Slay the Spire 2 Early Access: How Mega Crit's Sequel Crashed Steam, Got Review Bombed, and Still Dominated March 2025

Key Takeaways

• Mega Crit abandoned Unity for Godot after Unity's controversial 2023 runtime fee announcement, scrapping two years of work
• Slay the Spire 2 literally crashed the Steam storefront on March 5, 2025 due to overwhelming traffic
• The game faced review bombing over announced work-in-progress balance changes
• Despite the drama, the sequel has exceeded all expectations in player numbers and engagement

Look, if you told me a year ago that a card game sequel would crash one of the biggest digital storefronts on the planet, I probably would've believed you. But only if that game was Slay the Spire 2. The original 2019 roguelike deckbuilder basically invented a genre, and fans have been hungry for more ever since Mega Crit went quiet on the sequel.

So when March 5, 2025 rolled around and Slay the Spire 2 finally hit early access on Steam? Chaos. Absolute chaos. But the good kind, mostly. And also some bad kind. It's been a weird month.

The Unity Drama: Why Mega Crit Threw Away Two Years of Work

Before we get into the launch madness, you need to know about the engine saga. Back in September 2023, Unity Technologies decided to shoot itself in the foot by announcing runtime fees. Basically, any game made in Unity after January 2024 would have to pay monthly royalties based on how many times the game got installed.

Developers everywhere lost their minds. Mega Crit? They went nuclear within 24 hours.

“We have never made a public statement before. That is how badly you fucked up.”

— Mega Crit's official statement on Unity's runtime fees

That's not corporate PR speak. That's a studio telling a billion-dollar company to go kick rocks. And they backed it up by scrapping two years of development work and porting Slay the Spire 2 to Godot, an open-source engine that can't pull this kind of stunt.

Unity eventually walked back the fees in late 2023 and killed them entirely in 2024. Didn't matter. The trust was gone, and Mega Crit was already committed to Godot. After six years of total development time and an engine swap halfway through, Slay the Spire 2 was finally ready.

March 5: The Day Steam Broke

When Mega Crit announced on February 5 that the sequel would drop exactly one month later, the roguelike community collectively held its breath. Other indie devs scrambled to move their own launches out of the way. You don't compete with Slay the Spire 2. You just don't.

And then March 5 arrived, and the game's popularity exceeded everyone's expectations. Including Steam's servers, apparently.

I've seen big game launches before. This was different. The demand was so intense that Steam couldn't handle the traffic. For a sequel to an indie deckbuilder. Not a Call of Duty. Not a GTA. A card game about climbing a tower and fighting sentient slimes.

Then Came the Review Bombs

Here's where things get messy. Because gamers are, well, gamers.

Mega Crit, being transparent about their early access process, announced some upcoming balance changes. These weren't patches being forced on anyone. They were optional, work-in-progress tweaks that players could test if they wanted to. The key word being optional.

A certain segment of the playerbase did not care about that distinction. They saw nerfs coming for their favorite cards and strategies and went straight to the Steam reviews to express their displeasure. The game got hit with a wave of negative reviews, tanking its score temporarily.

The thing is, this is early access. The whole point is that things change. Cards get buffed. Cards get nerfed. Strategies that feel broken today might be fine-tuned tomorrow. That's literally what you sign up for when you buy an early access game.

But nuance doesn't trend on social media, and suddenly Slay the Spire 2 had a PR problem that had nothing to do with the actual game quality.

40 Days Later: Where Does Slay the Spire 2 Stand?

Despite the engine drama, the server crashes, and the review bombing, Slay the Spire 2 is doing exactly what everyone expected: dominating. The Steam charts tell the story. Player counts are massive. The concurrent player numbers have been consistently strong since launch.

The reviews have stabilized. The balance discussion has calmed down. And most importantly, people are actually playing the game and loving it. The core loop that made the original so addictive is back, refined, and expanded.

What This Says About Indie Games in 2025

Here's what strikes me about this whole saga. Mega Crit isn't some massive studio with hundreds of employees and a PR department trained in crisis management. They're a small team that made one really good game and spent years making a sequel.

And yet they navigated a massive engine controversy, launched the most anticipated indie game of the year, survived a review bombing campaign, and came out the other side with a hit. That's not luck. That's having a genuinely good product and a community that, beneath all the drama, actually cares about the game.

“The announcement was met with universal excitement, even from devs that had to move their own roguelike deckbuilders out of the way.”

— Industry reaction to Slay the Spire 2's release date

The Godot decision looks smarter every day. Not just because it avoided Unity's fee drama, but because it sent a message to the entire industry. Developers don't have to be hostage to engine companies that can change terms whenever they want. There are alternatives, and studios are willing to take massive short-term hits to preserve long-term independence.

Should You Buy Slay the Spire 2 Right Now?

Real talk: it's early access. If you loved the original and understand that things will change, bugs will exist, and balance will shift? Buy it today. You'll get dozens of hours out of the current content and more as updates roll out.

If you need a finished, polished experience and get frustrated when your favorite strategy gets adjusted? Maybe wait for 1.0. There's no shame in that. Early access isn't for everyone, and Mega Crit has shown they're not afraid to make changes when needed.

The Bottom Line

Slay the Spire 2's first month has been wild. Engine controversies. Crashed storefronts. Review bombs. And through all of it, a genuinely great game that's doing exactly what the fans hoped it would do.

Mega Crit bet big on principles over convenience when they ditched Unity. They bet big on transparency when they announced work-in-progress balance changes. And they bet big on their audience when they launched into early access instead of waiting for a perfect 1.0.

So far? All those bets are paying off. The roguelike deckbuilder genre has its king back on the throne, and the spire is once again worth climbing.

Source: Kotaku / Lewis Parker