Monster Train 2

One of the biggest surprises in indie games this year has been the unexpected announcement of a sequel to Shiny Shoe’s iconic roguelike deckbuilder Monster Train. Arriving five years after the original game and hot on the heels of it being released on mobile platforms, Monster Train 2 instantly became one of the games to keep an eye on, even if you don’t love roguelike deck-builders.

Just like Slay the Spire before it, Monster Train was one of the few games to truly transcend the genre and appeal to a wider audience than most of the competition. So the pressure was on the developers to once again deliver. They received backing from publisher Big Fan Games, a Devolver Digital company, so right from the start there was a lot of belief that the original game wasn’t a fluke.

For this sequel, you don’t return to the gates of hell. Instead, you follow that railroad track all the way up to heaven, where things have gone terribly wrong. This is no longer a battle between angels and demons, as the Titans are taking over control of heaven, threatening just about everyone’s existence. It’s up to you to combine the forces of hell and heaven to defeat the biggest danger you’ve encountered yet!

What this means in gameplay terms is a combination of more of the same multi-tiered card battling that made the first game such a classic and completely new clans and factions to combine into the most powerful force you can conjure. With angels and demons now fighting side by side, you’re free to tinker with your deck in completely new ways, creating previously unseen synergies that will give you the edge on the battlefield. If you thought the original Monster Train already gave you endless replayability with the variety on offer, you’ll be in for a pleasant surprise with this sequel.

It can take some time getting used to, though. If you’re a veteran of the series, you’ll have plenty of ideas on what makes your decks tick and how to get the best out of all of your troops. But being great at the first game won’t automatically mean easing through Monster Train 2. There’s just too much to discover! Aside from the new clans and factions, there are other ways to alter your gameplay experience in exciting ways.

Before I dive into those changes, perhaps a moment to explain the core gameplay loop of the Monster Train games: your hero and their troops, consisting of two different clans working together, set out on the train ride of their lives. As you venture into the unknown, looking to stop the madness that is spreading, your train will be boarded by enemies, who will attempt to stop your ride by destroying the pyre that powers it. To defend your train, you have to set up your troops over three of the train’s floors, with new enemies usually entering on the bottom floor.

With every turn, undefeated enemies will move up a floor, edging closer to your pyre, so it’s vital to take them out as quickly as possible. You can move your troops around from floor to floor, adapting to what the enemy – who arrive in waves on your train – will throw at you. Sometimes you’ll want to throw everything at them on the bottom floor, while at other times it’s all about setting up that killer blow on the top floor. If enemies manage to slip through the cracks in your defence, your pyre is still set up to defend itself, but it can only do so for so long. Once its HP runs out, your run is over.

Helping you on your way are traditional roguelike events, shops with upgrades, and new troops to acquire. You don’t just choose your route from event to fight, etc.: you pick a route that will take you past a couple of these things on your way to your next fight. After a set number of fights, you will travel to a boss battle, who will attack you on top of the troops invading your train. The boss will travel from floor to floor freely, adding an extra layer of difficulty.

So far, so Monster Train. But the sequel sets itself apart with some fantastic new additions, which really add to that brilliant base set in the first game. You can unlock new pyres for your train, which will offer their own buffs to your strategies. And then there are the new card types, like room cards, which will influence all of your troops on a set level of your train. Equipment cards are another exciting addition, allowing you to add them to your troops to buff them or even attach them to enemies to make them falter.

All of these new additions could have been overwhelming for new players as they try and make sense of everything you’re able to do in Monster Train 2. But the game is beginner-friendly, as you gradually unlock everything as the story advances. There’s no need to have played the first game to immediately start enjoying this one.

In my opinion, it helps that the graphics and music have not been updated in a major way. The focus for this sequel was completely kept on improving gameplay, as the game’s presentation was spot on with the original game already. What that means is that Monster Train 2 is an absolute tour de force, once again claiming its legacy as one of the genre’s standout games.