This is becoming a pattern. Less than 30 days after the first wave, Slay the Spire 2 is once again drowning in negative Steam reviews, and the situation looks almost identical to last time.
What triggered the second wave
On April 17, Mega Crit pushed out Major Update #1 for Slay the Spire 2, the first big patch to land on the main branch rather than the beta. The update bundles everything from the past month of beta testing into one release: dozens of new art assets, new relics, bug fixes, and new cards including "Not Yet" for Ironclad, a rare card that restores 10 HP.
Within 12 hours of the update going live, the game had accumulated 3,609 negative reviews on Steam. The overwhelming majority of those reviews came from accounts based in China.
According to Kotaku, the complaints are nearly identical to the last review-bomb campaign. Players are upset about the removal of infinite combo setups, specifically changes to how Hellraiser interacts with Pommel Strike, and buffs to the Doormaker boss fight. Several negative reviews also call out Anthony Giovannetti, Mega Crit's co-founder, by name. Giovannetti had previously asked players to submit balance feedback through the game's in-game report function rather than tanking the Steam review score.
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Slay the Spire 2 was also review-bombed roughly a month ago over similar balance complaints, primarily targeting infinite combo nerfs and the Doormaker difficulty. This is the second incident in under 30 days.
Why Chinese players keep turning to Steam reviews
Here's the thing: this isn't just players being hostile for the sake of it. Social platforms like X and Discord are blocked in China by the government's internet restrictions, commonly called the "Great Firewall." For a large portion of Slay the Spire 2's Chinese player base, Steam's review system is one of the few public-facing channels they can actually access to voice frustration.
That context doesn't make review-bombing a constructive feedback mechanism, but it does explain why Steam keeps becoming the pressure valve. What most players miss when looking at these numbers is that the negative reviews aren't a verdict on the game's quality, they're a protest action driven by platform access limitations.
The update itself is actually solid
Stripping away the review noise, Major Update #1 is a substantial content drop. The v0.103.2 patch represents a month's worth of beta refinements finally reaching the full player base, and the sheer volume of additions, new cards, new relics, fresh art, and targeted bug fixes, makes it one of the more meaningful early access updates the game has seen.
The key here is that the balance changes being protested are the same ones that have been live on the beta branch for weeks. Players who opted into the beta have had time to adjust, and by most accounts the changes make the game more approachable rather than punishing. The Doormaker buffs in particular were designed to address a boss that some players found too easy to bypass with specific combo setups.
Mega Crit has not publicly responded to this second wave of reviews at time of writing. Given how the studio handled the first incident, a measured response or continued silence seems likely while the review spike gets flagged by Steam's review-bomb detection system.
For players who want to stay across how Slay the Spire 2 develops through early access, our gaming news will keep you updated as Mega Crit rolls out future patches. And if you want deeper context on how the game holds up right now, check out our latest reviews for a broader picture of where early access stands.
