Slay the Spire - The Board Game
I remember when the original video game came out, Slay the Spire was an instant hit. It's release definitely spawned an era of deck-building games for the PC, it's strategic combo play and rogue-like progression made for a wide variety of playstyles.
When Slay the Spire - The Board Game was announced, I definitely had my reservations about it. Why have a physical version of a deckbuilding game when the video game exists? Plus, there's history with video game adapations to other media that don't always pan out. So I passed on the original crowdfunding campaign and just let it fade from my radar.
Eventually reviews came in with surprisingly high praise for the board game. I recall how for The Dice Tower and Shut Up & Sit Down they also had similar doubt on how good the game would be, especially since they're also familiar with the video game. However, the developers of the game nailed the adapation, being smart with the numbers and gameplay design. That and the important feature unique to the board game: cooperative play, made it a unique experience.
Some of the crazy card combos and abilities we were able to get.
Just like the video game you're traversing up a map of paths with different randomized encounters. During fights, each player has their own row of threats and enemies facing them. For players, you can target any enemy and this is where the cooperative aspect comes into play as you'll work together to puzzle out which enemies need to be address and what order. All while juggling your own survivability based on what the enemies will do each round.
I think the best part is how well tuned the experience is. My husband and I played tthrough both Act 1 and Act 2 and every time we felt the tension of being on the verge of losing while holding on valiantly and fighting for the win.
The bosses we fought tooth and nail for and overcame.
One of the best responses was how excitement he had through this game, he was so enamored that after Act 1 he wanted to dive into Act 2 immediately after. For him, this is a personal 10-out-of-10 game, and for that I feel its a huge success and one that I'm glad was added to our library of games.
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