Slay the Spire Review: Relaxing Roguelike

So, what is Slay the Spire? Slay the Spire is a roguelike. Your goal is basically to go through a different set of levels to get as far as possible before you die, to start all over again with all the additional equipment and all the additional experience and knowledge that you got from your first run. And where every time, the levels are different.

Slay the Spire is a card collection-based type of game. Basically, that means that you’re not actually battling your enemies in real-time or even in a traditional turn-based manner. You are combating them with cards. Well, it is turn-based, but you’re using cards to do so. It’s kind of a mix of Hades and Hearthstone.

So, when you start a game, you need to ascend the Spire. You’re choosing one of the four characters, at the beginning of which you can only use one. When you start a game, you have only a very basic deck of cards. With every turn, you are given a certain set of cards that has different effects, ranging from attacking, blocking, adding additional cards, applying effects, healing yourself, doing AoE or crowd controlling, or a bunch of other things.

If you have a limited amount of energy, each card will cost a certain amount of energy. And when you exhaust these cards, then the opponent will have its turn, then you will have your turn, etc., etc., until one of you will die.

After you win, you will progress to the next level, and sometimes you have a choice between different levels. You can either go and combat other enemies, you can go and combat the boss if there is a boss there, or you can go to a mystery level. A mystery level can have a variety of scenarios: there can be enemies, there can be a boss, or there can be a certain choice that you have to make in order to achieve additional effects. Or, there can be a campfire where you can rest or upgrade your cards, or there can be a store where you can buy additional cards, relics, or potions that you can use during the game.

I’ve mentioned a lot of things right here, but it’s a very simple game to understand, yet complex to master. So, sit down and start playing this game. You will get the hang of it within the first three minutes. It’s that simple to understand, and because you don’t need twitch reflexes and to be really fast (since you’re playing with cards), you will be able to get far very soon, giving you a sense of power as soon as you start the game.

If you have a limited amount of energy, each card will cost a certain amount of energy. And when you exhaust these cards, then the opponent will have its turn, then you will have your turn, etc., etc., until one of you will die.

After you win, you will progress to the next level, and sometimes you have a choice between different levels. You can either go and combat other enemies, you can go and combat the boss if there is a boss there, or you can go to a mystery level. A mystery level can have a variety of scenarios: there can be enemies, there can be a boss, or there can be a certain choice that you have to make in order to achieve additional effects. Or, there can be a campfire where you can rest or upgrade your cards, or there can be a store where you can buy additional cards, relics, or potions that you can use during the game.

I’ve mentioned a lot of things right here, but it’s a very simple game to understand, yet complex to master. So, sit down and start playing this game. You will get the hang of it within the first three minutes. It’s that simple to understand, and because you don’t need twitch reflexes and to be really fast (since you’re playing with cards), you will be able to get far very soon, giving you a sense of power as soon as you start the game.

However, you’ll quickly realize, as you go to the later acts, that you are actually not that powerful. And when you start your game again, you will need to upgrade your abilities. You upgrade your cards in order to get a bit further. Each character has their own specific default cards because they are using different weapons and different abilities.

For example, one character mainly uses a sword, while another character uses poison daggers, and another can be a mage-type character. Each of them has their own set of cards. At the end of every level, you gather your loot. It can be gold, it can be additional cards, or relics which give you additional effects.

And you progress through the Spire just like that. This game is genius in its simplicity. You don’t need any complex storyline or things like that. It’s just a pure game where you can just sit down, start the run, play for a few minutes or a few hours if you just get sucked into the game, and finish your run or die, or just quit the run and then continue your run later. That’s just what it is, and it’s insanely fun and an insanely good game.

What makes this game very fun is its universal availability. The game is available on practically every platform that you can imagine: PC, consoles, and even on mobile. Yes, you can play this latest bar on your iPhone, or on your iPad, which makes this game perfect for that.

But let’s discuss the pricing. The game is available on Steam for the base price of $24.99 for Tier 1 countries and $12.49 for Tier 2 countries, and it can go as low as $9.99 for Tier 1 countries and $4.99 for Tier 2 countries. The game is also available on mobile, and for me, the price was $11.99. It’s also available on consoles, and it is also on a game pass, and that’s exactly how I play this game. So, is it actually worth it?

So, let’s discuss everything bit by bit. If you play roguelikes and enjoy this genre, this game is absolutely worth it, even for the full price. You’re going to get a lot of enjoyment from this game, and you’re going to have very long sessions in this game. You will potentially get much more game time than 25 hours. For me, even the very first run took me more than an hour to do, so I’m pretty sure that getting 25 hours from this game is just easy.

This game is especially worth it if you are buying it on a sale. The game is also very worth it on mobile because, yeah, this is one of the few good mobile games that you can actually play and enjoy. And especially, it is worth it if you have a game pass already, no matter whether it’s on Xbox or PC. You should get this game and play it.