Review : Monster Train 2 : A Hellishly Good Time

Monster Train was my introduction to the genre of roguelike deckbuilders. I came across it in a list of games leaving Game Pass and decided to try it. By the time it actually left Game Pass a week later, I had bought it on Steam and unlocked most, if not all, of the factions. So it’s safe to say I went into Monster Train 2 with high expectations. And, to my delight, this game met every single one of them, and then some.

Once Upon a Train…

The first Monster Train game was pretty straightforward in terms of its story. You had a brief cutscene at the beginning, then some flavor text for every enemy and a side scene whenever you encountered an event. Some of those events were insanely good, too. (The number of runs where an upgraded, duplicated Heph carried me. It’s not a small number is all I’m saying. But we’ll get to that later.) What the first game didn’t have is a detailed story that played out over the course of the game, with character development, plot twists, and everything you’d expect from an RPG and not so much from a roguelike deckbuilder. And that’s not to say the first game was lacking. I never felt that the game lacked a story. It just didn’t need one.

Yeah, the sequel looked at that last sentence and said bet.

This game starts with a much more elaborate cutscene than before, and when you end (lose) the first run, it pauses to show you the champion you were just following, who takes a moment to describe the conundrum all the denizens of Hell–and Heaven–have found themselves in. Admittedly, I’m terrible with names, so I had to Google to determine that, yes, this was, in fact, the same name as a boss in the first game. But that knowledge sucked me right in. 

At half an hour into this game, no longer was I playing “just” to unlock more game features. No, now I was playing to unlock more story too. And the story doesn’t disappoint. There are optional scenes you can stumble on between runs, and then there’s the main story you unlock as you keep playing. There are also the Celestial Alcoves, which are the random events that might offer you a free bonus or might offer an absurd upgrade with a high cost. (Dante is my new favorite, BTW.) Heph is back, and she’s got a whole lot more to her than before. And did I mention there’s something in the sky over Heaven that probably shouldn’t be there? As a perennial lover of stories and storytelling, this made me so happy on so many extra levels.

More, More, More

More people probably know Slay the Spire than Monster Train, but I have to admit, I have probably only seen around a quarter of the events in that game, and that’s probably a generous estimate. I ran into a few that felt bad and left me feeling like I was being punished for exploring, so now I actively avoid them on the map. In Monster Train, I’ve never skipped an event. I love every one of them. Every one of them offers you something useful, and if you don’t like the cost, you can just leave and get nothing, good or bad.

Those events are back, and there’s more of them, including quite a few events featuring guest characters from other roguelikes. In fact, there’s more of everything.

This is great because, if you asked me what I’d want from a sequel to Monster Train, I’d probably have said, “I don’t know, more?” And this game delivers.

Did you love the music from the first game? I had the sequel’s music stuck in my head for an hour without getting tired of it. Did you like spell slinging? The Luna Coven and Lazarus Legion have whole new ways to play with your spells. (Whenever I say Lazarus Legion, just read that as “Dr. Frankenstein and friends.”) Do you just want your units to hit harder? There’s a new mechanic for one of the factions, called Valor, that buffs your attack and gives a shield if it’s on the front unit. 

There are also whole new card types in the form of equipment and room cards. Every unit can have one piece of equipment, which gives stats and new passives, and every floor of the train can have one room. (Psst–Mageblade in a room that buffs magic power is awesome.)

At present, there are five factions, with each of them feeling unique and useful in different ways. Just like before, you’ll level the factions you use in any given run, unlocking a new card and a new artifact for every level. I expect there will be at least one more faction in a future DLC. I also… will not say more on that. Let’s move on.

Working as Intended

Nothing is more fun in a deckbuilder than finding a way to create a truly heinous, game-breaking combination of effects. 300+ attack on a champion with three attacks per turn? Done. A meat shield that reanimates at least twice and gets 80 armor every time it does? Did that too. A spell doing around triple digit damage for no energy cost? Oh yeah, absolutely.

Of course, nothing is more inevitable in a roguelike than your strategy, no matter how broken, falling apart. It’s pretty rough to fail at the same point multiple times in a row. The switch from managing everything relatively easily to just being crushed can be abrupt. But, like the first game, Monster Train 2 is designed to encourage you no matter how you do. The run-end screen is filled with your accomplishments, whether it’s enemies killed, most damage done by a single attack, or anything else you can think of. I’ve had runs where I got a little dopamine hit for having the biggest deck I’ve ever cleared with and for the smallest deck I’ve ever cleared with.

Monster Train 2, to sum up, has absolutely nailed the delicate balance of frustration and progression that roguelikes have to manage. It has plenty of openings for you to do really cool stuff, but with the knowledge that there’s always another challenge that your really cool stuff can’t handle yet. There are enough moments where the threats are overwhelming so that you never feel like you’ve made the game too easy, but there are always tools available. There are mini-objectives everywhere to unlock more Pyre Hearts and more factions, and did I mention there are cosmetics for your train cars? This is a masterclass in how to make a game in this genre.

Next Stop!

After a several-hour play session of the game, I had to pause and ask my boyfriend, who’s also played the first game, whether the things I thought were new really were. It wasn’t because I thought they weren’t original or exciting enough. It was because this game is such a perfect continuation from the first game, in gameplay and visual/audio design and story and lore, that everything I was sure was new to the game fit perfectly and felt like something that could have been in the first game if they’d just gotten to it. This feels like an upgraded, deluxe remix of the best parts of the first game, in the best possible way. There’s enough new to keep you excited and keep you playing (it certainly kept me playing), and it’s all good. I have yet to unlock a card or artifact and go, “Why would I ever want that?” Everything I unlock makes me excited to play more. And I’m still unlocking more. I’m not sure the main story can be completely viewed without getting into higher Covenant levels than I’ve managed so far, but even aside from that, I can still look at the library and see how much more I have to go.

My only complaint with the game is a lack of enemy variety. There’s a relatively low number of possible enemies, and the two bosses you meet before the final boss seem to be fixed. They each have two or three effects they might show up with to mess up your plans, but it’s the same two bosses in the same order. In the first game, there’s a pool of bosses that can show up at those points. To be fair, I didn’t play the first game at launch (the DLC was out by the time I started), so maybe more bosses will be added later. I hope so. I am getting a little tired of those two fights. But even if I’m tired of those bosses, I’m not tired of the game. Not even close.

That’s kind of the end result of all this. I sat down to write this review and wasn’t totally sure what I’d end up saying other than, “This is a good game.” But here at the end, I’ve finally figured it out. (Don’t tell the editors, but this is often how I write. Ed. note: We know.) 

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Due to life happening and doing life things, I spent a day and a half binging the game, which, for me, is a very long time to play one game straight. At one point I thought I’d have to stop because the screen shake was giving me a headache, until I found a handy toggle in the accessibility settings to turn that off. Then I spent a happy several more hours playing. And I never got tired of it. I’m writing this right now while thinking about what I’m going to do in my next run and how long it’ll be until I can play Monster Train 2 again. I don’t know that I can give a game a better endorsement than that.

Thank you to Shiny Shoe, Big Fan Games, and Tinsley PR for providing a review code to Monster Train 2! You can find Seasoned Gaming’s review policy here.