Slay The Spire: A Review

Slay the Spire is a unique video game that combines the best of rogue-like mechanics with deck-building card games. In Slay the Spire, the player can choose one of the four available characters, and travel through a series of randomly generated dungeons and fight different bosses to climb the spire. However, unlike most dungeon-crawlers, the players must defeat bosses not with timely attacks but with the cards in their deck.

Those who love strategy and turn-based combat will definitely adore this game. Each of the four characters has its advantages and disadvantages, and depending on your playstyle, you may find a particular character more suitable than the others. Along with fighting bosses, you may encounter merchants to buy potions and cards from or encounter campfires where you can rest and regain HP or upgrade a card in your deck. The more you play, the more rewards you can unlock, and you can adjust the difficulty as you see fit. The game also features a fun “daily challenge” mode.

Image via Steam

After a few playthroughs, you’ll quickly realize that the game values a particular kind of strategy. For instance, there isn’t much for HP regeneration, so you have to save up as much as you can for the main bosses. Instead of using the campfires to heal HP, you’re better off upgrading your base attack/block cards. Similarly, when you unlock a chest, you can choose to refuse a relic if you don’t find it helpful and only keep the items that will give you an edge in the battles.

By now, the game’s uniqueness has spawned its own subgenre of rogue-like deck-building video games. But as the first of its kind, Slay the Spire is intensely addictive, enjoyable, and satisfying with a whole lot of replayability. And if you’re a fan of collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering or Hearthstone, you should definitely give Slay the Spire (available on Steam) a shot.