Slay the Spire was the original digital deckbuilder as far as I’m concerned. It was at least the first one everyone played.
Since then, we’ve had countless riffs on the theme. Dicey Dungeons, Monster Train, X-Angels(mabye don’t click this one), Monster Train 2, I don’t think we get any of these without Slay the Spire. Some are a bit copy-paste like Across the Obelisk. Other’s were genuinely transformative like Incryption.
Now Slay the Spire 2 is here. The true sequel to the original. What does it bring us?
Mostly more just Slay the Spire.
There was nothing I ever found particularly “bad” about Slay the Spire. I went a bit crazy for it, tried to persuade all my friends it was cool, and dropped out around 62 hours. It was genre defining, emphasis on the word “WAS”, but it’s been six years!
I’ve gotten to ascension 10 in Slay the Spire 2, and I’ve “played” about 52 hours. The played is in quotes because a lot of that time was spent in multiplayer, and some some of that time was spent dead.
Also, here’s where I’m going to say my one nice thing about Slay the Spire 2: I like that their multiplayer implementation isn’t turned based, and lets everyone play cards freely. I would have liked it more if they hadn’t screwed up their ascension system so it’s different between singleplayer and multiplayer, but whatever.
Here comes the new game, same as the old game.
Games like Hades have proven that you can tell meaningful characters stories in roguelikes, games like Inscryption have proven you can wrap in alternate puzzles and mechanics to deckbuilders.
Slay the Spire 2… does none of that. This is the level of mechanical and narrative innovation I grudgingly tolerate in Pokemon games, not what I expect from best selling sequels to indies.
So what do we get? There are also two new characters, bringing the grand total up to five. The Regent has an alternate resource pool that doesn’t refill between rounds that he spends for attacks. The Necromancer has a skull hands that shields her. I don’t really love either of them to be honest, and as lame as it sounds, most of my time has been as the starting character, the ironblood.
There’s also multiplayer. I’m going
Overall
Slay the Spire was a good game. But when I put it down, I was finished playing Slay the Spire.
If you loved Slay the Spire, and your fundamental problem with it was that there wasn’t enough of it, maybe this is for you. I don’t know what it says that I can played 50 hours of this, and remember virtually nothing about it. I’ve enjoyed all of the games that came after it more.
Okay, except maybe Across the Obelisk.