Hello and welcome to the first Monday of 2022!
During the still (as of writing) ongoing Steam Winter Sale I picked up a game that I can only call fantastic, I'm talking about Slay the Spire.
Made by Mega Crit Games and released in 2019, I realize that I'm a bit late to the party, but as the saying goes, a good game is good forever (unless the devs ruin it later).
The game is tagged as a Rogue-like and a card battler. If the terms are unfamiliar to you let me enlighten you. A rogue-like is game that will kill your character over and over again, but in dying you unlock new elements of the game, letting you become stronger in time. Rogue-likes also rely heavily on randomly generated elements meaning that no two play-throughs are ever the same.
A card battler is simply a game where you play cards instead of clicking your mouse to shoot or swing a weapon.
Slay the Spire is set in a strange unnamed fantasy world. There you will encounter weird and alien creatures that you have to defeat in order to triumph. You gain cards and powerful relics as you progress until you reach the pinnacle of a spire and there you fight the boss. Once that's done, you go on to the next spire and so on.
There are a total of four characters to choose from but only one at the beginning. The others are unlocked as you play. There is a multitude of cards and relics to choose from and they too become unlocked as you progress through the game.
As it is a rogue-like, you will at times feel that the game is unfair. You will encounter fights that you can't win, but this is a part of the process. You learn how the bosses work, you start to understand strategies and card combos that can be extremely potent. All it takes is patience.
When Slay the Spire came out, it garnered a lot of praise for its game-play but the art style was polarizing. And yeah, I'm not that fond of it. Some folks love it, some hate it and others shrug and say “whatever”. If you think it is ugly, I urge you to still give it a try. Don't let the art turn you off this game, after a while, chances are you won't even notice it anymore.
The game is fun, no doubt about that, but there is something else that is very compelling. I don't know what it is, but when my wife and I started to play, (the game is single player, I was watching her play) we accidentally burned dinner a bit. The fries and meatballs were in the oven longer than they should have. I can't remember the last time when I've singed my dinner, but that is how compelling this game is, it sucks you in and demands that you play one more level, just one more...
I recommend this game wholeheartedly. Even if it isn't the kind of game you would usually play, I urge you to try it. It's on sale until the 5th of January and if you really hate it, you can always refund it. The game is also available on mobile devices, at least on Android, but that is outside of Steam and I have no experience with that version.
That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then have a great and safe week!
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