Slay the Spire

 PC
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 650 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 465 out of 650
  2. Mixed: 93 out of 650
  3. Negative: 92 out of 650

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. night4
    Jan 26, 2019
    4
    It's only January and this is already the most overrated game of the year.

    There are very few heroes, few enemies, few bosses, etc. Once you've played for a couple hours, you've seen all the game has to offer. All that's left is to go through the same thing over again with a crappy deck again. Custom modes help slightly, but they're not nearly enough. As someone else put it: "the    It's only January and this is already the most overrated game of the year.

    There are very few heroes, few enemies, few bosses, etc. Once you've played for a couple hours, you've seen all the game has to offer. All that's left is to go through the same thing over again with a crappy deck again. Custom modes help slightly, but they're not nearly enough.

    As someone else put it: "the rogue-like elements destroy the deck building elements". It's true, and unfortunate.    … Expand
  2. fm13
    Feb 25, 2019
    3
    Luck and RNG game. Be lucky and the game beats itself. Try strategy and get punish for it.
  3. Low19
    Jun 6, 2022
    0
    Literally can't play games I enjoy because someone is playing this piece of trash. Do not buy this game. Save yourself from this pain.
  4. Ughduty
    Aug 10, 2019
    0
    Its all fake! Everything in this game is predetermined! I can prove it to you. At the start of a battle remember your cards. Force quit the game and reload it. The next draw will always be the same which could never occur if the cards were drawn randomly. So unfortunately its all fake!

    I expect a card game to be random. By that I mean that cards should be drawn randomly. Not in this    Its all fake! Everything in this game is predetermined! I can prove it to you. At the start of a battle remember your cards. Force quit the game and reload it. The next draw will always be the same which could never occur if the cards were drawn randomly. So unfortunately its all fake!

    I expect a card game to be random. By that I mean that cards should be drawn randomly. Not in this game, you either get cards drawn preselected by the developers or their random card drawer is extremely bad implemented. I had a deck of 50 cards and one of the cards I had five times in the deck. Next draw I get 4 of those 5 cards onto my hand! Do you know how low the odds are for that to happen?! And this did not happen only once, it happens all the time. After this the game became unplayable for me.    … Expand
  5. bhappenstance
    Sep 27, 2022
    4
    Slay the Spire is a great game...to a point.
    The problem is that the endgame -- once you have cleared the base quest with all three characters -- is preposterously difficult, even for a Roguelike. In a genre classic such as Hades, the player is rewarded for experimenting with different builds based on drops. In StS, if you don't luck out and get the exact right combination of cards, at    Slay the Spire is a great game...to a point.
    The problem is that the endgame -- once you have cleared the base quest with all three characters -- is preposterously difficult, even for a Roguelike. In a genre classic such as Hades, the player is rewarded for experimenting with different builds based on drops. In StS, if you don't luck out and get the exact right combination of cards, at exactly the right point in the game, you're totally effed. Enemies are idiotically overpowered, and minor mistakes can be catastrophic. This turns what was an absolutely thrilling and addictive experience into a lame, frustrating grind. Why bother to keep playing if it all comes down to dumb luck? An enormous disappointment.

