Monster Train 2

Monster Train 2 is my new favourite deckbuilder but this comes to no surprise because Monster Train 1 was my favourite before this. I have over 600 hours in the first game and I can see myself putting the same amount of time in here. Monster Train 2 is set directly after the last game. After Seraph was defeated by the player he retreats back to Heaven and makes a deal with three tians, powerful beings from beyond this world. The titans corrupt the forces of heaven and turn them into horrible monsters. Now hell is fighting to free heaven from the titans grasp and put an end to the conflict once and for all. The gameplay of MT2 is very close to the first game but with some meaningful differences. During combat there is now a new deployment phase which allows you to place your banner units in your train before the actual combat starts. This makes it easier to set up your strategy without relying on draw luck. Another new addition are room and equipment cards. Equipment can be placed on a unit to give it better stats and new abilities while room cards to the same but for an entire floor. You can only equip one of those per unit or floor, so the player has to mke some strategic decisions depending on his build. Personally I love these new additions because they complement the natural abilities of your cards. Some units also now have active abilities that you can manually launch whenever you need them. There are also smaller changes that make the game much more comfortable to play. Shops now have four upgrades instead of three and you can now restart a single turn or even the entire battle if you made a mistake. Even the small change of changing the train stewards, the starting units, to be split into tanking units and damage dealers makes sense because now players can decide which unit to ditch first depending on their first banner draft. Just like MT1 you have five very unique clans to play as. The devs made sure these clans feels fresh with new mechanics that have meaningful synergies. The Banished are a clan of exiled Angels that decided to ally themselves with hell to free heaven. Their unique mechanic is Vigor which increases attack damage but also has the unique interaction to give armor if the unit is on the frontline. They complement this by having many spells and abilities that put their units on the front to benefit from both bonuses of vigor. The Pyreborn are stereotypical greedy dragons. They can generate gold from direct attacks or create a dragon hoard that the player can loot between battles. bigger hoards do not only yield more gold but also artifacts including those you can normally only get from bosses. They also have the unique mechanic of pyregel which increases all damage a unit receives, including spells, attacks, debuffs and even artifacts. The Luna Coven is a magic focused clan that has access to conduit, a mechanic that increases the power of damaging and healing spells. They also create armor on overheals. But their most unique mechanic is the moon. Depending on the moon phase, their units and spells get different bonuses with the full moon being more spell focused while the new moon is more focused on raw stats. Underlegion is my favourite clan because they have one of the best emchanics ever, propagate. Propagate increases buffs on your units and debuffs on enemies and this works with any status effect including hard to increase ones like damage shield. It also works perfectly with their own unique status effects, decay and troop. Decay is a damage debuff similiar to frostbite from the first game but much more potent. Troop on the other hand is a very unqiue unit mechanic in which you create a special "funguy" unit from spells which is stacked on top of each other, creating a powerful unit made from multiple small ones. Lazarus League is the last clan and they can be best described as "Frankenstein" faction. Their leader is a crazy scientist who conducts unethical experiments, creating horrible monstrosities which are supported by expendable assistants. Their unique mechanics are unstable and reanimate. Unstable creates a debuff that explodes if a unit falls under its stack value and deals damage to its value. This can create chain reactions in which multiple units explode at the same turn and you can even use it on your own units. Reanimate on the other hand revives a dead unit but only with a single HP. But this status effect can be stacked, which means you can tank multiple hits without actually dying. Besides new clans you also can now select your pyre heart. This gives your pyre room different starting stats but also new abilities you can use. It's anew mechanic that allows players to get even more creative with their builds. What makes MT2 so much fun is that this game embraces overpowered builds. The game will always tell you after a run what your best stats where and will encourage you to go even higher on your next run. Games like Balatro have proven that "numbers go big" is a satisfying gameplay loop and Monster Train nails this perfectly. The game also features an amazing soundtrack from Jordan Chin, this time more intense than the last game, fitting for a game in which the stakes are now higher. But there is also something that really cements why this game is so great but since this is a heavy gameplay spoiler I suggest you to only read further if you don't mind to be spoiled. [spoiler]After you have unlocked half of the pyre hearts you get a cutscene that unlocks all the clans fromt he first game. That's right, the devs are so crazy, they put the entirety of MT1 in MT2! Not only that, they also rebalanced all those clans so they fit better into the new environment of MT2, making even some of the worse cards finally playable. This gives the player 180 different clan combinations how he can play the game. Absolute madlads that deserve all my praise![/spoiler]

They took the game and just made more of it. I'm waiting for the crystal guys to come back but other than that this is everything I ever wanted for the sequel.

