Slay the Spire 2 review: a deluxe replacement in every way

I wanted Slay the Spire 2 to be good — by that I meant almost the same as the original, with a few twists to justify returning. The early access build delivers that expectation: it plays like the game people loved, refreshed rather than radically remade. It brings back The Ironclad, The Silent and The Defect, and introduces two new characters: the Regent, whose cards use a second resource, and the Necrobinder, who fights alongside a small skeleton hand.

Runs still follow branching paths of monster encounters, rest sites, merchants and surprises while you build a deck one card at a time, balancing attacks and defenses against new enemies and mechanics like Sly, which lets effects trigger on discard. Mega Crit’s approach nudges the original design instead of overturning it: classic cards are recontextualized, a new Glass orb type appears, and the Necrobinder’s companion proved useful as both shield and attacker in my first 17 hours.

spire 2, mega crit, early access, deck building, necrobinder, regent, ironclad, the silent, the defect, sly