Slay the Spire 2 players leave over 9,000 negative Steam reviews in one day over a card nerf that hasn't even gone live yet—but China's Steam restrictions might bear some of the blame

Slay the Spire 2 players leave over 9,000 negative Steam reviews in one day over a card nerf that hasn’t even gone live yet—but China’s Steam restrictions might bear some of the blame | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these Card Game ‘It’s kind of like you’re a butcher’: Hundreds of Slay the Spire 2 card ideas were cut during development in an ‘incredibly destructive process’ Roguelike Slay the Spire 2 dev celebrates its instant success by reminding players to support ‘small indie passion projects’ like Marathon too Card Game Slay the Spire 2 dev compared it to unexciting ‘chicken noodle soup’ before its extraordinary launch, but it turns out people really, really like their soup Roguelike Slay the Spire 2 dev says its Marathon joke turned out ‘a bit meaner than expected’ in hindsight: ‘To be fair I didn’t think we’d actually pass Marathon in concurrent users’ Roguelike Slay the Spire 2 is one of the year’s biggest hits, which is a good time to remember it abandoned Unity because of the dev fee debacle: ‘That is how badly you f****d up’ Card Game ‘Even though I threw out my back from overworking, I’m feeling high in spirits’: Slay the Spire 2 sold 3 million copies in its first week Roguelike After beating Slay the Spire 2 with an 8 year old deck, I’m starting to feel like this is more of a remake than a sequel Card Game Slay the Spire 2 is the #1 seller on Steam, above Marathon and Resident Evil Requiem Third Person Shooter Arrowhead CCO Johan Pilestedt corrects player who thought he’d griped about Magicka being review bombed, says ‘we got so-so reviews’ in 2011 because of bugs—also, it was ‘released without our knowledge’ Card Game Slay the Spire gets the best Christmas present a deckbuilder could ask for: a new all-time concurrent player peak on Steam nearly 7 years after release Roguelike Is roguelike deckbuilder sequel Slay the Spire 2 worth playing in early access? Sim ‘Please let us focus on making our game in peace’ developer says to whoever is behind a slew of fake positive reviews that it swears definitely isn’t them Roguelike The devs of a promising Slay the Spire-alike are delaying their game to Dodge and Roll away from Slay the Spire 2’s launch: ‘You’ll be playing it, we’ll be playing it, everyone will be playing it’ Roguelike Slay the Spire 2 dev hates microtransactions, even though players would definitely pay for them: ‘A lot of our players threaten to buy all and any cosmetics we may ever release’ FPS Highguard deserves a chance, so don’t kill it out of spite PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!MarathonGDCBest PC gearQuizzes Games Roguelike Slay the Spire 2 Slay the Spire 2 players leave over 9,000 negative Steam reviews in one day over a card nerf that hasn’t even gone live yet—but China’s Steam restrictions might bear some of the blame News By Lincoln Carpenter published 20 March 2026 There are some nuances to this absurdity. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Mega Crit Games) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. 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From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Yesterday, Slay the Spire 2 developer Mega Crit pushed its “first BIG post-launch patch” to the game’s opt-in beta branch, giving players a chance to test the update’s changes ahead of their eventual implementation on the main branch. The beta patch brought “a huge balance pass,” retuning enemies, artifacts, and both the costs and effects of a number of cards from each StS 2 character—and in doing so, it unleashed a shitstorm.It’s been less than a day since the beta patch was deployed, and in that time, Slay the Spire 2 has received over 9,000 negative reviews on Steam from players outraged over a patch that hasn’t even gone live on the game’s main branch. (Image credit: Valve)Drawing the most ire is a change the patch made to the Silent’s Prepared card, a zero-cost skill that previously allowed the player to discard one card and draw a replacement. If your current hand won’t get you out of a tough spot, Prepared might give you the tool you need.Article continues below You may like ‘It’s kind of like you’re a butcher’: Hundreds of Slay the Spire 2 card ideas were cut during development in an ‘incredibly destructive process’ Slay the Spire 2 dev celebrates its instant success by reminding players to support ‘small indie passion projects’ like Marathon too Slay the Spir