Monster Train 2 is a roguelite deckbuilder where the player controls demons and angels, who have joined forces to fight against the Titans in Heaven. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] • Gameplay follows the same format as the original Monster Train, so if you’ve already played that game, you’ll know what to expect. • Combat is turn based. At the start of each turn, a wave of enemies will spawn on the bottom floor of your train, and you’ll randomly draw cards from your deck which will either be monsters or spells. • Your train has three floors, and monsters can be placed on any floor, although each floor has a maximum capacity. Most spells can either damage enemies, or heal/buff your monsters. Each monster and spell has an energy cost to play, and you’ll have a limited amount of energy to spend each turn. • When you end the turn, monsters and enemies will attack each other, usually starting with the opponent at the front of the floor. Any enemies who survive will climb up to the next floor, hoping to eventually reach the top of the train and attack your pyre heart. The final wave of each fight will include a more powerful boss enemy, and if your pyre loses all health, you’ll lose the run. • The UI includes a very useful damage calculation which is constantly updated, and shows which friendly and enemy units will lose health or die if you choose to end the turn now, which helps the player figure out where to prioritise using your spells. • After each fight, you’ll choose between two paths which contain several nodes, including unit banners where you can recruit new monsters, shops where you can upgrade monsters with more health, damage, or special abilities, upgrade spells to make them more powerful or cheaper to play, acquire relics which provide passive bonuses, and other nodes where you can remove cards, duplicate cards, earn more gold to spend in the shops, restore pyre health, and random events. [h1]Improvements and Story[/h1] • This sequel has a few improvements compared to the original game. • The most significant is that each fight now starts with a setup turn where almost all of your monsters will be drawn, allowing you to choose which to summon, although you’re still limited by their energy cost. This helps to eliminate situations in the original game where the player would lose a fight simply because your best monsters were randomly placed on the bottom of your draw pile. • There are new room and equipment cards. Room cards are played on a floor and often provide passive bonuses to all monsters on that floor. Equipment cards are weapons or armour which can be played on a monster to increase their damage, health, or provide other abilities. • Some monsters have activated abilities which you can use at any time during your turn, and are limited by a cooldown of a few turns. • You can unlock different pyre hearts which have different values for health and damage, and often have a special ability. My favourite so far provides more energy during the setup turn, allowing the player to summon more monsters before the fight starts. • There’s an undo button which lets you reset to the start of a turn if you made a simple mistake, or want to change your tactics. • The only slight negative that I can mention is that the sequel has a story, but unfortunately the cutscenes have no animations or voice acting, and the dialogue is just kind of boring. [h1]Tactical variety[/h1] • There are five different clans to play as, and at the start of each run you’ll choose a primary and secondary clan, which allows you to recruit monsters and acquire spells relating to both clans. This provides lots of tactical variety for each run, as you try to identify ways to combine the powers of each clan. • The most enjoyable part about the original Monster Train, which is still true for this sequel, is finding crazy combos that allow your monsters to deal incredible amounts of damage, which feels like you're almost breaking the game (at least until you see how many health points the bosses have). • For example, the Pyreborn clan can acquire golden eggs, and trade them in for extra gold and relics. However, they have a dragon monster which gains health and attack for each golden egg you own. By acquiring the maximum number of eggs, this dragon will have around 100 health and 100 attack. I upgraded the dragon with multistrike so that instead of attacking once, he would attack three times, dealing 300 damage per turn. Then I duplicated the dragon twice, so that I could have three dragons on the same floor, to deal 900 damage per turn. • Meanwhile, the Underlegion clan can summon trash minions at the front of a floor, which is a good way to protect your more important monsters by blocking enemy attacks. This clan’s champion can permanently gain health and attack every time you summon a monster on the same floor. If you constantly summon these minions on almost every turn of every fight, by the end of the run, the champion will have massively increased stats. • Some monsters have a sweep attack, which allows them to hit every enemy on the floor. Upgrade them with quick, which allows them to attack first, and they could kill multiple weaker enemies before they get a chance to attack. Upgrade your most powerful monsters with endless, and instead of being eliminated from the fight on death, they’ll be placed back on top of your draw pile, allowing you to resummon them next turn. What other insane combos will you find? [h1]Recommendation[/h1] Monster Train 2 is an excellent deckbuilder, and can be ranked alongside the original game, Slay The Spire, and Balatro in the top tier of the genre. This is an absolute must play. I’ve already got value for money and so far I’m only half way through the covenant difficulty levels, and I haven’t even unlocked the fifth clan yet, so there’s still many more hours of gameplay ahead.

