Publisher: Creedon Games
Developer: Creedon Games
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: Not Rated
As I’ve written at least a few times before, Slay the Spire is one of my all-time favourite games. I was a few years late coming to the game, but over the last few years I’ve sunk dozens upon dozens of hours into the game across multiple platforms, playing countless runs with each of the characters and loving every minute of it. I’m not exaggerating in the least when I say that Slay the Spire 2 is one of my most anticipated games in years.
Developers Creedon Games are apparently also huge fans of Slay the Spire, because their debut game, Moon’s Creed, is basically a carbon copy of it – like, so much so that it feels like they just took Slay the Spire, reskinned it, and called it a day.
Is that unfair? Possibly. But there’s really no getting around just how much Moon’s Creed borrows/steals from Slay the Spire. You have three possible heroes, each with different approaches. You make your way through three acts of the story. You have three points each turn. Your runs feature shops, events that can either harm you or strengthen your deck (or both), and mini-bosses that yield greater rewards. Even the visuals look incredibly similar.
Probably the only way that Moon’s Creed differs from Slay the Spire is that it’s much, much easier. Maybe it’s just because of all that time I’ve devoted to Slay the Spire, but I found that there was seldom any point in the game where I was worried I might lose. My cards were never overpowering, but I was able to stack up blocks and buffs in a way that meant my enemies could barely attack me, and in return my attacks would inflict surprising amounts of damage. Given that a huge reason why Slay the Spire was so addictive was that it was just the right amount of challenging (as in, you’d get destroyed out of nowhere, but its roguelike nature meant that you would immediately try again and hope for the best with a new run), being too easy makes Moon’s Creed seem like a pale imitation.
That said, I wouldn’t write off the game just yet – Moon’s Creed just arrived in Early Access, after all. It has at least a few months, presumably, before Slay the Spire 2 arrives. We’ll see if it can use that time to develop a personality of its own.
Creedon Games provided us with a Moon’s Creed PC code for review purposes.
