Balance Changes in Slay the Spire 2 Amid Steam Review Bombing
The card roguelike Slay the Spire 2 just got its first big post-launch patch. It leans hard into balance: many cards that fueled endless, repeating combos were toned down, several foes got buffs, and the update even brings a mode aimed at players with specific phobias plus new VFX, art, etc. Some players reacted badly — review-bombing started as soon as the patch hit.
The game entered early access on March 6 and, for a while, rode a wave of enthusiasm: it posted a genre-high concurrent peak (see the numbers here) — a record peak concurrent player count for the genre — and reported more than 3 million copies sold in a week. Whether that quick success helped or hurt the studio when making controversial balance calls is up for debate; some players felt blindsided, others defended the changes.