Slay the Spire 2 "may not be perfectly balanced yet," Half-Life writer and Valve veteran Erik Wolpaw says, but with 1,500 hours in the first game he has no doubt Mega Crit will pull it off

Erik Wolpaw – best known for writing Psychonauts, Half-Life 2's episodes, and the Portal games – has revealed Slay the Spire is one of his favorite games of all time.

Speaking to PC Gamer, Wolpaw reveals that as of late, he is currently playing, exclusively, Slay the Spire 2. "I'm either playing it solo … or playing it co-op with my son," he says. Obviously, the big chat around the game right now is how Slay the Spire 2 plummeted to 66% positive lifetime Steam reviews after its first major update earlier this month, but Wolpaw hasn't been too bothered about balance right now.

"Co-op's phenomenal. Like most of it, it may not be perfectly balanced yet. I don't know it for a fact, [but] I think two players may be the most unbalanced. It gets harder two-player and then starts to get easier at three and four-player. This is my suspicion, and what I've heard from other people. We're still having a good time, even though it's hard." Wolpaw explains, before subtly flexing, "We were in Ascension 10."

He continues, "It's not as balanced as Slay the Spire 1 yet. But it's also exciting because I trust them, because they balanced Slay the Spire 1 as well as any card game has ever been balanced. I trust that they'll do it here."

He says that both Slay the Spire games are "the exact, perfect level of decision making and cognitive load for my brain. Games like Crusader Kings or something are too much for me. I can't wrap my head around [them]. This is the perfect level of strategy. There's an interesting decision to be made on a real, regular basis."

As for the first Slay the Spire, Wolpaw refers to it as "number one in my heart," and that the game is by far his most played game on Steam at 1,500 hours. For context, second place is 571 hours of Dark Souls 3, to which he says "can't be right," but that his number three is Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen at 450 hours, which – aside from being a fire choice – is obviously significantly less than Slay the Spire.

Even as someone who absolutely sucks at the first game, it's hard to argue that there aren't many better deckbuilders out there than the original Slay the Spire – my love for Metal Gear Acid 2 aside – and I'd be shocked if his 1,500 hours of it are even in the top 10 highest playtimes for it worldwide.

Slay the Spire 2 won't get an endless mode, but creator says "maybe a modder" can "make it work"