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

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  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. mamkerink
    Feb 27, 2019
    8
    Отличный представитель класса роглайков, не имеет такого высокого порога входа как Isaac или Nuclear Throne, но всё ещё может подкидывать определенный челлендж. Если вам нравятся ККИ и/или роглайки: брать бесспорно.
  3. Pope_Phred
    Feb 8, 2019
    9
    Slay the Spire is one of those games that only the independence of the PC market can give. There is no way the console market would have given a chance on this game: The art style was, and is some cases still is, rudimentary, and the idea of a collectible card game that doesn't let you actually keep hard-won cards flew in the face of established licences like Hearthstone.

    However, the    Slay the Spire is one of those games that only the independence of the PC market can give. There is no way the console market would have given a chance on this game: The art style was, and is some cases still is, rudimentary, and the idea of a collectible card game that doesn't let you actually keep hard-won cards flew in the face of established licences like Hearthstone.

    However, the gaming market is constantly evolving: Players who would describe themselves as casual are looking for a deeper gaming experience, challenging but with a limited time commitment. Slay the Spire fills this need, providing a full, unique experience in roughly an hour. Over the course of hundreds of individual hours, you will form strategies, you will build combos, you will fight battles which will bring you to your last hit point, hoping in vain for the one card, the lone artifact which will make this run a successful one.

    The mechanics of the game, are by this time, well known: You start with block and attack cards and use them in a battle against one to five foes. With each win, you get to pick one of three random cards (with traits that compliment your chosen class). The challenge, and ultimately the hook, of this game are these small decisions which flesh out your deck. Your choices, along with random luck, will determine your success.

    You will fail. A lot.

    You will start over from scratch.

    Eventually you will win. It is the euphoria of finishing a run that makes this worthwhile. And, here's the thing: That win can't ever happen again. You can't recreate that deck, or the map, or the circumstances that earned you that win. So what do you do? You start over.

    Though repetitive, Slay the Spire has just enough length per run to make it worthwhile, while not outstaying it's welcome. Combined with a thriving modding community on Steam, this game promises to be fresh for sometime to come. Slay the Spire has innovated. Let's see how it gets imitated...    … Expand
  4. HabitualCloud
    Feb 7, 2019
    10
    It can be really tough to "get it". It certainly helps to watch someone really good at the game play it, just to get a sense of the basic rhythms of the curve. But once you get your first win, it has a lot of replay value.
  5. andreacat
    Apr 8, 2019
    10
    I have spent countless hours playing this game.
    The 3 decks (each of 75 cards plus a special set of Colorless card) make the game infinitely re-playable, by building on the several possible strategies for each character.
    If you want a challenge, this game is one of the best hands down, you will quickly get addicted!
  6. ElSven
    May 27, 2019
    10
    Best rogue likecardgame ever!!! You will play it over and over again and never get enough. Highly replay value because every time you start, its an complete different run.
    My favorite game 2019!!!
  7. DanVal86
    Aug 7, 2019
    8
    Great little time killer to jump on and play 2-3hrs. Yes there is an element of luck and RNG but it's very entertaining and very well priced.
  8. Ronze
    Nov 4, 2019
    10
    Great game. Half of the negative reviews about how their ass burned while playing this game.
  9. Zareli
    Jan 26, 2019
    9
    Highly addictive, well designed, entertaining, challenging, maybe a little bit unfair. I really like this game and would give it a 10 for what it is, however there's a flaw found in many rogue-likes: it requires a non-negligible amount of luck in order to do well in a run, so given you have the perfect strategy you might still need several runs in order to finish it so I had to substract 1Highly addictive, well designed, entertaining, challenging, maybe a little bit unfair. I really like this game and would give it a 10 for what it is, however there's a flaw found in many rogue-likes: it requires a non-negligible amount of luck in order to do well in a run, so given you have the perfect strategy you might still need several runs in order to finish it so I had to substract 1 point from my score.… Expand
  10. deadbank
    Feb 28, 2019
    9
    While the graphics might be lacking, every other aspect of this game is perfection.
  11. Fishydude23
    Apr 1, 2019
    8
    Slay the spire is a lot of fun. If you liked rogue like games such as the 'Binding of Issac' and like card games/deck building games such as hearthstone, then you would most likely enjoy this.
    Building you deck on the fly and getting combos is very satisfying.
    It would be nice to see some more options for Heroes.
  12. adrenilinmatt
    Sep 29, 2019
    10
    6.8 out of 10 user score on metacritic, from 306 reviews, 96% score on steam from 32,000 reviews. I think you get my point.

