Slay the Spire 2's May Review Wave — Thousands of Reviews in 48 Hours

The May review wave was the sequel's strangest yet — not because of what players were angry about, but because of what the data said about who was angry. Between May 6 and 8, thousands of negative reviews landed in a 48-hour burst; by May 11, the game's overall rating had slipped to "Mostly Negative," and Steam's own review-bomb detection reportedly locked the review section temporarily.

The anomaly, as coverage at the time detailed: a significant share of the burst came from accounts that had owned the game for under 24 hours — review patterns inconsistent with the long-running playerbase that had written the game's 95%-positive launch history. Steam's bomb-protection system exists precisely to filter this pattern: coordinated off-platform campaigns arriving as synchronized review floods.

The context was layered. The consultant-credit controversy had primed the platforms, and the wave rode a broader grievance current rather than a single patch grievance — no 0.101-style rollback could address it, because there was no single change to roll back.

The practical takeaway for players reading ratings during the storm: Steam's historical review curves — which exclude detected bombs — kept the game's long-term score intact, and the developers' track record on responding to legitimate feedback remained the more reliable signal of the game's direction than any 48-hour burst.

Keep reading:

• The Consultant Controversy
• 0.105 Beta Hits