Slay the Spire

It is a fun and easily repetitive card/ deck builder. I can definitely say while simple, it is challenging and easily comparable to other challenging roguelikes. While it does not have as much gameplay and unlocks as other games in the category, it has great modding compatibility and opportunities to become one of the individuals who makes a mod for the game. 9/10

Very fun quick card game. Would love if there were some rogue like elements to it.

Amazing game with great replayability and learning curve

Great game. The minimalist achievement was a fun challenge.

Slay the Spire has been an absolute blast. The card mechanics are a perfect blend of strategy and creativity. I love how every run feels fresh because of the endless combinations and synergies you can discover. Each character is so distinct, not just in playstyle but also in their design and personality. Whether it's the Ironclad's relentless power or the Silent's poison finesse, they all feel alive in their own way. And the lore? It’s subtle but intriguing. The mysterious world of the Spire pulls me in, leaving just enough unanswered to keep me hooked. It's the kind of game that keeps you saying, 'Just one more run,' but you know you're lying to yourself. Can’t recommend it enough!

Amazing. Was told to get this game from a friend and within the first couple runs i was hooked. Bought it on my switch and phone as well. I would absolutely recommend StS. So excited for 2 to come out!

Great time waster: quick learning curve, engaging game play, and endless replay-ability

Turn based roguelike with good replayability overall fun game thats worth its price

This game is the gold standard for roguelike-deckbuilders. All the others are judged against this.

Game play is solid.

Replay-ability is huge.

Learning curve is smooth.

Skill cap is high.

Mod support is HUGE. (I have over 200 installed and I don't know why my game still works).

If you like roguelike-deckbuilders and you have not played this, you need to.

If you have not played roguelike-deckbuilders before, but you enjoy short turn based games or you enjoy trading card games, this game is going to be right in your wheelhouse.

Fine game but I didn't find the gameplay so enjoyable that I wanted to keep beating it... I beat it one time each with all the characters and that was enough spire slaying for me.

Good fun while it lasted but I felt no incentive to tackle the higher difficulty tiers.

Some games with the rogue-like system or rogue-lite concept allow you to complete each run relying only on your skills, such as Dead Cells, BPM, Hades, Gunfire Reborn, etc; you can complete these games even without using any random items. However, when it comes to a card game, as in Slay the Spire, players need to rely heavily on luck rather than their skills, resulting in occasionally confronting inevitable loss (even with your brain functioning 100%). So, your skills do not matter much in this game. If you are fine with this concept, Slay the Spire is a card game that can steal many hours of yours, I can guarantee you that. Well, it is not as challenging as Darkest Dungeon, especially because you can start a new run with fresh air in this game while in Darkest Dungeon, you start a new run with depleted resources. If you are into a card game with some challenges, Slay the Spire is one of the best.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☑ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☑ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

---{ Author }---
☑ https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template

Slay the Spire is as fun as it is frustrating while being equally unfair and stingy with it's RNG mechanics.


I know I have less time in this game than most. That being said, I just finished my first run tonight and just...Didn't really care that I finished it. All I was met with was a screen basically telling me I had to suffer through 2 more times with 2 different characters to get to what I'm assuming is either the "true" final boss or another act entirely, which I'm not entirely a fan of.

There's not a story to follow that I can see. The combat becomes very monotonous and at no time did I ever think "WOW, THAT WAS COOL". Once you have the cards you need (whenever they DO decide to show up), you're set so long as the RNG puts them in your hand when you need them, which it rarely does until you're about to die. And then you die and all of the cards you've collected just get thrown back into the void for you to have to collect all over again.

I can understand the appeal of the game. The art is amazing. The characters you play as all have their own unique mechanics (even if the first two are very boring in my opinion). The enemy types are varied enough to prevent the game from feeling completely boring, though I got sick of seeing the same repeat "elite" enemies and actively avoided the elite rooms during Act 1 after a time. It's really fun, but it just isn't for me.

But the game lacks, in my opinion, any incentive to continue playing after you finish the first run. Yes, I know, for some reason there's a competitive scene with the leaderboard and everyone trying to 1-up each other, but really, that's not the appeal of a roguelike in my opinion. The appeal, for me, comes from constantly getting new things. Not finding new things every 5 failed runs. And out of the 3 measly cards you unlock, they may be complete garbage and you'll never actually want to use them. The crazy thing? If you care about 100%ing the game, you'll have to commit time to playing with each of the 4 characters for multiple hours to "level up" and unlock the 3 cards for each level up to get EVERYTHING.