This game is less fun the more you play it. Most of the cards are unhelpful and you just unlock more bad cards the more you play. Most of the final bosses have very narrow victory windows that require precise builds which drains the creative energy of the previous game. I wanted to like this game.

Absolutely incredible deck-builder, at the top of its class. Tons of replay value, and discovering synergies between factions and their respective decks is very satisfying. For 25 bucks you are getting every penny's worth and then some. Only complaint is the enemy variety is a bit lacking but the core gameplay more than makes up for it.

Better than Slay the Spire, better than Balatro (yes really). Doesn't mess with the formula from the first game too much, but made a lot of improvements and added tons of additional content.

Game of the Year! 10/10 This Game hooked me for the last 3 Weeks. I already played it for 100h and got all Achievements... But there is so much more Endgame content and the daily Challange. Only requirements to play and have FUN: - PC - A functioning Brain

More of the same - if you loved the first one you will like this as well. If you were ambivalent about the first like me then this changes nothing. The additions are wall of text abilities and even more mechanics on top of the existing ones. The new clans are interesting but everything plays within the same outlines defined by the first game. This does not feel like a part 2, it's what was called an 'expansion' in the olden days Oh, and the story went from idiotic to idiotic++ for the 3 people that care about it

I rarely say a sequel is a "straight upgrade" to its predecessor. Often sequels to games change so much that there's too many variables to make such a sweeping statement. That being said, yeah... Monster Train 2 is an upgrade from the original. The core deckbuilder/tower defense hybrid gameplay is entirely intact and expanded on with new, weirder clans and many QOL improvements. The flow over the course of a run has been greatly improved by a wider enemy variety and more options to tweak your deck. Not to be reductive, but it's basically just more Monster Train with a surplus of improvements and new ways to play. Regardless if you're a new player or returning from the first Monster Train, the sequel is the best way to play this complex and engaging card game from this point onwards.

Monster Train was the only roguelike deckbuilder on the same level as Slay the Spire, and Monster Train 2 is a straight improvement on the first game. The only thing I wish this had was workshop support, but modders have already found a way and, frankly, there wasn't a ton of workshop mods for the first game so it seems like the right call to cut that sort of official support. I love how the way artifacts and gems can modify how you run your deck, the choice of champions, and the sheer number of silly little guys you can include on your train.

Monster Train 2 is such a great release. I really badly wanted to like the first game but it just didn't click with me, the mechanics, the lack of turn/encounter re-do. This one has it all. The mechanics are much more intuitive and the replayability is insane. I'm no where 100% this game yet, because I just reached covenant 10 but I feel so excited each time I'm about to start a new run, and I feel so great after finishing one. Like I already mentioned, you're free to re-do the encounter if you feel like you could have done something differently. I know lot of my builds are capable of clearing the stage but many times I mess up and I'm just I get the chance to try a new strategy. 100% recommend, even if you aren't a big fan of the first game, just like I was. MT2 is a perfectly crafted deck builder.

