Slay the Spire may not have been the first PC deckbuilder, but it almost certainly set the stage for a new genre that has absolutely flooded online marketplaces. Often imitated, rarely surpassed in terms of quality, Slay the Spire has enjoyed a large fanbase dedicated to modifying the game and seeing how far they can push the engine. When Slay the Spire II was announced, I wondered if this would be a cash grab—could the developers capture lightning in a bottle twice, and how would they retain the predecessor’s identity while innovating? Rest assured, Mega Crit has nailed the sweet spot.
Early Access games are a dubious sort: from the bug-ridden to the complete package, we never know what we’re going to get. Slay the Spire II feels like it could sell as a full game right now, which makes this beta release even more exciting. With three return characters and two new characters, the depth of design needs to be experienced to be believed. Folks often don’t realize just how much adding one entire set of cards can do to game balance. With myriad variables to consider, the game may be completely balanced with four characters, and then you add a fifth and have to hit the drawing board all over again. A stifling prospect: my hat’s off to what’s been achieved here.
Based on the in-game compendium, expect to discover ten ascensions per character, over 500 cards, 102 enemies, dozens of potions, dozens of events, and hundreds of treasures. I’ve done nine runs—won my first try with four of the characters and had a wonderful time trying to puzzle out how to build one of the new guys. While this is certainly limited experience, what’s immediately available is addicting. Yes, I have already run into some degree of repetition, especially with events, but new content frequently gets peppered out to me. Also, while the idea of a seemingly endless quantity of content feels appealing, having a degree of predictability helps one strategize. Again, Mega Crit seems to have found that happy medium.
Our three return characters get a bit of a facelift, but they retain their identity. Why mess with perfection, you say? Well, speaking from personal experience, by ascension 20 in the first game, there were definitely cards I never touched and cards that felt required for most runs. That might end up being the case here, but even a simpler class like the Ironclad has far fewer basic cards to choose from—everything’s souped up a bit. New mechanics freshen all of the characters up, within the cards and in terms of enemies to fight.
Maybe it was the hundreds of hours I put into Slay the Spire, but several of the enemies didn’t feel fun to fight. Anyone who’s played the Defect knows the joys of having a Power build upended by the third-act boss. None of that’s happening here for any of the characters, as far as I can tell. Each enemy and boss forces players to create more diverse decks that avoid tunnel vision, yet all possibilities feel like they’re on the table. Again, this is with my ten hours in the game, but just reviewing the enemy design now versus seven years ago, everything feels more creative and less “gotcha.” Oh, also, don’t expect to run the same environment and enemy set each time you run act one, which does a lot to stave off boredom across runs.
Mega Crit has worked hard to give Slay the Spire II more of a narrative, but don’t expect a deep plot—the story is delivered as vignettes that feel loosely connected to one another. We get some backstory about each character over time as we unlock “epochs,” which are envelopes opened after completing a run by achieving some feat—such as beating an act one boss with a character—or by achieving points across runs and filling up a bar. In doing so, we get a well-written, mysterious sentence or two, and then unlock some goodies to assist runs.
This is the roguelite aspect of Slay the Spire II: unlocks almost always feel more powerful than what’s historically been offered, whether a relic or potion. Also, at the end of each run after defeating the act three boss, our character runs headlong into the Architect, some floating powerful dude, and then we mouth off to him and hit him. He says “lul k” and then one-shots our character. A pop-up announces how little damage we contributed compared to the massive number of people playing the game. When I first started playing, my contribution was part of a hundred thousand damage points, and now it’s in the billions. Time to break out your number vocabulary as this climbs past trillions of damage.
If you’re anything like me, you love Neow, the ancient whale who greets us each run in the first game with some randomized perk selection at the start. Well, Mega Crit knew we all felt that way, so now we have a Neow-like experience at the start of every act, frequently with increasingly powerful boons. While I saw the same couple of ancients most games, I eventually ran into a couple new friends randomly thrown in. Or maybe they are character-dependent. Who knows!
Though aesthetically similar to its predecessor, Slay the Spire II certainly has a fresh coat of paint. Sheen and all, players can enjoy an eye-catching array of foes and attack animations. Fans of the first game know all about the “beta art” option, and Slay the Spire II has a bunch of that thrown in as place holders. Still, the vibrancy over the first game is distinct. Similarly, the sound design is deeper, sharper, and significantly more satisfying. The music remains dungeon-esque with ooo’s, ahh’s, and eerie chords, but, like the sound design, has a depth and pomp not experienced in the first entry.
More of the same, but different. Who could be left wanting? The prospect of some tweaking, additional content, and TLC has left me salivating. I can’t wait for the full release, but I will, because I don’t want to dive too far into Early Access content before the intended experience releases—whenever that is. If you want more Slay the Spire and don’t want to taint your impressions of the sequel with Early Access content, please check out my board game review of Contention Games’ tabletop reimagining. It’s one of the highest-rated board games on BoardGameGeek, and I was shocked at how well they converted the PC game to tabletop, giving it a distinct flavor while respecting the source.
