Monster Train 2 Review

Monster Train 2 is a roguelike deckbuilder developed by Shiny Shoe and published by Big Fan Games. After the success of Monster Train, which is currently sitting at Overwhelming Positive on Steam, it was a no-brainer to have a sequel. While I haven’t played the previous game, I can tell there was a lot of effort in improving what worked and ironing out what didn’t. So, is it worth boarding the train, or should you wait for the next one to come?

In contrast to the previous game, where the Angels invade Hell, it’s the Demons invading Heaven, which has been infected with a corruption that has turned its Titans evil and threatens the world at large. With no other choice, the remaining uncorrupted Angels and the Demons of Hell are forced to work together, conducting a massively souped-up train filled with their best warriors into Heaven to defeat the Titans and save the world. The story goes at its own pace, with visual novel-style cutscenes to convey it. Regardless of whether you come back from invading Heaven victorious or not, it feels like the narrative is mostly optional, and you need to go out of your way to engage with. Honestly, I didn’t find myself really invested in it, even though I really tried to pay attention and get all the details.

However, the overall presentation is very well done, with a mix of 2D art and 3D models. The various monsters and summonable fighters are wonderfully done, both in terms of design and animation. From the humble Train Stewards to the mighty Titans, they’re all quite lively. I also really liked the rock soundtrack that never got repetitive. There were some banger songs in there that made stopping to think a lot more enjoyable.

But enough about that, let’s get into the gameplay. Before you begin your raid on Heaven, you need to pick your two clans, Pyre, and difficulty. Already, I can see a ton of replayability, even if you’re just bored and want to play around with the mechanics. At the start of each run, you can choose different clans that have unique Heroes depending on who you choose as your Primary faction. Pyres can have powerful abilities as well as some pretty decent stats when it needs to defend itself, and you can modify the difficulty either by increasing the Covenant Rank or by adding up to three Mutators to really make your runs more interesting (please note that having Mutators will disable progression). There’s always something new to play with, with each attempt a unique combination to see what type of playstyle it enables. It’s really fun testing it all out, even when it ends in disaster.

Once you’ve chosen your setup, it’s time to ride the rails straight into the heart of Heaven and beat the Hell out of everyone in your way. Your goal in each fight is to eliminate all enemies while guarding your Pyre, which represents your HP. Before the battle begins, you’ll strategically place several units from your deck across the three floors of your multi-tiered train. Once your deployment is complete and you end your turn, the enemy will commence their invasion, starting from the lowest level and advancing upward toward your Pyre after each skirmish.

If you want the Pyre to keep burning, you need to do everything you can to stop them, either by killing them before they reach the top floor or weakening them enough for your Pyre to finish them off. You have extra units, spells, equipment, and even special rooms to help you drive them off… as long as you can draw them from your deck and you have the energy to play them.

Between encounters, you can take the opportunity to enhance and refine your deck with rewards gained from victories and the various shops and events available to you in branching paths, as well as obtain Artifacts to enhance your build. The various events I saw were quite interesting, to say the least, even encountering Jimbo from Balatro or the Followers of the Cult of the Lamb. The game isn’t afraid to throw you into some serious fights early on, so it's essential to build a solid deck quickly before you’re overwhelmed, especially when bosses come into play.

Bosses are the final foe you need to defeat in any given encounter, and are special threats as they don’t play by the traditional rules of turn-based combat. Instead, fighting against them plays out more like an autobattle. It and your summons will keep battling until one side remains, and if you don't win right then, it’ll keep going until it reaches the Pyre.

But the most dangerous fights are against Titans, who appear at the start and can freely move between floors, supporting their allies until the last wave, from which they’ll act like a normal boss. They often come with hundreds or thousands of HP to whittle down, so you’d better be prepared. However, your units are free to attack it if it's on the same floor and killing it ends the encounter. 

I found all of this extremely well done and makes for exciting moments. Every battle is a challenge and puzzle to solve while also dealing with the inherent RNG of drawing cards from a deck, and it is great. Sure, there will be times when you can tell you’re absolutely screwed, but that only encourages you to figure out better strategies and do better next time.

The game is at least friendly enough to give you some options if you figure out that you’ve made a misplay or decide that you could do better in any given fight. At any time, you can undo your turn or just restart the entire encounter with no punishment. The RNG is set, so don’t hope for a better hand, but it allows you to use some of your future knowledge to prepare for trouble. It’s nice for players who struggle more with games like this.

Whether you win or lose, you’re still working towards unlocking something, such as new Pyres, new cards, and new clans to open up new possibilities and combinations, or even just new story bits. Despite constantly losing, I still felt like I was improving and getting closer to beating the game without arbitrary stat upgrades to guarantee a win. It’s all dependent on your ability to roll with what you get and find ways to abuse the game mechanics and decks. It is really satisfying to figure it out and see it play out successfully, especially when you get into Endless Mode, where you’ll battle it out against a never-ending wave of increasingly stronger enemies. You still get rewards to help keep it going, but you’ll also have to take Artifacts that help your enemies, too.

Now, I didn’t really have many gripes with the game design, and the performance was mostly smooth as it ran at a consistent 60 FPS. However, I did encounter a few, concerningly long, freezes after certain actions (playing cards, attacking) before the game continued. There might be more problems I might be lucky in not getting, but it is something to note just in case. That being said, I feel as though I should point out that if you’ve played the previous game, you might not find it all that different, like an expansion to a board game. It’s a really good expansion, but it is still the same game underneath.

I seriously enjoyed my time with Monster Train 2. I didn’t really care for the story that didn’t react to my successes (I might be spoiled by Hades in that regard), but it has some very fun gameplay and tons of replayability baked in. It might not be too different from its predecessor, but it’s still an excellent time. It’s worth going off the rails on this crazy train.

Monster Train 2 is coming out today on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X|S.