If you loved Monster Train as much as I did, Monster Train 2 is more of that. No bad thing if you ask me.
There are so many roguelike deckbuilders around these days. Ever since the success of the hugely enjoyable Slay the Spire, swathes of imitators have come along with their own twists on the formula, absolutely flooding the market. Some are good, like the surprise hit Balatro or strategic spy brawler Fights in Tight Spaces. Some, though, exceed that genre defining colossus, and in my mind the original Monster Train was the superior game. Monster Train 2 is here to give you more of the goodness from the original, and those that liked that first release should probably stop reading and just buy it now as it’s just as good as the original.
In Monster Train, you gathered the last few desperate demons aboard a train in an underworld besieged by heaven’s angels with a plan to take the remnants of power back to the heart of hell to restart it, saving your home. And according to Monster Train 2, you succeeded! But the Seraph, chief among those angels, went mad with his failure and sought out the help of powerful, eldritch titans. Heaven has become corrupted, more powerful, and incredibly dangerous to both angel and demon alike. This time though, you’re taking your flight to heaven in the hopes of destroying the titans and maybe returning balance to the afterlife.
There’s a surprising amount of lore in Monster Train 2, and more emphasis on story. The various factions are at odds with each other, and your leaders will bring them together over the course of your assaults on heaven’s gates. There isn’t exactly a deep narrative at play here, but characters are more fleshed out, and returning faces actually interact with each other rather than simply existing like they did originally. As much as I enjoyed the brief cutscenes though, this is a mechanical game first and foremost.
If you played the original, Monster Train 2 is more of that but with a few new twists. For the uninitiated though, your job is to complete eight fights on the way to the centre of heaven, picking up new cards and abilities between each battle. Battles take place in a carriage on your strangely vertical train. The lower three floors have space for monsters to defend the carriage, with your pyre on the top floor being the target of your enemies. Each round, new enemies will enter the train on the bottom floor, and you’ll play monster cards to hold them off, bolstered by spells to boost your power and directly attack enemies. An energy limit, called Ember here, prevents you from simply playing every card you have. Any foes that survive the combat round will move up to the next floor, and should you allow them to, reach your pyre to attack it directly. If your pyre is destroyed, your run fails and it’s back to square one.
Monsters have attack and health values, as well as a variety of modifiers, like Conduit which empowers your spell cards, or Valour that gives increased attack and an armour boost if they’re on the front line. Some spells can attack enemies with direct damage or debuffs to make them weaker or more vulnerable, whilst others will empower your troops or move them around the carriage to better position them. Building a powerful and synergistic deck over the course of your run is absolutely key to success, as careful monster placement and spell usage will absolutely be the difference between success and failure.
Much like in the original game, you’ll get previews of what the major bosses on your run will be able to do, allowing you to plan your deck to deal with them. Between battles you’ll still visit shops to buy and empower cards, banners to acquire new monsters, and shrines for events that may benefit or harm you. This element of the game has barely changed, but this is no bad thing, as the system was pretty much perfect already. By giving you just two paths to choose from at any point, there’s no faffing about with looking four battles ahead to determine where you’ll end up. Just pick left or right based on which path has the best stuff for you at that junction.
Before your run, you’ll get to select your lead faction and a support one. The lead determines your champion, a powerful monster that provides a centerpiece of your force and will determine your play style. Initially, each faction has a single champion, but you’ll unlock a second for each as you level that faction up. The two factions you pick will allow you access to their monsters and spells over the course of your run. Some work better together than others, and figuring that out is part of the fun. Because a run only lasts eight battles, you can be done in half an hour, so if your experiment fails, you won’t have lost much.
The factions this time have quite different approaches to how they work. Initially you have access to the Banished and Pyreborn. The former are all about moving around to gain buffs that increase damage and survivability. The latter are dragons that become more powerful if you keep a lot of gold in your coffers. Each is quite thematic, and I especially like how the Pyreborn function, allowing you to collect golden eggs after each battle that you can open for money and artefacts, or horde to make monsters more powerful. The Underlegion are endless hordes of mushroom folk that rely on spores for power, and the Lazarus League make use of resurrection powers to keep their forces going long after they should have fallen. My favourite thus far are the Luna Coven thanks to their potentially ludicrously potent spells that become more powerful depending on the current moon phase. Each faction was enjoyable to play as, and finding neat combinations was immensely satisfying. The first time I had my Luna Coven casting zero cost spells that would cause several hundred damage, I couldn’t believe how well things were going.
There are several new features to play around with too. You can get Room cards that make each floor of the train have special features. Some are simple and provide extra damage for each monster, whilst others are faction specific that buff a certain faction’s key ability. You’ll also find new Equipment cards that can be attached to monsters to provide them with battle long benefits. I loved the Lazarus League’s grafted body parts theme that allowed monsters to outlive even catastrophic attacks. These are things you’ll absolutely want to consider, and I found my decks in Monster Train 2 were far larger than those I ran in the first game.
Further features include the ability to unlock new pyres that give you a special ability for your run, such as being able to clone cards or heal your monsters. Unlocking these contributes towards further features being added too, so you’re really encouraged to do so. You also get endless modes and a challenge mode that gives you preset factions and modifiers to see if you can complete a run under specific circumstances. Some of these are really quite difficult, so those who have completed runs on the highest difficulty can really challenge themselves.
The visuals are as excellent as ever, with brightly coloured creatures that all have wonderful designs. I loved the musical birds that carried around instruments and the Lazarus League’s Frankensteinian monsters made or merged together body parts. I will say that the carriage can get a little overcrowded at times if you play lots of smaller monsters, making it difficult to find the one you want to cast a spell on, but that’s a minor gripe. The music is fantastically fun too. I’ve found myself humming along to some of the tunes absentmindedly. Cael’s theme and one that I think was called Legion’s Lament have been stuck in my head for a couple of weeks now.
Those who liked Monster Train will be right at home here, and roguelike deckbuilder fans would do well to give this one a go. There’s such a fabulously well put together game here, and it’s one of the rare occasions where the roguelike element didn’t frustrate nearly as much as it did in others. So much content, fun little appearances from previous characters, and even the odd cameo combine with a wonderful sense of style to bring together this year’s strongest deckbuilder.
Monster Train 2 is available now on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.
