The following is an opinion piece by the author and may not match the opinions of other staff members at Antlion Audio or the company as a whole.

Few games have had the impact of Slay the Spire on the gaming world. For all intents and purposes it made single-player card based rogue-likes a thing and nearly every 'level based' roguelike takes at least some queues from the design.

So it's only fitting that we take a close look at if the sequel lives up to the original, but let's not bury the lead: It does, but it also doesn't break a ton of new ground. That's probably a good thing, because if the live action One Piece has taught me anything, it's that if you're already the best there is you probably don't want to deviate too far from the original. RIP live action Cowboy Bebop.

But I am mixing my metaphors and medias. Let's get to it:

The Original Formula

Slay the Spire 2 is akin to one of those total overhaul mods that a team of dedicated fans spends years making. Rebalanced, improved graphics (a bit at least), a few new characters, a lot of new cards and unlocks... but at its core, Slay the Spire 2 is still Slay the Spire 1. To put it another way, if you liked the first one you'll like the second. If you didn't play the first one, you'll probably still like the second also because both the first and second are great games. Hands down, full stop.

If you've played Slay the Spire this is going to look very familiar.

At its core Slay the Spire games are about building a card based engine able to output both offense and defense (or in some rare cases, enough offense you don't need defense) to clear a level without losing too much HP before the boss fight. Just as in the first one, the general way you do this is by removing junk from your deck and focusing on building out card combos that pair well together, which are rewarded randomly, sometimes forcing hard decisions of taking cards that are "good enough for now" but will be bloat in your deck later or holding off in hopes of surviving a few more fights to find the items that will really make your build shine.

In this way, regardless if you're playing old or new characters, the game is essentially unchanged. And again, this makes sense. Why change the winning formula?

Adjusting the Formula

There are two big changes I do want to talk about, and they're really telling about how small changes in a roguelike format can really alter how a game feels.

The first is big choices in Acts 2 and 3. In the original you only got one of these choices at game start, which sometimes would help immediately push your build in a direction and was always one of my favorite parts of any run.

Now you get a similar choice in Acts 2 and 3, which are major decisions that can make, break, or completely change your plan. A while back I wrote a game design article about choices in games and covered how "good choices" feel impactful to the overall gameplay. These are two additional good choices that really help break up the game's flow, which often felt robotic by act 3 in the original when your build had essentially come together and now you just needed to play the cards. In fact, nearly every choice you make in Slay the Spire's overall game design is like this. Each has a major impact on how your game is going to play and feel. That's why it is and has been such a good game franchise.

Example of a huge decision event at the start of act 2.

The other big change is multiplayer. I've mostly been playing multiplayer and, honestly, it's great. Maybe a little bit easy so far compared to single player, but that's fine. I am playing more for the company than the rigorous challenge. It's well implemented, allowing players to basically play at the same time to minimize how long a run takes, though it is still much slower than playing solo. There's also special combo cards that require a little bit of planning and teamwork and are, to be blunt: over-tuned. Still, there's a certain fun in simply tag-team attacking some boss for half their HP in a single round and you can always choose not to buy those cards if you want a challenge. Of course, no multiplayer game is complete without a good mic, such as... I don't know, a ModMic maybe?

A Formula For Success

There's simply not much else to say about Slay the Spire 2. It's a great game. It will be commercially successful. I do not, however, think it will become 2026's game of the year. There's a few reasons for this, the biggest being there's some pretty major launch titles coming this year, but the reason that came to my mind first is it simply doesn't innovate enough. Slay the Spire 1 was GOTY material and changed the very foundation of the game industry. Slay the Spire 2 will not do this. It doesn't have to. This franchise has already made its mark and all they need to do now is refine the rough edges until full release.

New characters are always welcome, and she's my favorite. Yes, she, can't you tell?

Maybe Mega Crit, the developer, has a secret in store that will change all that before full release, but based on their Early Access statement I am not expecting it. And I really want to say it again, that's fine! I'd much rather have more Slay the Spire than them attempting to catch lightning in a bottle twice and failing on the second attempt with a completely new approach. So GOTY 2026 may not be in the cards (hah!) but it will certainly be one of my most played games of the year and it should be yours as well.