Now, moving onto the RNG of this game...It's whack. It's probably the worst RNG I've ever seen in any game that I have ever played. There are times where you'll be breezing through. Not a thought in your head. Other times, the game will put you up against something you literally cannot beat because it refuses to give you the cards/relics/items you need to win. I hate saying it's "unfair" because life isn't fair, but this is a video game. Video games should be for fun, not for testing people's patience. If I wanted my patience tested, I'd go play Overwatch. And I hate that the RNG is what this entire game boils down to. It's 100% luck of the draw (no pun intended). If you don't get good cards, good luck with winning. If you don't get good relics, just throw your next fight to get the XP and restart your run. This isn't one of those games where you can just magically win through trying harder. If the game doesn't give you what you need, you will fail. If you think otherwise, you're just delusional.

And don't get me wrong, almost 150k positive reviews shows that many people love this game. This isn't me telling you to NOT buy it. This is simply what I experienced in my very limited playtime with the game. Your mileage, views, thoughts, and feelings may vary.

Edit:

So, I've continued playing a bit, and I wanted to add something:

I figured out why I dislike this game so much. Making me get rid of my cards when I have 3 expendable energy per round (unless you use potions or cards that give you energy, which are few and far between) is why I absolutely hate this game. It completely removes any element of strategy that this game could possibly claim to have, because there is no strategy to be had when you wipe the slate clean every 10 seconds.

You can rarely use all of the cards in your hand, and you may want to save something for the next round, but because the game forces you to give up your cards each and every round (unless you're using the final unlockable character and then expending energy to retain cards for your next round or you get the relic that lets you keep your hand), it's completely and utterly pointless. There's times where you're forced to take damage because you literally won't be given shields to mitigate any damage. There's times where you'll get only shields when the enemy WON'T attack on that round. Just let me keep my cards. Every other card battler does.

Then there's the caveat of keeping your cards with the relic...You also keep all of the cursed cards/unplayable cards as well, which, unless you use a card that lets you exhaust them or you use the potion that lets you get rid of cards in your hand, you can get completely stuck with a bunch of nonsense in your hand.

The more I play this, the more I realize the devs never really had a thought in their head and just continually threw things into the mix that made the experience worse for players who are just trying to have fun with the game. There are so many QoL things that should be in the game, but just aren't. It's really quite sad.

Maybe my RNG is especially bad, but I'm erring more on the side that the game just wants me to fail without giving me any rewards to force me to play and fail even more to give me mediocre rewards after banging my head against a wall for hours, without giving me any sense of accomplishment.

At least in other card battlers with a roguelike element (Inscryption, for instance) you get at least some sense that you've done something, even if you fail. That's the reason why even when I failed at Inscryption 20 times before I finally beat it, I felt okay. Because after each run, you get the opportunity to craft a card that will help you in the next run. With Slay the Spire, I get nothing but a headache because it takes 10 runs to "level up" and get access to a whopping 3 new cards that may not ever show up because each person has 95 cards that are special to them ontop of whatever other random nonsense that the game decides to put in your deck. The average run is anywhere between 15 to 45 minutes for me so far. So it's taking 2+ hours for me to even see any kind of progress, which is just abysmal for any kind of roguelike game.

And those 2+ hours of progress are generally within the first two Acts. I spend so much time thinking and planning, and the more I do it, the more annoyed I get, because you can plan for everything and the RNG will still screw you over.

As of writing this review, I spent 2 hours getting to the second boss trying to get as much health and taking as little damage as possible, and the RNG still screwed me over because he decided to pop his insta-kill move and the game didn't give me a shield or any cards that allow me to draw extra cards. But the hand before that, I had 3 shields, why could I get one shield to mitigate even a little bit of that 52 damage that comes off of that BS move?

The crazy part? The first run that I ever completed took 55 minutes. Didn't plan for anything, just kept throwing my deck at the wall until I made it through. Now, no matter what I do, I can't get past the second boss, and that's after an additional 3-4 hours of playing. The only difference? I changed the character I was playing, but there's NO way in hell that has made that much of a difference given it's one of the first characters the game expects you to play with.

How can you make the RNG in your game THIS bad? I've played gacha games that aren't THIS bad with RNG.

One of the most well balanced games ever made. Every single aspect of the game works so well with each other that, by the 30th time a seemingly inconsequential relic or card morphed into a completely different playstyle, I started to think that the devs planned every possible interaction in the game. It's no wonder this made the genre explode, it is the gold standard.

A classic name in the history of deck building games.

The vague and mysterious nature of the tower, four player characters, many relics, potions, cards, events, and enemies make this game very fun and easily encourages the player to continue through multiple playthroughs, especially after beating the game once and offering a New Game+ feature known as Ascention.

At first getting to the know the game and how cards and such work are challenging and the game can feel hard, but once understood the ability to beat the game is relatively easy.

If you're looking for a challenging game you can save & quit anytime, get some free re-dos if you mess up your card order, and keep you on your toes with new weekly climbs (with leaderboards), then this a perfect game for you.

