Slay the Spire 2 Gets Hit With 11,000 Negative Reviews Over a Single Balance Patch

Mega Crit's Slay the Spire 2 has been one of Early Access's brightest spots, a near-perfect score on Steam, a passionate community, and a developer with a strong track record of listening to feedback.

The newest patch of released for the game, currently optional and still in beta, includes a nerf to Silent's Prepared card alongside a buff to the Doormaker boss. Neither change is live in the main build. That didn't matter. Within hours of the announcement, the review bombing started — and by morning, over 11,000 negative reviews had rolled in, dragging the game's all-time rating from 97% down to 83%.

What makes this particularly striking is that Mega Crit built a dedicated in-game feedback tool specifically so players could share balance concerns without resorting to Steam reviews. The community chose Steam reviews anyway.

The response split along predictable lines. Many players argued the nerf fundamentally changes how a core Silent archetype functions, and that Steam reviews are a legitimate form of protest when developers don't respond to feedback through official channels. Others pointed out that the patch isn't even in the main game yet, making review bombing an early access build over a beta change one of the more aggressive overreactions in recent memory.

Mega Crit has not yet issued a public response to the review wave. Whether the patch survives in its current form — or whether this becomes a case study in how not to communicate balance changes during Early Access — remains to be seen.