Straight upgrade over the first game, and they kept the googly eyes :)

I loved MT1 and played it for 1500+ hours. I am probably done with MT2 after 40 hours. After 80%+ of my runs, I'm just extremely frustrated, especially by the enemy design -- compared to 80%+ of my MT1 runs where I had a lot of fun. MT2's design is much more constraining of strategies and anti-fun compared to the first game. Too many enemies that are just anti- fun/strong strategies, too many clan combos that don't synergize with each other, too many narrow cards. MT1 struck gold and based on Shiny Shoe's games since then, that appears to have been completely by accident.

Take the original monster train, the expansion, add another equal amount of content on top, add some sorely needed QoL improvements (like resetting the current turn), and you have Monster Train 2. It's good. Like the original, this is like a _much_ less tight Slay the Spire. That's still both good and bad, because it's easier to "break" but it also [i]requires[/i] that you break it. The sheer amount of content here also can now only adequately be described as [i]sprawling[/i], which isn't really exclusively a good thing. There's also a story, unvoiced cutscenes, and the artstyle doesn't entirely mesh with the original. And these specific aspects are, in my opinion, pure ass. All in all, this is simply Monster Train, but more so. Back in the day, MT was a clear runner-up in the genre after Slay the Spire. Nowadays, it's very solid and somewhere in the top 10 of roguelite deckbuilders.

Absolute top-tier roguelike. With 10 clans, and therefore 180 possible clan combos to pick (yes, the MT1 clans return, sans Wyrmkin - it just takes time to see the option to unlock them), the amount of replayability in this game is absolute miles above the genre standard. The 5 new clans added solid mechanics and are all fun to play. Pyrehearts have been added as another mechanic that can significantly increase the diversity of the play experience - and there are 12 in all (although, to be fair, several of them suck and need some balancing) In addition, both champions from each new clan now feel relatively balanced against each other. If there's a bit of a downside, however - it's that they didn't quite fix that flaw for the MT1 clans - Most of them still have 1 champ that is clearly stronger than the other. Another bit of a flaw for the old clans is that they don't have the new room or equipment cards, so they feel a little bit left behind. Still, the good overwhelmingly outweighs the bad, and Shiny Shoe has now made 2 of my fave roguelikes of all time in this and Inkbound.

Without a doubt one of the most successful sequels I've seen to a game. I highly recommend this if you enjoyed the first monster train, and if you enjoy deckbuilders in general.

So many improvements from the first one. More clans. Lots of additional content. Love the indie collaborations presented in events. Really enjoying this game :)

Way better than I expected Wasn't sure what to expect from a sequel, but Monster Train 2 really surprised me. There's a lot of new mechanics, creative faction combos, and overall just more to mess around with. Feels like a proper upgrade over the first game, not just more of the same. Easily in my top 3 roguelite deckbuilders now.

The game just keeps getting better the more you play it. As you unlock more clans, cards, champions, difficulties and battles that put more lairs on it. If you enjoy other roguelike deckbuilders like 'Slay the Spire', then I'd highly recommend for you to try this one. Although I will add that my first impression of the game was that it was a little bit too straight forward, lacking in depth and variety. But that was seemingly just the games way of slowly easing me into the learning curve of the game. As to not overwhelm you with learning how every single clan works at the same time. I will add that this seems to not have been a problem for the vast majority of players.

Yes. Like MT1, but better, you even get all the original clans eventually. Great sequel, just like the original but more.

Addictive in a good way. Similar to Slay the Spire but different enough to be a worthwhile experience. Plays great on Steam Deck.

An amazing sequel to an already great game. Easily one of the sequelest sequels that ever sequeled. It's so sequeliciously sequential that my sequelometer exsequeloded when I tried to sequantify its sequelisity. But seriously, this game is a strong contender for the best roguelike deck builder of all time. Whether you've played the first game or not, give this one a shot.

Great game and great changes/updates in game play from MT1.

It's just Monster Train 1 but better. Highly recommend if you like deck builders.

Monster Train 1 & 2 are the only games that came out in the wake of Slay The Spire that I feel actually add something both positive and meaningful to the base gameplay loop. Highly recommend.

This game has achieved something quite hard, to surpass it's predecessor. More cards, more strategy, more mechanics, more fun... If you liked the first game, this one is a sure buy

This is like, an 8.5/10 for me. It's pretty great and does most things right, but there's a collection of little things that hold it back from feeling really polished. The first thing that comes to mind is certain information being hard to find at first, or things not being explained particularly well. Some things you have to figure out on your own, but things are just a little bit clunky feeling at times. I also don't like how slow unlocking cards is -- it could be a little faster per clan, especially when I win; we could at least get more experience points when we win on higher convenants. But other than that? This is a fantastic sequel and I can see myself playing it for a while. Fantastic roguelite deck builder that'll hold you over til' slay the spire 2, and maybe even have you coming back to it.

If you loved Slay the Spire, you will jerk off playing Monster Train. Yes. The name of the game is absolutely stupid. Yes. Just like Slay The Spire, the art direction is kinda cringe Yes. Its a masterpiece of the genre.

Fantastic deckbuilder, improves greatly upon the first.

Great sequel that improves on the first game. [spoiler] The new clans are all great, and just playing those combos is already a lot of content. The OG clans are a bit underbaked with only some small number changes. There are future updates coming them to modernize them though so I will probably get 3x more playtime once that is out. [/spoiler]

This is not as fun as the first. Everything is much more complicated for the sake of complication. Feels more like a dlc made to give hardcore players something new and challening than a new game.

Lives up to its predecessor and surpasses my sky-high expectations for the sequel of one of, if not the, best card rogue-lite ever made. Buy it.

One of the best deckbuilders in existence, if not THE best. If you have any interest in this genre. You just HAVE to play this. The second game improved on the few flaws of the original, and is even more worthy of it's great steam review score, as well as my more subjective, unbridled praise for what is probably my favorite indie game series of all time. Monster train 2 has more content, better balance, and basically better everything than the first one. And that's saying quite something considering how beloved the first opus was. And, thanks to a story twist I won't spoil, you can even, eventually, re-use a good chunk of the content and cards from the first game into this new one. So, unless you absolutely want to save a few bucks by getting the first game, you should get this one instead, as it basically contains the majority of the first game's content as well, and allows you to mix and match the old cards with the new ones, for even more content and possibilities! Some people have criticized this game for its complexity, and while I won't deny this isn't the simplest game around in terms of rules, I also want to point out that not only is everything explained within the game (just read the tooltips calmly. they are there for a reason!); but also, unlike in some other games, all of this complexity is properly leveraged into meaningful strategic decisions. It never feels like something was tacked on to make the game "appear more deep than it is" : every effect comes with interesting decision making and strategizing in return. So, while some learning and memorizing is required, it pays off beautifully by making the game interesting, and worthy of being experienced again and again throughout many runs. If you love deckbuilders, this game is a must have. Otherwise, it all depends what type of player you are. For if you play video games to kind of turn your brain off and relax (which is fair), this game might not be your thing. But if you enjoy puzzle and/or strategy games? Then Monster train 2 might just convert you to the whole deckbuilding genre, and is, at the very least, worth a try! Now, excuse me, I'm going to start a new run again. :D

I've beaten the game now with every clan and at the highest covenant level (10) and I've seen all the content on offer. If you're familiar with the first game and enjoyed it, I can't see you not enjoying this second installment. At first, I felt like there was less content on offer, playing through the new game, with the new clans, battling the new bosses. There is no variation of the bosses in the core game like you would've seen in the first, in terms of the two alternating ACT1-2 bosses. They still have diverse modifiers, but you'll always fight the core bosses in the same order. Once you unlock all the clans and beat the game at its highest difficulty, you'll discover there is as much content, if not more, than the first game with it's DLC. You'll even be pleasantly surprised to find all of the original clans and cards are here for you to mix/match with the new clans. All the new clans are well balanced and fun to play. There are now varying Pyres with special abilities and modifiers, as well as equipment, which can placed on your boarded allies. This is my favorite Rogue-Like Card Battler. I own most of them and it's not even close. The game design around the combat is perfect balance between randomness and skill.

They took the foundations of a all ready baller game and turned it up to 50, Great game, play if you love rogue-likes,

Great followup to the first game. More cards and variety. I like the new dimensional portals to add a bit of spice between normal runs.

Much like what you'd expect if you've played the first game. But on the high side of expectations; it's really very good.

Not much has changed in terms of game design, but the character design of the game has gone to the dogs. The original had simple designs and silhouettes that had their own charm. The enemies and characters in this sequel, however, are horribly over-designed.

I'm a big fan of the genre (thousands of hours spent playing Slay The Spire, Monster Train 1, Balatro and similar games). Monster train 2 is currently the best of the genre. Monster Train gives you the unique feeling of intimately understanding your deck's unique strengths and weaknesses, then provides tons of opportunity to mold it to perfection. I never feel like I'm chasing a specific build that needs just the right cards. 9.5/10 because I wish they didn't include dialogue. It's a masterpiece.

An improvement on monster train 1 in all aspects. There is a lot of game here and a nice slider on difficulty. The number of combinations of champions, card sets and strategies to pursue is massive. This game will eat up as much time as your willing to give it.

It's the original game elevated to a brand new level. All the deliciousness of ridiculous, game-breaking combos, but the devs have outdone themselves polishing the formula.

Amazing game! New cards, new clans, new artifacts, and many more new features make every run a unique and refreshing experience. The animations, art style, and music polish this game to a whole new level. I especially adore the REWIND feature. This quality of life change makes it so much easier for new players to learn the basic mechanics and experiment with different move combinations. Highly recommended!! (After progressing the story) [spoiler]I totally DID NOT EXPECT the return of clans from the first game. The varieties and synergies are absolutely insane!![/spoiler]

Like Monster Train 1, but better. Haven't found any other in the genre that actively encourages you to feel like you broke the game. It feels like every run I think "They can't possibly have intended for this to work, right?" but they do. And it does.

It's better than the first game, but after completing all the challenges, I felt like I just wasted my time. The gameplay is superficially deep. A lot of the time the way to win is just cheese, with maybe 1 interesting turn on each run. You can sink hours into this, but it's more mind-numbing than it is fun.

Unless you've already played it to death (like I have), you're better off playing Monster Train 1. The quality writing and and worldbuilding has been swapped out for high school level lolrandom humour. The great character and faction designs are gone, both artistically and thematically. Mechanically, it's pretty much the same, except the pace is faster, almost frenetic, the numbers are bigger, and the contemplative puzzle elements you'd sometimes find in the old one are missing, replaced by a relentless focus on scaling as much as possible no matter which strategy you use to do it. The UI and Artwork is also just a step down in general, across the board. A good way to describe my experience so far is, I think, "incoherent and a bit undercooked/lazy, but otherwise mostly fine", like a piece of fanfiction or one of those overhaul mods that adds a ton of complexity and factions that just don't fit the feel. It's just such a downgrade from the original, that I can't recommend it. Go play that game instead.

Good music New clans are fun, but the other half is such a chore to get through I started to ask myself why am I even wasting my time with this "game" it just became a chore for completion

Meh. Just doesn't hook me. Part of the problem is too much going on with not enough on-screen information about where damage is coming from and how status effects are working. Part of the problem is that it's just not that much fun.

Great game! A straight upgrade to the first, it takes everything that was great about the first game and improves on it even further. 10/10

It's got that Slay the Spire feel - easy to understand with lots of depth to its strategy. Also the soundtrack is so incredible.

Currently my favorite rogue like deck builder, and it's not close. This game is incredibly addicting, and a stark improvement over the first (Which was already pretty good.) I don't usually get drawn into games anymore but this one really sunk its claws into me, and I can see myself putting hundreds of hours into this. Great build diversity, difficult game play, and a lot of variation (There are 190 clan combinations!) makes it incredibly replayable. IT gives you an incredible amount of flexibility to make your deck, but doesn't let you off easy for making mistakes. The only downside right now is that there are only a handful of bosses and accepting trials gives a flat reward, compared to the first which often offered diverse bonuses. DLC should help out and what we have is still incredibly engaging and at times very difficult but fair.