    UPDATE: Dropped the score from a 6 to a 4 due to the absurd end-game difficulty. Your capacity to slay the heart has virtually nothing to do with skill, and is entirely based on luck. It is *possible*, but will require you to get every requisite card, in a particular order, while landing only on enemies that it is possible to defeat. The developers ruined an otherwise excellent deck-building experience with ridiculously imbalanced difficulty. A challenge is welcome, but rolling the dice -- which is all that the latter stages of Slay is -- gets very boring very fast.    … Expand
  6. playpod
    May 23, 2022
    2
    i liked the game at first. but to much random and the further you get the more bullcrap enemies get. like, no matter what you do sometimes you just can't win. you put in all this effort just for it to not matter.
  7. Rookie4
    Feb 10, 2020
    3
    The game appealed to me with what looked like deck building strategy / rogue-like elements.
    But it's so poorly implemented that you can see how shallow the game really is once you play for a couple of hours. I'm almost 100 hours in and without a doubt I can say this. This is not a game, it's a slot machine that makes you think that it's a game. You have almost no say in building your deck,    The game appealed to me with what looked like deck building strategy / rogue-like elements.
    But it's so poorly implemented that you can see how shallow the game really is once you play for a couple of hours. I'm almost 100 hours in and without a doubt I can say this. This is not a game, it's a slot machine that makes you think that it's a game. You have almost no say in building your deck, your encounters or even the way you play. Still you're up against unforgiving enemies, set-back and awful balance issues. So much so, your luck is the only true player. You either get a winning combination (cards, potions and relics) and soar through the levels or you get handed a **** hand and you got nothing to do about it. I can say without no doubt in my mind that the dev team worked hard on this but stopped halfway and put up a RNG system to cover the other half.
    Can't recommend this to anyone who wants to really sink their time and effort into a strategic deck building game. It's just not worth it.    … Expand
  8. whathefaq
    Jul 25, 2022
    2
    99% luck based
    and ofc if you complain about that dumbazses will tell you some streamer can get 10 win in a row blah blah blah
    even if you can consistently win the game with 1% skill, its still not fun - repetitive gameplay. Do the same thing over and over again until you die and repeat - If you somehow lucky and win the reward is the fuken same, you gain some xp which in turn give    99% luck based
    and ofc if you complain about that dumbazses will tell you some streamer can get 10 win in a row blah blah blah
    even if you can consistently win the game with 1% skill, its still not fun
    - repetitive gameplay. Do the same thing over and over again until you die and repeat
    - If you somehow lucky and win the reward is the fuken same, you gain some xp which in turn give you some useless stuff nobody cares about once you level up
    - there no deck building here because there's nothing to even build when cards are given to you at complete random. You cant choose to limit the random pool. It randoms from all the cards you've unlocked

    overall its much better game than Monster train but its still pretty garbage    … Expand
  9. NitrogenLlama
    Apr 27, 2022
    4
    The game is fun at first, but the randomness of what cards and other items you get makes it impossible to build a decent build, but the enemy power levels and attack patterns are more geared towards a game where you have absolute control over cards and items. This leads to dying many times where it feels you had no chance.

    The game is so random that I have once sacrificed two block cards    The game is fun at first, but the randomness of what cards and other items you get makes it impossible to build a decent build, but the enemy power levels and attack patterns are more geared towards a game where you have absolute control over cards and items. This leads to dying many times where it feels you had no chance.

    The game is so random that I have once sacrificed two block cards (optimizing fast powerful damage) just be rewards with two cards that boosted block effects! Thanks RNG-esus!

    And what makes everything worse is the fact that you can build a decently powered deck just to be faced against enemies that play perfectly against your specific deck.

    Totally deleted this game after a few days.

    Avoid!    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

7
#7 Best PC Game of 2019
37
#37 Most Discussed PC Game of 2019
71
#71 Most Shared PC Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
89

Generally favorable reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 24
  3. Negative: 0 out of 24
  1. Worth Playing
    May 31, 2022
    95
    Slay the Spire is the very definition of a game that's simple to learn and difficult to master. The core mechanics and gameplay are so easy that anyone can pick it up and have a relatively fun time, but learning how to survive takes time and effort. No matter the level, it remains engaging throughout by making every choice meaningful, and victory is decided by your skill and just a dash of RNG. There are many clones out there, many of which are excellent on their own right, but the original Slay the Spire is still one of the most addictive deck-builders ever made.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Dec 11, 2019
    95
    Slay the Spire proves that tactical games can glue the player to the chair for long hours without depriving them of mental comfort. At this moment Mega Crit’s debut doesn’t seem to have any competition – neither in the card game genre, nor in the roguelike. [03/2019, p.68]
  3. Eurogamer Italy
    Apr 16, 2019
    90
    Deck-building RPG + Roguelike, Slay the Spire is one of the most surprising, deep and engaging game you'll see this year. An absolute must play.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »