We all know that Roguelikes as a genre are beloved for being endlessly replayable, and some people really take that to heart. We’ve all got that one friend who regardless of new releases just won’t stop playing The Binding of Isaac or Slay the Spire, and if they’re having fun mastering a randomised video game then who can blame them. One game I know became an outright obsession for many is Monster Train, for very good reason. Now the sequel is here and I can confirm you could happily play it forever, so clear out your calendars because Monster Train 2 is about to take over your life.
The story of Monster Train 2 is unnecessarily epic, as titans have taken over heaven. These ridiculously powerful beings are a threat to all, and so an unlikely alliance between angels and demons is formed to purge them from the sky afterlife. Only by harnessing the power of these disparate clans will you be able to save the day, but as you can probably imagine these once mortal enemies aren’t going to immediately be besties. You’ll get bits of story flavour between runs in modern Roguelike style, but it never intrudes on the deck building fun.
Each run of Monster Train 2 is made up of a selection of battles, where you’ll need to defend your train as it makes its way to heaven. The train is made up of four floors stacked on top of each other, with the Pyre Heart keeping it running on the top floor. Enemies will (for the most part) enter on the bottom floor, and as long as they’re unopposed will make their way to the top to destroy the engine and end the run. It’s your job to place units that will kill them before this happens, and there’s a whole lot of depth to this.
Your units take the form of cards you’ll draw each turn, and can be placed on whichever floor you want as long as you have the energy to play them. Enemies will both unleash and take an attack before moving to the next floor, so the general goal is to ensure that by at least floor three they’ve been whittled down to zero, usually due to a variety of different effects.
The offensive options you have to work with in Monster Train 2 are frankly pretty staggering. At the start of each run you’ll choose two factions to combine who will make up your deck, and they all have so many build options. For example my favourite clan the Pyreborne (who are the hell dwelling fellas if you couldn’t guess from the name) can use Pyregel to boost damage from all future attacks, focus on dragon type units and buff them specifically, or try to gather as many precious golden eggs as possible for the perks they provide. Combining these potential deck builds with those of another faction offers endless train defending possibilities, all of which you’ll need to consider if you want to succeed.
Although your units are generally the most important cards contained in your Monster Train 2 deck, they’re far from all you can keep in it. Spells that help your units by granting them armour or outright killing the enemies about to attack them are always useful, especially once you’ve filled the train with as many demon guards as it can contain. There are also equipment cards which buff your warriors in all sorts of powerful ways, and can make even a lowly starting spear soldier into a titan slaying powerhouse. You can even add room cards to your deck which will affect everything on a specific floor of your train for the rest of the fight, and can be a great way to ensure your strategy keeps the Pyre heart defended.
With so many ways to build your deck, you’re probably wondering how you get new cards for it. Well in true Roguelike fashion it’s either by winning battles or by picking a path (or in this case train track) to take with a selection of rewards littering it. Some of these upgrade options are simple, granting a new card from a specific faction or healing your battered Pyre Heart. Others offer more depth, like the stores that let you upgrade units or spells to power them up to ludicrous levels. There are also ways to duplicate cards, ways to banish cards from the deck, and even artefacts which add powerful passive effects to the proceedings and often shake up everything. The depth of Monster Train 2 is staggering, and it ensures that even if you play as the same two clans that no two runs are that similar.
When you first start Monster Train 2 you’ll have access to two clans, and no real other options to choose between before starting a run. This doesn’t last too long though, as there’s a ridiculous amount of different unlockable elements to slowly reveal. With five clans total (all of which can be played as your primary or secondary class for even more options) you can mix and match these however you want. There are also loads of different Pyre Hearts to unlock that provide different effects to a run, as well as different train carriages you can customise to your liking too. There’s always something to work towards unlocking next, but even without trying you’ll be granted plenty of new options just by playing the game normally.
Even if these run options were all you could mix it up with in Monster Train 2 you’d have near infinite options for fun in this game, but there are also a whole host of other ways to play the game too. When you beat a run as a specific clan combination you’ll unlock a higher difficulty for it, and there are ten increasingly brutal levels of these. There are also challenge runs which start you with specific modifiers and require you to really engage your brain, as well as daily runs complete with leaderboards to try and top. This Roguelike sequel has even added an endless mode that can be jumped into after any successful run, so you can push your victorious deck to its limit.
There’s so much to love in Monster Train 2, and fans of the first game especially will feel immediately happy on its tracks. Newcomers will have a tougher time though, as there’s a hell of a lot to take in if you want to succeed. When you’re first getting started it can feel like you spend more time reading the expanded tooltips for cards than actually playing the game, so don’t expect to become a choo choo master without putting the work in. My only other complaint with the game is that I think a couple of extra clan options when you start out would’ve made the initial few hours more exciting. Having only one combination is a good way to show off how different each run is even with the same starter deck, but a bit of variety would’ve been appreciated.
Monster Train 2 is a game that a dedicated crowd will still be playing in five years, and it absolutely has the depth to facilitate that. The options at your disposal for taking down the titans and creating the best defensive deck possible is truly staggering, and the battles themselves are always engaging. It might take you a bit of time to absorb everything you need to guide angelic and demonic warriors to victory, but once you have that knowledge you’ll never want to put Monster Train 2 down.