I've played this game for 3 hours, and another roughly 1 billion hours on the Switch. It's the best deck building game by a mile, and I can't wait for the sequel.

The early game when you are unlocking stuff is very good. I dont usually play these kinds of games but this was an excellent mix of strategy and tactics keeping me compelled for hours on end.

In the long run, the ascension level mechanic does keep replayability going, but seems to me to essentially force ever more and more RNG dependence as the rising difficulty reduces the amount of "give" you can afford in your deck- and there is a lot of frustration that comes with that.

Overall; great for its price and I will certainly be giving the sequel a look!

The best offline game that I've ever played. The most time spent on any such game. One of the reliably funnest things in my life.

This one is quite difficult to review.
Slay the spire has a lot of weaknesses, but also has some major plusses.

I'll start with the suck:
- Sprites are cheap looking and so are their animations
- There isn't a lot to unlock, so your only real sense of progression is your own understanding of the game, which is ok, but in my opinion is not enough and gets old pretty fast
- Random can sometimes screw you really hard, boss attacks with 60+ damage? All your cards are also damage based. Next turn boss defends - now you get all your defensive cards too...

Goodness:
- The 4 available characters are really distinct from one another and play differently
- The game loop can get addicting with that "ok, one more run" feeling in the early stages of playing it
- Random can also be fantastic too and you end with overpowered builds and just obliterate everything
- Runs can take significant amount of time, especially when you are starting out

Once you won on each character (3 out of 4 actually) you can go for the "true ending" and/or ascend a level and that's about it. My interest plummeted at this moment, I've reached the final boss, saw that it would need an OP build to actually have a chance at winning and kinda checked out that moment.

First 25 hours were pretty good, but comparing to other roguelikes not really worth playing any longer than that, so I give it a 6/10 and a very weak thumbs up.

its quite fun, lots of challenging gameplay and introduces new cards and options.

Looking forward to DLC or STS2

Neat concept with a rough execution. Could Easily be fixed with some updates but they stopped worked in 2022. Massive scaling issues with enemies compared to the player, game-play essentially boils down to luck of the draw for both you and your enemies, Even on runs where you feel over powered a regular enemy can and will easily end your run no matter how you play. After 14 hours and the majority of the unlocks i would still say this game is ridiculously unbalanced. If you enjoy spending an hour+ on a run only to come up against literally unwinnable cirumstances because of RNG then this is the game for you.

Overall, "Slay the Spire" is an excellent game that offers a fresh take on familiar genres, making it a must-play despite any initial reservations. It’s a testament to the game’s design that even those sceptical of deckbuilders can find themselves captivated.

I really want to like this game because it's overwhelmingly positive with reviews but jeeze, it feels genuinely unfair at times. I finally figured out The Watcher class in order to reach the act 4 final boss and i get obliterated in 2 turns by mechanics i've never seen and damage that's insane.....

Usually, i love the cyclical pacing of rogue-likes but every death in Slay the Spire just feels terrible to me. I'd rather just go watch a youtube video of what happens after the final boss.

Obviously I enjoy the game given I'm over 200 hours of game-time. I think that it is a good "skeleton" of a game. For the amount of people that worked on the game it is very well made and lots of fun. Unfortunately, that alone doesn't make this game great. The RNG is bonkers to the point that sometimes it feels like the game is actively working against you. A good example, I feel like, would be just starting up a run, we'll pick Ironclad, first battle is 2 worms, 1st draw is 5 defend cards but the worms are both using grow to increase their strength. the 2nd draw is 4 strikes and a bash, I can't kill anything nor can I defend because the ridiculous 1st had me draw all 5 of my defends in my first turn. That's a 0.0238095 of that happening but it still manages too. Why isn't stuff like that coded out in the first place? Letting an RNG run rampant would ruin the game, they had to have coded in factors to keep it in check. Why are there so many game ending variables that can't be culled or dealt with. Less than 20% of all people who have played this on just steam have never even beaten the Spire Heart. Personally, if over 80% of your players can't actually beat your game completely, then your game is unbalanced for the average gamer.

I truly and fully love this game with all my heart. Everything reminds me of her

One of the best in the genre.. it gets addicting so fast, but for a good reason... it's quite challenging as you get to higher ascension levels but the fun never ceases to exist.

Great gameplay loop, can't recommend it enough :)

im dislexic, but jon made the game fun. Geoff did not.

very fun and endless replay-ability

Evergreen deckbuilder. 3 different heroes, custom runs with many options and a daily challenge. The music of some boss fights is really good.

this game scratches an itch i never knew i had. i'm not great at it but boy is it the most fun i've had in a roguelike since forever.