    Probably the most addictive game i have ever played, period. its like crack, once you start, theres no stopping. endless mode 2000 floors ez lol. 10/10 for concept and 10/10 for execution. I hate card games mostly, but this just grabbed me within 20 minutes and    6.8 out of 10 user score on metacritic, from 306 reviews, 96% score on steam from 32,000 reviews. I think you get my point.

    Probably the most addictive game i have ever played, period. its like crack, once you start, theres no stopping. endless mode 2000 floors ez lol.

    10/10 for concept and 10/10 for execution. I hate card games mostly, but this just grabbed me within 20 minutes and didnt let go. 300 hours later, still playing.    … Expand
  13. blackbogh
    Jun 12, 2019
    10
    with the first couple of hours this game seems to be only somewhat interesting, but as you play more get more cards and find new enemies the game changes. the games difficulty scales with the time that you complete it and unlocks new handicaps for you since you're improving. but really good game me liky 10/10
  14. ireviewbadgames
    Jan 26, 2019
    7
    It's a fun game and the developers have performed very well throughout the duration of their stint in Early Access. They're one of the good ones- I would trust their next title and promises attached to it.

    As you can imagine with a game of this type (Deck-Building Rogue-Like Dungeon Crawler) there is a heavy emphasis on RNG. Whether or not you like that aspect will heavily define your    It's a fun game and the developers have performed very well throughout the duration of their stint in Early Access. They're one of the good ones- I would trust their next title and promises attached to it.

    As you can imagine with a game of this type (Deck-Building Rogue-Like Dungeon Crawler) there is a heavy emphasis on RNG. Whether or not you like that aspect will heavily define your inclination to play the game. If you enjoy that, I recommend picking up this game.    … Expand
  15. Jribs
    Jan 26, 2019
    9
    Great game. I didn't think I'd like it as much as I did. I wound up playing it for longer and longer and just began to love it. The art style is my only complaint. Otherwise, its just a really good draft game.
  16. frogeater
    Feb 11, 2019
    6
    Well, yes it's a decent deck builder, fun combat strategy, but variety of enemies is not high, luck is very present... and, basically, it's not a AAA title, so I hate to rate those on the same scale as a Witcher or Divinity: Original Sin. It's ok, you try the different desks, you have your favourite... and after a dozen plays and a couple of weeks, you forget about this little game.
  17. RedDan
    Jan 25, 2019
    10
    I played this game for over 100 hours during early access. It is a crowning achievement in gaming, merging deck builder mechanics with a rogue-like challenge. It takes a while to get used to things, but once you do, it's a lot of fun.
  18. MrSpoof
    Apr 27, 2019
    8
    This is an excellent game, an elegant mash-up of deckbuilding and rogue-like mechanics. There is plenty of strategy to be found, but because of its dungeon-crawling format its easy to just dive right in. My only complaint and the only reason I didn't give this a 10/10 is that there isn't enough content yet. There are three floors to crawl through but it feels like there should be more.This is an excellent game, an elegant mash-up of deckbuilding and rogue-like mechanics. There is plenty of strategy to be found, but because of its dungeon-crawling format its easy to just dive right in. My only complaint and the only reason I didn't give this a 10/10 is that there isn't enough content yet. There are three floors to crawl through but it feels like there should be more. It's also a pity this is only out on PC at the moment, I think it would be an excellent candidate for mobile. Regardless the gameplay is excellent and I highly recommend this if you like either card games or rouge-likes!… Expand
  19. Gixian
    Jul 23, 2019
    10
    Probably the best indie game I have ever played. The game has pretty little content, and yet can build almost endless replayablity on it. As the game is completely randomly generated, all playtrhough is a bit different. And there are like 30 different game rules, that you can enable/disable to make a very specific (and usually much harder) playthrough, with Daily challenge mode, where theProbably the best indie game I have ever played. The game has pretty little content, and yet can build almost endless replayablity on it. As the game is completely randomly generated, all playtrhough is a bit different. And there are like 30 different game rules, that you can enable/disable to make a very specific (and usually much harder) playthrough, with Daily challenge mode, where the devs selects one rule set for all players each day, where you can face the challenge they have selected and compete with scores of other people. Even after the initial enchantment phase (where I was playing STS all the time) passed away, I return to the game over and over again, once in a few days, to play enjoy the strange settings of the daily challenges. And everytime I do, I'm amazed by the genius of this game's game design.… Expand
  20. wisey_01
    Oct 24, 2019
    9
    Overview: A well designed deck-building game with a great game loop that wont appeal to all audiences due to the level of RNG involved.

