I started taking part in Slay the Spire 2 shortly after my colleague wrote up a bit on how its phenomenal multiplayer makes it an early sport of the 12 months contender. Inside an hour of beginning it, I, too, was totally hooked. Within the time since, I’ve poured a whopping 40 hours into Slay the Spire 2, but even after sinking that a lot time into the sport, I can not recover from it. I like how fast-paced, strategic, and immensely satisfying it’s, no matter should you’re taking part in solo or with pals. And that first time I hit the Spire and have become conscious of the larger gimmick at play? That is undoubtedly one among my favourite gaming moments of 2026 to date.
Nonetheless, my optimistic expertise with the sport and my colleague’s glowing phrases fail to mirror how Slay the Spire 2 is being acquired on Steam proper now. Although we (and hundreds upon hundreds of others) are thrilled with Mega Crit’s newest deck-builder, the sport’s Steam itemizing states its evaluations are “Principally Unfavorable.” So, what is going on on right here?
For the previous month, Slay the Spire 2 has been topic to relentless review-bombing. Whereas the sport sat at an “Overwhelming Positive” rating back in mid-March, with 97% of gamers recommending it to others, it’s now listed as “Principally Unfavorable,” with 39% of its roughly 55,000 evaluations within the final 30 days being unfavorable. But issues get extra intriguing once you take a look at the place these destructive evaluations come from.
At present, Slay the Spire has practically 160,000 evaluations on Steam throughout 14 completely different languages. Of those 160,000 evaluations, round 83,00 of them are written in one among 12 languages, and all 12 of those languages are listed as having given Slay the Spire 2 both a “Very Optimistic” or “Overwhelmingly Optimistic” score on Steam. Round 77,000 of those evaluations, nonetheless, are written in both Simplified or Conventional Chinese language. And whereas the 2,000 reviewers utilizing Conventional Chinese language to assessment the sport are “Blended” on its high quality, the 75,000 evaluations written in Simplified Chinese language are “Principally Unfavorable.”
That is insane pic.twitter.com/73zLt9tN5H
— Garret (@Grrted) April 29, 2026
So know that we all know the “the place” of all of it, let’s dig into precisely when this all started. The timing of this review-bombing largely coincides with the announcement of Slay the Spire 2’s first “big post-launch patch,” which was shared on the sport’s Steam web page again on March 19 and was revealed to give attention to making “infinites tougher to realize.” Mega Crit additionally shared various steadiness adjustments being made to the sport, a lot of which considerably nerfed current playing cards, in addition to its intent to buff one of many sport’s bosses, Doormaker. As many gamers had been calling the sport far much less difficult than the unique Slay the Spire–and the sport remains to be in early entry and thus nonetheless attempting to ascertain the proper degree of grueling required to be fun–none of those adjustments unnerved me. And but, it might appear that many gamers felt otherwise. And regardless of these adjustments solely going into impact for gamers within the sport’s beta, the response to this announcement was swift and brutal. And by some means, the extreme pushback towards these adjustments remains to be going robust.
Within the weeks since, Slay the Spire 2’s Steam weblog posts have taken on a distinct tone. Whereas earlier posts felt fairly energetic, newer ones have centered on reassuring gamers. On April 16, Mega Crit introduced the sport was lastly getting its first major update, which might see various the adjustments first carried out within the sport’s beta make the soar to the bigger sport. In it, the crew wrote, “That is nonetheless an early entry sport, so simply because one thing made it from beta to primary doesn’t imply it is set in stone. We proceed to depend on the experiences of gamers throughout each branches to finally get the sport into its ultimate, ultimate state, identical to we did with [Slay the Spire 1]. Belief the method!”
On April 23, Mega Crit addressed complaints leveled on the sport’s present issue, writing, “Relating to normal steadiness, the bottom issue is sort of onerous proper now. We’re repeatedly adjusting this baseline issue to make it extra accessible for a variety of gamers, whereas additionally persevering with to ship a difficult sport on the highest Ascensions. Equally to the primary sport, finishing runs of Slay the Spire 2 on the highest issue ought to really feel like a monumental achievement for a fraction of gamers dedicated to understanding the ins and outs of the sport’s mechanics.” The crew then particularly addressed Slay the Spire 2’s Doormaker combat, including, “We’re presently monitoring the Doormaker and a mixture [of] in-game suggestions, social media posts, and metrics. We need to give gamers time to regulate a bit, in any other case we’ll be balancing round kneejerk reactions.”
Since this has unfolded, parts of the web have been intent on determining why Chinese language audiences are so pissed off with Slay the Spire 2. Whereas I feel it is completely essential to not generalize an enormous viewers or cite cultural variations with out understanding mentioned tradition (and would urge others to be considerate and do the identical), the conversations across the matter have been attention-grabbing.