The art style is charming and minimalistic, which I appreciate as it allows the gameplay to take center stage. I’ve spent countless hours experimenting with different strategies and card combinations, and it’s rewarding to see how shifting your approach can lead to surprising victories or harrowing defeats.
One of the standout features is the strategic depth of the game. Every choice matters, whether it's selecting cards for your deck, picking routes on the map, or deciding when to rest at campfires. The challenge ramps up beautifully, especially on higher ascension levels, and I love the feeling of slowly mastering the intricacies of the game.

Slay the Spire: Repetitive, Brutal, and You’ll Still Love It

It’s just you, some cards, and a tower that wants you to fail. Every run feels the same: fight, upgrade, die, repeat. And yet, you can’t stop.

One moment, you’re a genius chaining combos; the next, a blob wrecks you because you got greedy with your deck-building. And drawing Defend five times in a row? That’s on you, buddy.

It’s tough but fair, endlessly replayable, and ridiculously satisfying. 10/10 would willingly suffer again.

Surprisingly disappointing!!

I heard it's supposed to be sooo much better than every other game in it's genre. Strongly disagree.
Very monotonous and frustrating. Winning is difficult and that's not a bad thing. But when you win, it doesn't even feel rewarding... A real timewaste. I rather spend my time playing other games less timeconsuming and more fun!

Monster Train is better!

One of those game that you pirate first, fell in love with, purchase afterwards. Highest level of praise.

It's a good one, I own it on multiple devices, great game.

Best card building/rogue-lite game out there. Extremely re-playable, each run is unique. The game offers the right amount of challenge, and encourages the player to try different strategies. The 4 playable characters are all balanced well and have their own unique play styles. On top of the fantastic content in the base game there's mod support to further extend the game's lifespan. The developers are fantastic. There's no micro-transactions or any other BS associated with modern gaming, you buy the game and you get all the content. This game will run on basically any system as well, if you have any interest in rogue-lites/deck builder definitely try this game out!

Still stuck on the watcher, but overall a fun game to pass the time with.

best single player deckbuilder

If you like this game but want a coop experience, I recommend Across The Obelisk

Definitely one of, if not the, best rougelike(s) of all time. If you like card games, rougelikes or strategy this is a must play. This game scratches an itch I didn't know I had. I don't have the right words to describe to you how addictive this game is, every few months I boot up the game and rediscover my love for it. This game definitely isn't for everyone, but if you think you might enjoy it, please try it. All the different characters have different ways of playing them and they're all unique. I enjoy playing all of them. Definitely a 10/10 game.

I do not normally like card games, but this one is an exception. I can not imagine anyone who would dislike this card game although some people may be put off by the numerous complexity of strategies that is available to the player. I am approaching the 100 hour mark and am still finding new ways to play.

This is my first deckbuilding game, and I really enjoyed this genre while playing Slay the Spire. I like how it challenges my brain, especially analyzing my mistakes after defeat and figuring out alternative strategies. One of the best games I've ever played.

Excellent game, I got it for sale but it's worth it either way. Played the game on Xbox before switching to PC and have beaten the game with all 3 characters already. Tons of content, thriving community, perfectly lives up to what it says it is and more. A+

I've only been playing for 16 hours so far, but I absolutely recommend this game. It's so addicting! I've known about Slay the Spire for years but never really gave it a shot until recently.

The gameplay loop is pretty simple. The challenge comes when you have to start thinking about the deck you want to build for each boss (which you'll start to recognize based on the boss icons in advance). I got absolutely shredded the first couple of hours, but I'm slowly making progress.

The fun part is since it's a roguelike, you never know what cards you get after beating an encounter. The more you play though, the better you get at adapting. I still have a long way to go, but it's been super fun.

10/10 highly recommend!

Extremely fun except for the bosses designed to counter your build. Sometimes there will be a boss that is impossible to beat with certain build but is barely a challenge with another build. Feels like its just a luck check to make the game take longer

Really enjoying this game. Super challenging, but also a fun time. Love the art style and the immense variety of pathways to take. I am by all means not good at this game, but it makes me want to keep trying and trying.

While I do enjoy the gameplay itself, the progression in this game just feels awful. Not worth to waste your time on this one.

singing the praises of Slay the Spire at this point feels trite. If you like Roguelikes or Deckbuilders then you will play this game until your eyes bleed. Buy it.

one of dozen or so tolerable roguelike deckbuilders, a lot less rng than you think, all and all everything is surprisingly well balanced, if it was a card game it would do pretty well, and half of that blind bitches cards would be banned in every format.

This is the type of game that I have always wanted in my library. It is fun and replayable while still being difficult and giving me a challenge every time I do a run.

Great replayability. Such a polished and well thought out game. Incredible value for money.