    So with the 4th character now in Beta, and the full game released a while now, its amazing to see this game still being updated with constant patches and balance changes. The core game loop has the player choose one of 4 character classes, and then    Overview: A well designed deck-building game with a great game loop that wont appeal to all audiences due to the level of RNG involved.

    So with the 4th character now in Beta, and the full game released a while now, its amazing to see this game still being updated with constant patches and balance changes.

    The core game loop has the player choose one of 4 character classes, and then undertake 3 (4 once unlocked) levels of branching paths, each culminating with a boss. These paths are randomly generated, and consist of monster battles, random events, shops, rest spots, chests and elite boss battles.

    Monsters are fought with a hand of 5 cards drawn each turn from a deck of cards (starting with 10 preset cards for each class). During the battle, players will spend mana to play these cards, generally until all mana for that turn has been spent. These cards include 'attack' cards, effects that last for the whole battle called 'powers', and 'skill' cards, which have a variety of effects including reducing the damage taken from monsters (called block). Each turn the player is informed what generic action type the monster(s) is going to take (attack, block, buff, debuff) and how much damage they will deal. This allows the player to make informed choices as to how to spend their cards for a given turn. Once the player ends the turn, the monster(s) take their action, and the player regains full mana, and draws a new hand of 5 cards. Monster battles increase in difficulty as you progress along the paths, and reward the player with gold, options to add new cards to your deck, and occasionally potions which the player can use in battle for an ever-increasing variety of effects.

    Stores allow the removal of cards from your deck (handy for removing unwanted cards or 'curses'), and the purchase of new cards, potions and 'relics'. Relics are items that provide a permanent buff to a character, which can also be obtained through elite monster battles, chests, random events, and boss battles.

    Rest sites allow the recovery of health and the option to 'upgrade' a card. Upgraded cards may cost less, have additional effects, or do more damage. However a character cant both upgrade a card, and recover hp.

    Random events are exactly what they sound like, but in general will provide a player with options to respond to a situation for varying effects, although there is a chance of random monster encounters.

    Chests provide a relic at no cost to the player, but only 1 can be reached per path.

    Boss battles reward the character with a 'boss' relic which in many cases will increase a players mana, allowing more cards to be played each turn (or more expensive cards). The player is also rewarded with a choice of 1 of 3 gold bordered cards. These are the rarest cards to find, with blue bordered cards being rare and white common. Upon finalising their choices, the character will then move to the next pathway with full health, and repeat the process.

    It is important to note that while there is an insane amount of player agency in the game - which cards to choose, which paths to take, which cards to play, which monster to kill first etc., the game remains very RNG dependant. There are going to be runs where your deck is a steaming pile of garbage and you die early. There will be runs where you have the perfect deck, but you draw the wrong cards at the wrong time. You might be perfectly geared up for 1 particular boss fight, only to find that on the final floor your build is hard countered by the boss's innate abilities (looking at you Time Eater). If you cant accept that this is going to happen, then this game is not for you.

    But oh boy if you like rogue-like games, then this one is amazing. My personal criteria for a good game is that it has to provide me with interesting choices, and this does it in abundance. Every run feels like a balancing act between getting more good cards that fit your build, without bloating your deck. Is my deck good enough to take 3 elites on a single path? Can I afford to skip this heal? Is this relic worth getting cursed for? Which card do I upgrade? How did I end up with 5 cards in my hand that do nothing and I only have 5 hp left?

