. I want it to be better. I want it to sound better, look better, play better. Because people keep making rogue like deckbuilders, and they keep trying to reinvent the wheel when StS has the fundamentals down pat. I just want someone to copy StS and give it the polish it deserves.

Note on my ratings:

Treat my stars like Michelin Stars - just having one means the game is worth playing in some way.

1/2 ⭐: hot trash garbage, since you can't do zero stars here
⭐: below average, needs work
⭐⭐: average
⭐⭐⭐: pretty good
⭐⭐⭐⭐: excellent
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: all time favourite

Playtime: 74 Hours
Score: 8/10

Finished and reviewed this game last year but I have played a lot more since then and I still absolutely love this game and recommend it to anyone who likes card games, but I have more to say. At the time of my original review I had only beaten the game once with one character. Now I have beaten the game with all 4 characters and beaten act 4 at least once, and seen the secret ending.

To start with what I like, I love the different classes and builds you can make in this game. Each character has their own specific decks and unlockables you can get throughout the game and they can all have multiple different builds, depending on what cards and relics you get in a given run. My favorites are a poison focused Silent and a elemental core focused Defect who really are fun and devastating to play with. I also love that you can upgrade the cards you get and make them deadlier, It just makes the combat so much more fun and enjoyable for me as a long time fan of Hearthstone and Yu Gi Oh.

And there's just so much to see and do. You have to beat the game with all the different characters, and then beat the secret act 4 with each of them. And then you still have the ascension levels to tackle, which add modifiers to your runs to make them harder. The amount of content and replayabilltiy here is staggering and its very commendable.

And then the best part of the game is the mods. On the steam version of this game (which is the version I recommend), this game has full workshop support which makes this title even better. You can download things from new characters, new cards, quality of life enhancements and even full on fan expansions, like Downfall. It just adds so much more value to an already great package.

Now onto the bad. While I said the mods are great for this game, it also works against it a bit, as I found this game to just be way too punishing. I legit wasn't able to finish this game until I downloaded a mod called easy mode (but still not really easy) that makes that you heal your health fully after each combat encounter. You can say its a skill issue on my part, but I just found this mod alone enhanced the experience so much more for me personally. The game isn't brain dead easy by this change as I still die constantly, but what it does do is make the game way more balanced and fair. In the base game, you can get relics and cards to help you heal but its often not by much. The main way to heal is by coming to campfires you find, where you can either upgrade your cards or heal, but you can only do one per campfire. I do not like this choice as 1, resting only heals your health partially anyway and 2, it deprives you of being able to upgrade your cards as you will almost always be low on health. And upgrading your cards I feel is essential to completing runs and making any progress in this game. When I had the mod installed I could focus more on upgrading my cards and because of that I was able to make way more progression, but not too much progress as I once again still die a lot in this game and I have only been able to beat act 4 once. Maybe if they made it so that if you do rest, you fully heal your health which it would make the choice more enticing, but otherwise this has basically become a game I would only ever play with mods, and would never play it on console where that's not an option.

Otherwise most of my original complaints still stand. The animations are very limited and your character doesn't even change their pose when attacking. The game is also really unpredictable and a lot of times as there are certain bosses and elite enemies (mini-bosses) that if you don't have a super powerful deck and the right relics, you will almost always lose as the devs just made them way too powerful.

My last major complaint is the ascension levels and the unlocks. As you play you earn XP and unlock 5 levels worth of unlocks for each character. The ascension levels go up to 20 and like I said they add modifiers. They also give you more XP compared to playing normally, but there's a huge flaw with this. For me, by the time I beat the game with a character and unlocked their ascension levels, I had already gotten most of the their unlocks. The ascension levels let me get the last few unlocks but after that there really is just no reason to do ascension, since theirs nothing more to unlock. All your doing at that point is making the game harder with no reward, which I get some will like but I don't. They should have made exclusive unlocks that you can only get by hitting certain ascension level milestones. That would make it more worth it in my opinion.

Overall though, like I said at the beginning of this review, I still love this game. I think its easily one of the best card games I have ever played and other rogue lite card games I have played since like Banners of Ruin, haven't come to close to this games greatness for me. Its just now that I have played 4x the amount of hours that I did back in my original review, I felt like my opinion has refined, Still a great game though.

All Games I have Played and Reviewed Ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-games-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/

Slay the Spire does what the best games in the rogue-whatever genre do: throw you into a pit of chaos and teach you how to control it. It's no Synthetik or, like, Spelunky, and as with many roguelikes, just completing your first run will maybe take a few hours, but the structure of the game, the depth of strategy present in each deck+relic combo, and the contained tone of a short, but dangerous ascend through an evil tower make for a great, everlasting experience.

The overall presentation of Slay the Spire is probably it's most underappreciated aspect. The visuals are spotless, with a level of polish in the UI you don't see in a lot of the most popular indies, let alone AAA videogames; everything is clear, understandable, and technically inscrutable. The designs of the characters are not the best, but some of them are extremely memorable, especially when it comes to some of the Boss and Elite enemies. The sound, --- oh, man! Each floor's and special room's theme is very simple, but very memorable, and there are a lot of quirky voice-lines and crunchy sound-effects that give every card used a real sense of weight. And the overall art-style does a lot of small little things to stand out from the competition, and especially from, like, 97% of the games in the subgenre StS ended up birthing.

Overall, with it's level of popularity and importance for the industry, I wouldn't be surprised if this game came down as one of the 2010s best games, even if I wouldn't consider it one of my favourites. It's kind of been my addiction through most of 2022, and now it's just a comfort game I play every day to try and beat the next challenge, stave off the voices, that kind of thing. But though I praised the quality of Slay the Spire's technical aspects, it ultimately doesn't have a personality strong enough for me to connect with, and by its very nature exists to be experienced in short bursts of fun mind-jogging, much like checkers or beer pong. And there's nothing wrong with either of those things, and this game definitely deserves to be a lot of people's favourite thing ever, but it's not for me. Though it is a damn good time.

In conclusion I be Slaying her with my Spire. Thank you.

It's telling that most people describe this as a roguelike first and a deck-builder second. "Roguelike", as a concept, has a tendency to dominate whatever core gameplay loop it provides for - and this is no exception. I really liked working out my deck and watching it play out in practice, but the game's insistence on taking my cards away from me every time I made a single serious mistake was, in short, a real fucking pain in the arse.

Really proud of a deck that allows you to summon ten zero-cost swords that stack multiplied damage on top of each other? Too bad, because you came up against the hard counter to that deck and now you are back at square one and must spend twenty minutes gambling your way back to whatever new build the algorithm's dice deem probable for you. Frustrating, time-consuming, and ultimately mindless in a way that invites "one more go" addiction rather than thoughtful pondering of cards. It's a wonder that no one has harnessed roguelikes and real-money gambling yet...

Wouldn't it be more fun to experience the failure of a hard deck-counter and then spend time reconstructing your cards in a way that allows you to overcome that specific scenario, rather than forgetting about the loss and moving on to something else entirely? That's the fundamental fatal flaw with roguelikes, I think - you rarely have to reflect on losses or challenges because your next run is going to go a totally different way. You're passing time until you get the right sword with the right boon against the right enemy.

I beat this after a dozen or so tries - not because I gained mastery of its systems, but simply because I eventually rolled a deterministic environment where I had good cards and the enemy did not have the right skills to counter those cards. No reflection or growth necessary! I would love a version of Slay the Spire that actually disciplined players into learning its intricacies - even a simple stone-set RPG of intentional design would probably trump the computed 52-card pickup that the game offers at the moment. Despite my natural inclination against the nature of traditional RPGs, I still want an overworld and towns and dungeons that I can use to explore Spire's cards and their interplay... They are so well-crafted, but the game offers surprisingly few incentives or avenues for exploring their depth. Let's break free from the roguelike legacy!!

Satisfying synergy

It's something when a deck building game can grab your attention as much as Slay the Spire did for me. I think it comes from a want more than a need: Wanting a turn based rogue-lite/like that prioritized classes and different abilities that gave the pick up and play format that I appreciated from the rogue-like/lite genre. Darkest Dungeon technically filled this niche but runs became too long to stay invested for when I prefer just doing a quick max of an hour run before moving onto single player experiences once more. An intermission before starting a new journey so to speak into the boundless video games I have yet to play.

Slay the Spire's narrative element isn't really apparent from playing the game itself but there's a few puzzle pieces you can put together. The spire is your enemy, the cause of your rebirths is a whale ancient called Neow as you go through three acts and areas to do the titular duty: Slay the Spire. It's here just as set up for the meat of the game which is exploring the said locations itself.

The most satisfying element of playing is finding out combinations, making the most of what you can and truly deciding your own path without any real filler in between. Changing, removing, transforming and altering yourself is how you'll eventually get your first clear as you progress through several challenging floors of enemies, elites and bosses. Finding each classes has dedicated builds and synergies that work extremely well and feel extremely rewarding when you can pull the off and the sheer variety of cards and their actions really let you go in depth with how you want to act. Playing a big deck with constantly drawing cards or playing a small deck that relies on luck less but getting that perfect card at the perfect time? It's all possible in a run. There's a lot of variables and factors you can grab and address to go through each time that it never feels easy or monotonous but the fun is making do with what you can get since truly trying to strive for each build might actually harm you in the long run since you're relying on card drops at that point. I think it's best to not play with any guides and figure out your own combinations until the higher ascensions (difficulties) when you truly want to do everything the game has to offer. Average runs of Slay the Spire can take up to forty minutes to an hour from my experience which is just barely long enough to fill that pick up and play situation I'm looking for in games like these.

The art of the game is alright but there's a few things that leave a bit to be desired like some of the card art being first drafts still and the models but it's really hard to care much since I feel like the gameplay does so much to elevate the experience anyway. The soundtrack is good with boss tracks raising the tension pretty well and area themes feeling like you're in a D&D session of sorts which fits.

A lot of popular rogue-lites/likes from my experience are purely action oriented and as much as some of them are fun, I do wish there was something like this where you can take your time a bit and properly plan things out and Slay the Spire fills that niche perfectly for me. If you take the time to think things through and find out some clever combinations yourself, you can get a clear no problem and it's all about doing it your own way. The game always keeps its hand close to its chest but you're playing with a full deck. Use it.

THEY CALL ME 007

0 SKILL
0 SPIRES SLAIN
7 SUICIDE ATTEMPTS

A remarkably balanced, well paced, and replayable card game. God it feels so good to build a strategy out of all of the weird relics and cards you end up with through the run. I don't think I've replayed what is essentially the same game this many times and never once felt bored. I think StS hit the sweet spot in run length and difficulty curve. It's so easy to pick it up, give the spire another shot, and put it down whether it's a victory or a loss. And somehow out of dozens of failed attempts with what seemed like miraculously perfect decks, I never felt demotivated starting back at square 1.

One of those games that makes you realize how weak you are. How much you crave that little hit. “Just one more floor,” you say. “Then I’ll turn it off. I mean, I’ll probably die soon. And have to start over. How… terrible that would be…”

Three hours later, you’ve attempted five more runs, experimenting with aggressive strats as opposed to defensive ones, writing down different combos in your pathetic little notebook, just sitting in a tired stupor in the dark playing your fucking virtual cards against nobody.

So… yeah, cool game!

Slay the Spire along with Vampire survivors are not story driven, but both revel in reinventing a much-beaten genre. I correct myself not reinvention but the ability to look at something that already exists with a lens that speaks directly to the player's feeling of accomplishment. They made so a card game and a game you just walk around gives the same gratification as killing a Boss in dark souls would. The two put card games and monster wave games in the roguelite genre, and had the sensitivity to develop in a way that the game doesn't become frustrating, it flows and you constantly discover new things that make you feel like you're the best in the world.

Slay the Spire is an outstanding card game, where you try to climb the floors of a spire to reach its end without dying and having your progress reset. As you climb the spire you face increasingly difficult enemies and bosses that you must defeat, whilst acquiring increasingly powerful cards and buffs to aid you on your climb. All of what I’ve just detailed is a tonne of fun and the random nature of each climb helps keep things fresh on each run. Also, there are four characters that you can choose at the start of each run which all have completely different decks and abilities. The learning curve of understanding how to utilise these characters and build an effective deck is incredible rewarding. What’s more, once you’ve managed to successfully climb the spire with a character, you can increase the difficulty of your next run via ascension mode, ensuring that the game always gives you a challenge. This along with a daily climb mode add some replayability, though the fairly limited pool of enemies and bosses did mean that I personally found the game started to get repetitive after a dozen runs or so. Also, I wish there was slightly less luck involved in runs. Regardless, Slay the Spire is an amazing experience that’s a must play for fans of rogue-likes and card games.

