As it stands, roguelike deckbuilders are mostly like really complicated solitaire. The player tries to put together a strong deck and outpace escalating challenges from an AI adversary. It’s a lot of fun, and one of the big upsides is the convenience factor compared to its physical counterparts: Unlike Dominion (the grandfather of the genre), you don’t need to plan a tabletop night and then convince your friends to play a bespoke German deckbuilding game about feudalism (there’s a Steam edition now where you can play against randos, but still).
It’s nice that roguelike deckbuilders let you scratch that card freak itch, but like with many digital conveniences, this comes with tradeoffs. For one, you don’t get to see the look of horror in your friend’s eyes as you hand them their 13th curse card after playing another Witch. Instead, the standard operating procedure for most deckbuilding video games is plugging away at your computer or console (usually until some ungodly hour), battling Act 4 nightmare bosses all by yourself. Slay The Spire is amazing, but, for good and bad, it took an inherently social style of game and turned it into a solo activity.
As for Slay The Spire 2, you can very much still go it alone, but it also lets you cooperate with up to three teammates. Upfront, things play out pretty similarly with a crew. Each player constructs a deck by drafting cards. Between battles and events, you pass through modules on an overview map to work towards the top of a tower. You’ll encounter high fantasy flora and fauna, treasure chests, and randomized events that sometimes feature a giant talking whale who gives you presents.
The main difference in co-op is that every time you take a turn, the rest of your party is doing the same thing. Since everyone plays their cards in unison, this mercifully gets around the long sequences in many other card games where you don’t get to do stuff. Smart little details smooth out the other problems that plague a lot of co-op board games. For instance, you can’t see every choice your partners are making, which makes it much harder to backseat drive. If you’ve played cooperative tabletop games before, you’ve probably run into cases where one or two people will commandeer the ship, giving everyone else marching orders. Here, you’ve got to make your own choices.
At the same time, coordination can make a massive difference, and being part of a team changes the context of almost every card in the game. Strategies that work great solo, like applying buffs to yourself, don’t have the same weight, while many otherwise neglected cards get a bump. An interesting balancing act comes into play, where on top of individually building a ramp to dish out big damage, you’re also thinking about your group as a whole and what cards or relics will complement everyone else’s decks. Maybe you pick up a few high-energy cost cards because a teammate can give the party some extra mana. In terms of strategy, turn order can be a big deal, and you’ll want someone applying debuffs like Vulnerable (which causes enemies to take more damage) before everyone else starts swinging in extended sequences that play out like beating a piñata. Or maybe another partner can afflict a monster with Weak, meaning you won’t need to use as many defensive cards because your enemy won’t be hitting as hard. It turns into a rare communal puzzle that requires everyone’s input.
Beyond all the crunchy design reasons why the co-op lands, this game reintroduces the social elements that its predecessor inherently leaned away from. From traditional 52-card decks to modern incarnations involving superheroes and wizards, card games have historically brought people together (even if you’re regretting that after getting stomped by a cheap meta deck or losing cash in a disastrous round of poker). In that tradition, this game’s turn-based monster slaying makes it a great way to hang out, shoot the shit, and build an unstoppable monsters-smashing engine: There’s something very satisfying about showing off your positively busted combos to your friends. It may not be the first co-op deckbuilder—Across The Obelisk and Aeon’s End did it earlier for video games, while Marvel Legendary and a bunch of others did this for the tabletop—but like its predecessor, it took a somewhat niche concept and honed it into something special. Slay The Spire 2 continues the tradition of wreaking havoc on sleep schedules, but now at least you won’t be the only one rolling into work with bloodshot eyes and a hankering for the next deep run.
Keep scrolling for more great stories.