    Slay the Spire does everything a good deck-building game needs to do and far far more and I cannot recommend it enough.    … Expand
  21. Ydun79
    Aug 14, 2019
    9
    What an amazing game. It seems very basic and simple but is anything but. You are always kept on your toes and there are many ways to victory. Great game for those who like card - and strategy games.
  22. nilsy
    Sep 24, 2019
    10
    Its a rather small and tight game, so you either like it or you dont.
    This is a pure gameplay game it does not have a story it does not have great art and music, it just has a tiny amount of those three just enough to be playable while all the focus has been put on balancing the gameplay and replayability.
    Think it payed off they managed to make the one thing the game have very good
  23. Brainstrain
    Dec 12, 2019
    7
    I had fun for a good few hours, figuring out the mechanics of the different playable characters, strategies for defeating different enemies, and getting the hang of card interactions. But at a certain point the sheer number of variable I had to juggle was too much, and I started making decision at random.

    The merchant means you have *some* control over the randomness, but not very much.    I had fun for a good few hours, figuring out the mechanics of the different playable characters, strategies for defeating different enemies, and getting the hang of card interactions. But at a certain point the sheer number of variable I had to juggle was too much, and I started making decision at random.

    The merchant means you have *some* control over the randomness, but not very much. Making a deck themed after any particular mechanic feels impossible.

    It's an inherent problem to the roguelike formula, I think. It's fun for a while, but not my cup of tea.    … Expand
  24. Bailey_Webb
    Jan 3, 2021
    8
    I want give this game a 7 but the mod community through the steam workshop gives it that one extra rating. The game is highly addictive early on, but for me once it gets stale (18 hours playtime) I found it hard to commit to another run with the same bosses and relics to embark on a quest to find the same cards from that characters type. I game just needs a bit more content maybe a few newI want give this game a 7 but the mod community through the steam workshop gives it that one extra rating. The game is highly addictive early on, but for me once it gets stale (18 hours playtime) I found it hard to commit to another run with the same bosses and relics to embark on a quest to find the same cards from that characters type. I game just needs a bit more content maybe a few new characters for example. The level design is a big positive for me, I love choosing what I do next and it feels like my choices are strategy based rather then pointless choice that will not matter long term. This game does leave a lot down to luck though and that might be a turn off for some. For me the graphics are disappointing and in some cases look lazy due to the same dull backgrounds during fights. It is a very well made and addictive deck builder with with a few imperfections, but it is a worthy buy for any deck building game fan.… Expand
  25. SimonKhan
    Sep 18, 2019
    10
    Best card game i have played in a while. Only con : i really don't have enough hours in a day, and after playing this 20 hours in a week-end nothing else had been done in the house
  26. Dracen
    Feb 23, 2019
    9
    The game is great, and having 3 different characters helps to deal with 'repetition'. Each character has a unique deck, with many different ways to play. There are flaws in the game mind you, but the biggest flaw is also a strength - everything is random. This leads to a great deal of frustration, but also joy, as you learn what to expect each play through.
  27. TheGameIsALie
    Jul 21, 2019
    9
    Slay the Spire é um dos jogos mais divertidos e refinados do ano, seja em seu sistema de jogo, seus elementos de estratégia, suas possibilidades de escolha ou sua trilha sonora. Por isso mesmo uma direção de arte tão pobre me surpreende.
  28. DJKrimson
    Jan 5, 2021
    9
    Very fun roguelike deckbuilder. Perfect game to start up and when you got nothing else to do and wanna burn some time or just wanna play something laid back for a while. Almost all my friends that has this game has 100+ hours.
  29. freehugs
    Jan 24, 2019
    10
    Most fun i had in years!!!
    145 hours and counting
    I pop in daily to play the daily challenge
  30. DeltaRaven
    Mar 12, 2019
    9
    As a heavily RNG dependent game, it can be quite unpredictable at times. If you don't get decent cards then you're gonna have a rough time. However, the game itself is a great time killer and a lot of fun. The 3 characters the game contains have all different playstyles, ranging from a basic strength warrior to a caster type automaton.

    Each run will be different from the last, and while    As a heavily RNG dependent game, it can be quite unpredictable at times. If you don't get decent cards then you're gonna have a rough time. However, the game itself is a great time killer and a lot of fun. The 3 characters the game contains have all different playstyles, ranging from a basic strength warrior to a caster type automaton.

    Each run will be different from the last, and while the game can sometimes be a bit frustrating due to the challenge of working with RNG, even with poor starting cards you can make it through with smart planning. Watch gameplay to see if it's for you. Personally I believe it's a game worth picking up!

    4.5/5 Great game, and fun to start up when you're looking to have some innocent fun playing solo. Or go competitive with daily challenges, the choice is yours! Which path will you take?    … Expand
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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
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