2019 Ranked
Indie Recommendations

I’m not a big fan of card games, if you don’t count solitaire, so it was pretty surprising how much fun I had with Slay the Spire. The thing that really amazed me is how distinct each character feels from one another, and how within each one’s deck there could be huge variety in how you play, and it provides for some fun RPG escapist fantasy. Every character has a distinct, if not simplistic archetype that is very fun to embody, which is something I can’t say about, really, any of the rogueli(t)kes I can think of that have different characters. Usually in other games of that type the classes or the characters feel more like just different starting stats & item kits, and their actual character is never expressed; they feel very interchangeable. And for what it’s worth, in Slay the Spire the roguelike part of the equation is handled pretty well. You don’t have amounts of content that can last you for hundreds of hours, but every run does feel distinct, and it’s fun to sway the RNG in your favour, trying to optimise your deck for the build you’re going for. And the ability to not just be at the whims of RNG is something I really value with roguelikes, so kudos for that.

Unfortunately, though, there are some severe problems with this game’s structure and gameplay loop. The main one that I think of every run that I do is the fact that, ultimately, for all the variety and opportunities for unique decks that this game has, you just have to forfeit most of it if you want to win. You can’t really go for crazy set-up decks, or for aggressive play styles that favour attacking more than blocking – you will HAVE to go for high-defence and cheap offence decks. If you want to kill the final boss, or just survive on higher Ascension levels, there’s one type of playstyle you’ll have to go for with every character: obscene amounts of block that you either get passively or for low energy-costs, lots of cheap and individually weak attacks that stack up a lot of damage, and maybe some bullshit passive like Ironclad’s Fire Breathing and Demon Form, with the first melting your foes for essentially free if you just add every curse card you find (which is not hard), and the second giving you an infinitely stacking damage upgrade every turn. These kinds of overpowered decks where you’re just a giant turtle that summons lightning for you are fun to run, but it sucks that there’s not some crazy set-up you can ever attempt, or some highly aggressive deck that rewards attacks as opposed to constant blocking. Because the bosses just deal too much damage, you can’t help but build your character around constant defence, which can get pretty tiring at times.

And this is another thing about Slay the Spire: it doesn’t really wow you. There’s a lot of creativity to this game’s card selection, judging from a baseline “how hard does a person try” perspective, but Slay the Spire rarely excites you to the same extent as other card-collectors I’ve played/heard about, and I can’t help but feel that that comes down to the fact that this game is a roguelike that has to juggle randomization and complex strategic gameplay inherent to deck-builders. I’m not some Hearthstone aficionado, but I can even think of several insane strategies in this game that just wipe the floor with Slay The Spire’s most exciting options. This may not be a fair critique, but it’s one I can’t help but express, given that, when you break it down, the most interesting this game gets is when you have to strategize when to stop blocking and to start dealing damage directly instead of through a passive. There are some exceptions, of course, but I wish there were more “do this crazy 9 step setup, kill everything, or commit suicide if you fuck up” kind of situations you could put yourself in.

And look, I don’t want this review to read as “StP is boring and shallow”, because I really did enjoy my time with this game and I’ll probably keep playing it for at least the next few months (after having played it for months), because there is a lot to love here. In addition to all the gameplay goodness, this game’s presentation, in my opinion, is very solid. The music seems drab at first, but it really grows on you, and all these simple orchestra pieces do a good job of setting up mood or highlighting fun gameplay scenarios. The visual style is simple with VERY limited animation, but it’s very admirable how much the devs do with so little: how every little flash symbolising a punch or a slash feels really visceral, how bosses doing little jiggles in your directions feels menacing and imposing, and how buffs feel empowering JUST from very good effects accompanied by great sound design. And I have to commend this game for not only creating (or popularzining??) a whole subgenre, but for still having more charm and being more enjoyable than most of the games inspired by it. Not to mention that for all the comparisons you can make between this game and traditional deck builders, be it digital or physical, this game has more personality than any Magic the Gathering rip-off that came out in the last 10 years.

So yeah overall I hate this game