Slay the Spire was the original digital deckbuilder as far as I’m concerned. At least, it was the first one everyone played.
Since then, we’ve had countless riffs on the theme. Dicey Dungeons, Monster Train, X-Angels(maybe don’t click this one), Monster Train 2, and many more. I don’t think we get any of these without Slay the Spire. Some are a bit copy-paste like Across the Obelisk. Others were genuinely transformative like Inscryption.
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”, because 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.
I’m going to say one nice thing about Slay the Spire 2: I like that their multiplayer implementation isn’t turn-based, and lets everyone play cards freely. I would have liked it more if they hadn’t chosen to make their ascension system progress separately between single and multiplayer.
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 and he spends for attacks. The Necromancer has a skull hand familiar 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. A lot of my playtime was spent in multiplayer, and it was spent being dead.
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 play 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.