Slay the Spire 2 was a hit when it launched back in early access earlier this year. Amassing 574,638 concurrent players on Steam at its peak, it has continued to hold onto a surprising amount, peaking at 189,320 in the past 24 hours.
However, it's now come under fire for something that doesn't have anything to do with the gameplay or an unpopular update. No, instead, some people online realised that Anita Sarkeesian - media critic and video game consultant - appears in the credits. This was never a great secret. Her name has always been there, alongside two other consultants, and most players seemed to enjoy the game just fine. But now that they've noticed that she contributed to the game, they're spamming negative reviews.
Recent Slay The Spire 2 Reviews Are "Mostly Negative"
As you can see over on Steam, most of Slay the Spire 2's recent negative reviews mention Sarkeesian by name. They repeat talking points that many of you would have heard before, about how this is an "anti-gamer" move.
The wave of negative reviews in April was in response to an unpopular update, not the Sarkeesian revelation.
"i got hyped [sic], they released an early access version of it, i wanted to support them," reads a review of Slay the Spire 2, which sums up many of the other negative reviews. "now i learn that they stand with the Anita Snarkeesian.
"i dont support the toxic woke, i dont support people who publicly detest video games and those who play them."
If you have no idea what anyone is talking about, Sarkeesian was one of the women at the centre of the first wave of Gamergate in the 2010s. She frequently criticised games from a feminist perspective, as critics often do with films or television. While you can absolutely find fault with her critique (some of her fellow feminists do, in fact), much of the pushback came from those who saw any feminist analysis of games as an attack on the gaming community.
The irony here is that, for all of their complaints to the contrary, they are the only group that is letting their political views get in the way of enjoying a video game. Some of the people leaving these reviews have clocked in more than a hundred hours, only to now decide they hate the game.
Of course, we can't say with any degree of certainty what Sarkeesian actually contributed to the game, but typically, consultants are brought on so there's another set of eyes on the project. That can be for sensitivity and diversity in the writing, or when creating characters from diverse backgrounds, but it can also include just consulting on character designs to make sure they pop, or even helping out on the gameplay side, helping to refine the core gameplay loop. Consultants can also help on the non-game dev side of things, like marketing or monetisation.
Judging from Sarkeesian's website, she helps in a range of areas in game design. This does include topics like the writing of women, as she mentions helping devs with "appealing to a broader audience", "eliminating problematic dialogue", and "crafting complex, authentic characters." There is a very real debate to be had about how being overzealous with this could sanitise media - something that some of us would argue that we've seen in recent years - but given that Slay the Spire 2 was received well, it doesn't seem that Sarkeesian's advice to the devs harmed it at all, or warrants this kind of pushback.
Developer Mega Crit is yet to comment on the situation. It remains to be seen if they or any of Sarkeesian's clients issue a statement.
Slay The Spire 2 Has Been Review-Bombed So Much That Steam Is Warning Users
Over the past few days, Slay the Spire 2's Steam page has continued to be hit with negative reviews because of Sarkeesian's involvement in the game. As of the time of writing, 66 percent of the nearly 50,000 recent reviews for Slay the Spire 2 are negative, leaving it with a "Mostly Negative" score.
Although it looks like the review-bombing isn't going to stop any time soon, Steam is at least aware of the ongoing situation. Hovering over the review score shows a message that reads, "This product has experienced one or more periods of off-topic review activity". Steam notes that, based on your preferences, it will exclude these negative reviews from the Slay the Spire 2's review score.
- Released
- March 5, 2026
- ESRB
- e
- Developer(s)
- Mega Crit
- Publisher(s)
- Mega Crit
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op
