When comparing Slay the Spire vs Grim Dawn, the Slant community recommends Grim Dawn for most people. In the question“What are the best indie games on Steam?” Grim Dawn is ranked 37th while Slay the Spire is ranked 63rd. The most important reason people chose Grim Dawn is:
Basically you choose 1 class and select skills as you level up. At level 10 you can select a second class, which already gives you 5x5=25 character type possibilities. Each character has dozens of skills, plus you have this additional passive skill tree that you unlock through cleansing shrines. Then there is item customization with crafted "modifiers", adding additional unique stats and skills that you can use, all this adds literally to thousands / millions of character possibilities. Do you want to use a double weapon shooting lightning bolts? You can do that. Do you want to summon your creatures and support them with fireballs? You can do that as well, you can push it wherever you want.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro A pay to play card game
Card games usually are free to play, endlessly milking their players for money with new card releases and expansions. Slay the Spire is an exception, having only a single purchase that helps sustain its developers. This helps you to enjoy the game without worrying that your wallet is not thick enough to keep up with all the new releases. It also helps keep out trolls and heralds of the microtransaction apocalypse, which can feel really nice.
Pro A great mix of genres
A roguelike that has deck building might sound weird at first, but it's a surprisingly fun concept. You can select one of classes(decks), choose a path on the spire, fight monsters using your deck, get new cards to improve your deck, and even fight bosses. There's enough strategy, depth, and randomness in all of this, which can make it really satisfying when you make a great deck, win a difficult battle, or get extremely lucky.
Pro Intriguing world
Slay the Spire features a desolate land with just a massive tower called "The Spire" looming over it. No one knows why it's there, why it's inhabited by otherwordly creatures, and why heroes from far away are drawn to it. This makes progressing through the game a lot more interesting because you're gradually uncovering this mystery through the eyes of your character.
Pro Complex leveling system with thousands of possible builds
Basically you choose 1 class and select skills as you level up. At level 10 you can select a second class, which already gives you 5x5=25 character type possibilities.
Each character has dozens of skills, plus you have this additional passive skill tree that you unlock through cleansing shrines. Then there is item customization with crafted "modifiers", adding additional unique stats and skills that you can use, all this adds literally to thousands / millions of character possibilities.
Do you want to use a double weapon shooting lightning bolts? You can do that. Do you want to summon your creatures and support them with fireballs? You can do that as well, you can push it wherever you want.
Pro Great homage to old school ARPGs
This game is very dark, and grim. It harkens back to games like Diablo 2 or Titans Quest. While other ARPGs have come out since then, none have hit all the marks of what fans of the genre have been asking for. For those that wish for an updated version of Diablo 2, Grim Dawn is the game for them.
Pro Exploration
Pro Highly modifiable
Relevant in modern gaming because the community can keep products like this fresh and varied, even if the developers eventually decide to slow down their updates (which they have not!). The possibilities are great with modding, while the experiences in Diablo 3 and Path of exile are a lot more static.
Pro Drop-in co-op (online and local)
Co-op is pretty convenient as players can drop in and out of your gaming session at any time. This way there is no wasted time jumping out of ones game in order to find players to play with.
Cons
Con Limited to just singeplayer
There's no multiplayer or co-op in Slay the Spire. While competitive multiplayer in a roguelite can sound absurd, co-op would've been a lot of fun, especially with a friend.
Con Some cards can feel impractical because of randomness
There a really good cards(usually involving exhaust and poison mechanics) that don't really work by themselves, requiring you to have another card for a synergy effect. If you only have one of the cards, it can feel like dead weight that hinders your current playthrough, making it even more frustrating when you can't find a matching card because of randomness.
Con Not F2P
Premium card games have yet to prove it is a successful model.
Con Only some builds are fun
There is a definite meta, with superefficient vs non-viable builds.
It's easy to mess up a build, and attribute and spec-bar points are non-respeccable (you can use a cheat editor, but devs want you to reroll a new char).
Con Difficult to move when fighting, especially when you are ranged
Con Static pre-rendered levels
This may cut down on replayability a bit as all the levels in the game are pre-rendered, meaning that each playthrough will have the exact same layout, making for something that can get tiring and too familiar. Similar games have gone with randomized levels, which can keep the game fresh. While Grim Dawn is meant to be a throwback to earlier games in the genre, some newer features found in more recent released would have been welcome.
Con Lots of trips to town
The majority of loot in the game can be useless, with odd stat restrictions or repeats of vendor items. This means the user will need to make many trips into town to sell it all off in order to have room for even more loot they will not necessarily need.