Slay the Spire Review - Is It Good or Bad?

Updated:

29 Dec 2021

Have you considered playing Slay the Spire, but wasn’t sure if it’s actually worth purchasing? Well, for starters, the tens of thousands of positive reviews speak for themselves. But what is it that makes this game so loved by the community?

About Slay the Spire

Combining the core elements of a roguelite with the deckbuilding mechanics of card games, Slay the Spire has become a phenomenon in the gaming world. This game takes you into a dungeon-like setting, where you get to fight monsters, powerful bosses and encounter various events with good or bad outcomes as you climb The Spire towards escape.

The game was made by the company MegaCrit, and was released in early access in 2017, but had its official release in January 2019. For a while, the game was quite a hidden gem without many sales, until it was discovered by popular streaming channels, which quickly propelled it into one of the highest-sold games on Steam by 2018.

Although many games see their most sales in the first months after release, Slay the Spire had a slow beginning, with only around 200 sales. By 2019 however, that number was closer to 1.5 million. This was the same year when Slay the Spire had won the titles of Best Strategy Game from IGN, and Best Design from PC Gamer.

Slay the Spire Story

The beginning of your story in Slay the Spire

Slay the Spire does not really have a story in the traditional sense. All of your runs start at the base of a tower, as you wake up with no memories after being resurrected by the ancient God Neow.

Every run is unique as it is dominated by RNG, but they all end the same way: if you are powerful enough to defeat the final boss, you will encounter The Heart, a powerful yet mysterious entity which erases you from existence, only so you can be resurrected at the beginning of your next run. This cruel fate is what will drive you to get better and better each time – possibly at the expense of any free time you might have.

After a major free update released in 2020, a final phase was added in which you can fight The Heart and have a chance at finally escaping the curse of The Spire. Beware: only the most powerful decks can defeat this final boss, so you need to prepare accordingly.

Besides the general story, various random encounters throughout your runs will sometimes give away vague pieces of lore, which create the illusion of a complex world without revealing too much about it.

Slay the Spire Gameplay

Fighting with The Silent can be slow at first, but its power can increase to immense levels.

Slay the Spire - Northernlion Plays - Episode 1

At the start of every run, you get to choose one of four pre-made characters to play with: The Ironclad, The Silent, The Defect and The Watcher. As you play with each class, you will discover unique mechanics, new cards and explore gameplay styles and strategies, which means you will basically never stop learning new things about the game.

Each character has a starting deck specific to them, which you can build upon by choosing one of three cards to add after every combat. You can also buy cards or remove them, but all cards that appear in a run will always be specific to each character. There is a lot of decision-making when building a deck, as some cards work better than others and synergise with each other to create crazy, winning combos.

Through your journey you can also acquire Relics, items which hold powerful effects that can sometimes turn a mediocre deck into a winning one.

There’s no typical class levelling system: once a run is over, you go back to square one, with only your knowledge of the game to help you in your future runs. Because of that, you can only really get better by playing more, making better decisions, learning the game mechanics and some combos which you can look for every time. However, do keep in mind that this game is highly RNG-based: once you find a specific combo of cards and relics which takes you to the top, you may never find it again.

Luckily, this means that Slay the Spire has a high replayability level. Once you defeat the Spire once, you unlock Ascension levels, twenty in total, which you need to defeat one by one. Every Ascension level does get harder and harder, which means that your decision-making skills need to improve at least at the same rate as you advance through the levels.

Slay the Spire Combat

Slay the Spire Beginner Guide - Completing your first run as Ironclad

During a run, you will have to get through 3 Acts, each ending with a powerful boss with many strengths, but also weaknesses which you can manipulate. Like in many roguelikes, there isn’t a single path to follow, but you can choose the next room to travel to from a map.

Most of the time, you will encounter normal enemies or Elites (stronger monsters with powerful abilities, which in return can drop cards as well as Relics) That being said, not everything in the tower is out to get you. You can stop at shops, where The Merchant can provide many helpful services, at a price of course. Resting sites are the perfect choice for when you are low on health, while Chest rooms will give you a free relic with no downside.

Every fight is turn based and revolves around playing cards from your hand. At first, you start each turn with 3 Energy and draw 5 cards from your deck, whose cost in Energy you can see in the top left corner of each card. On your turn, you can defend yourself using Blocks, attack enemies using Attack cards or debuffs, or cast various buffs on yourself. You can also see what the enemy’s next move will be, so plan your Energy use accordingly. At the end of your turn, all your cards go into the discard pile, which gets reshuffled into your draw deck once it’s empty.

Slay the Spire Quest/Mission system

In this game, your only mission is getting stronger with every run and ultimately defeating The Heart. It can get repetitive at times, as every run follows a similar course, but at the same time RNG makes it so that every run is also totally unique.

For those looking for a challenge or a change of pace, you can always create a custom run by choosing up to three modifiers, which can be good or quite the opposite, create a challenge for you. You cannot fight The Heart in a custom run, and it will not let you progress through your Ascension levels, but it can be an incredibly fun way to test your skills and even experiment with card combos you may never find in a normal run.

Slay the Spire Graphics

The good graphics of the game allow you to enjoy every small detail on the screen.

Slay The Spire gameplay on Intel HD 520 graphics

Slay the Spire isn’t very demanding graphically: it can run on most computers nowadays even at max settings, making it the perfect game for someone who is just getting started into gaming as well as for gaming veterans.

The art of Slay the Spire is quite simplistic but effective, and the creative character design has been praised by many people.

With that said, the art and animations can be a bit underwhelming for people who expect art styles similar to other card games such as Hearthstone or MTG.

Slay the Spire Developer

The developers at Megacrit have built a reputation for themselves as creators that are actually involved with their community. The game has virtually no bugs nowadays, but if something came up you can rest assured that they would deal with it as soon as possible.

Since the game’s release, the developers have added some more content on top of the base game, accessible for free for people who already owned Slay the Spire. The community’s long wait ended when they finally released a fourth playable character, as well as the true ending of the game.

Slay the Spire Price

Slay the Spire is available on most platforms, from Windows, Linux and iOS to PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. Nowadays, you can get it for about $25, which unlocks all possible content of the game. There are no payable elements once you have the game, so you can sit back and pour as many hours into it as you want without ever paying an extra cent.

Final verdict: 8.5/10

Pros

Unique concept, combining deckbuilding with roguelike mechanics
Great replayability
Lots of crazy combos that will make you feel like a genius

Cons

Vague lore and story
You can only get better by actually playing and improving your own skills, and pouring many hours into the game (I know, sounds terrible, who would want that?)
Art and animations might be too simplistic for some