On March 20, a Chinese language Slay the Spire participant took to Reddit to attempt to clarify the logic behind the review-bombing, finally itemizing three components as probably the most important. Based on the author, the primary subject with March 19’s replace was that it “not solely failed to handle [issues] however really amplified the issues,” making “individuals doubt whether or not the Mega Crit crew even performs the sport they developed.” The participant then addressed the second subject, writing, “For Chinese language gamers, many take infinite as their main aim and technique. From the beginning of a run, they actively skinny their decks so long as they will survive the early sport. For a lot of gamers, infinite[s] should not only a strategy–they are the aim and that means of the sport.”
The person then concluded the publish by stating that “some extremely influential content material creators, who’re often very pleasant, have issued harsh criticisms of this replace,” and that these opinions are extraordinarily valued by the Chinese language Slay the Spire neighborhood. Contemplating how (*2*), the ensuing degree of attain, fervor, and influence will not be notably stunning.
One other Chinese language Reddit person, Alternative_Signal75, additionally weighed in on the subject, writing that Chinese language audiences have completely different concepts in the case of how gamers ought to talk with sport builders. Based on this person, “When you’ve ever seemed into these communities, you’d know that verbally abusing and pressuring sport developers–as effectively as attacking different video games (even ones they don’t play) and their participant bases–are extremely routine neighborhood actions.” A part of this, they speculate, is because of Chinese language studios’ tendency to incorporate gacha mechanics of their video games, which fosters an “nearly totally adversarial relationship” between gamers and builders.
“I’m not implying that Chinese language gamers are extra fragile or hyper-reactive to nerfs. What I imply is that in a pay-to-win gacha sport, the writer and the gamers have an nearly totally adversarial relationship,” Alternative_Signal75 wrote. “Gamers imagine that being poisonous is their approach of defending their very own pursuits within the face of pay-to-win mechanics.” On one other Reddit thread, a number of different customers famous review-bombing was merely a standard tactic for Chinese language avid gamers; simply take a look at what occurred with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Overwatch, and Hollow Knight: Silksong.
It feels protected to invest that one other contributing issue to this tendency to assessment bomb might merely be the separation between Chinese language audiences and Western social media, which leaves Chinese language followers not sure of the place else to go to voice their frustrations with a developer. A PC Gamer interview with Slay the Spire co-creator Casey Yano offers much more credence to this principle, as Yano defined, “It’s a cultural factor. I feel it is troublesome for gamers to really feel like they’re heard from the builders. I really feel prefer it’s type of unlucky that they really feel like the one option to be heard is thru Steam evaluations.”
On April 27, a bilingual YouTube creator Wayshush uploaded a video concerning the scenario titled “I Read Chinese Reviews to Understand Slay the Spire 2’s Backlash” in an effort to assist shed extra gentle on the review-bombing. After studying via a few of the commonest Steam complaints about Slay the Spire 2, Wayshush shared a couple of feedback they discovered concerning the matter on the Chinese language video sharing platform Bilibili. “Once we give destructive evaluations, it is only a type of communication with the devs,” one person wrote. One other then added, “There is not an official account, so I can solely talk through destructive evaluations.”
A number of different feedback expressed this similar sentiment, with one writing, “It’s regular that there are extra destructive evaluations from China, it is not bandwagoning. Chinese language individuals do not actually give good evaluations, but when we expect one thing is unhealthy, we MUST give suggestions and destructive evaluations.”
It would appear that that is, partially, a classic-yet-brutal case of 1 man’s bullying being one other’s constructive criticism. But the very fact stays that review-bombing does influence builders each financially and emotionally. So, the place can we go from right here?
Firstly, I feel we’ve to disregard our intestine intuition to ask, “Are these complaints legitimate?” The “validity” of those complaints might be endlessly argued; simply go to actually any social media website and you may see these conversations play out for your self. Whereas I feel Slay the Spire 2’s adjustments have been enjoyable, if not needed, there are clearly loads of individuals who merely don’t really feel the identical approach, and that is wonderful! I additionally suppose that elevating the purpose that Slay the Spire 2 is in early entry is not carrying out a lot, because it looks as if the logic for the review-bombing stems from a want to proper a still-moving ship. Complaining when a sport is in early-access and nonetheless actively being labored on really looks as if the good time to voice a grievance, no?
As a substitute, I feel it is extra essential to ask, “How can we create methods for gamers to handle complaints in a extra acceptable approach?” What channels must be opened to higher enable suggestions, and at what level can we draw the road between suggestions and participant entitlement? I am not claiming to know these solutions, however I do suppose the only most vital factor we will do is solely play a sport ourselves earlier than adopting excessive views on it.
As for the way Mega Crit will proceed within the midst of all this, Slay the Spire 2 is meant to spend between 1-2 years in early entry, based on its Steam web page. Appears protected to say that the crew will probably be doing a whole lot of working, listening, and iterating within the coming months. However regardless of the sport’s present Steam evaluations, I really feel assured the top end result will probably be each bit as participating as the sport I am (continuously) taking part in now.