Slay the Spire is a near perfect rogue-like for those more interested in testing their wits rather than their dexterity. This turn-based card game is very easy to learn yet offers amazing depth via the variety of countless combos to discover. I'm 60 hours in and I've only begun to scratch the surface of the many challenges offered. I can easily say that Slay is my favorite rogue-like since Spelunky, offering similarly short and varied runs. After each run you'll just want to jump right back in a do a little better. Their is a myriad of clever design features worth discussing that highlight the joy and replay-ability offered by this incredible title.
When you jump into a round of Slay you pick one of four characters. Each character has a different set of cards, a unique relic, and very different strategies. You begin the game with the same set of 10-12 cards depending on who your choose. In order to beat the game you'll need to work your way up three towers. You start each tower on the bottom and their are branching paths that work up to a boss fight. Different icons on the towers represent the different encounters. The most common are normal battles in which you most use you cards to defeat a set of enemies. Some cards do damage to the enemies while others let you defend from incoming attacks. You can usually see the enemies next move and can act accordingly. You start each turn with five cards and after your deck runs out all your cards are shuffled back into your draw pile.
After defeating your enemies you'll be rewarded some gold and you can choose a new card for your deck. All the cards you find a better than your starting cards however if you add too many it may become difficult to execute a consistent strategy. The gold you acquire can be spent at shops to buy new cards, relics, potions, or even take a single card out of your deck. Potions can be consumed for a one time effect where as relics are bonuses that stay with you for the whole run. A successful run takes about an hour and a half but you can save and exit at any point. Once you complete a run additional challenges called ascension are unlocked which tweaks various elements of the game. Finally, completing the game with the first three characters unlocks the ability to take on the extremely difficult true ending.
A huge part of the success of Slay is in its tremendous variety. Not only is each character varied but every time you start a new game a giant whale lets you pick one of four choices. These choices may let you pick among random cards or relics to start your climb with. The layouts of the towers is completely different each time as are the rewards and encounters. Their are cards and relic that lean towards several different builds allowing you to try to build a deck focusing on specific strategies. Also daily challenges offer you a single attempt at an extremely varied run in which you can compete with your friends for a high-score using the same seed.
If you enjoy either tactical card games or rogue-likes you'll be right at home. Yet, even if you are unfamiliar with one or both of these genres I strongly urge you to give Slay a try. The amount of enjoyable content offer by this affordable indie-game is mind-blowing. The game starts you with limited choices to make sure new players don't get overwhelmed but quickly opens up to an array of variation. The simple fact that this game is turn-based means you can take all the time in the world to make important choices. After sinking in 60 I thought it was a good time to take a break but I guarantee you I'll be back and put in well over double that amount.