Monster Train 2 proves that there was no must reinvent the wheels on the Boneshaker prepare with the intention to relight the fires of this excellent deckbuilding roguelike. (Not that they ever actually went out – I’ve performed the 2020 unique nearly every day for years.) It’s similar to the roots of Monster Train, with a 3-tiered tower protection construction the place you optimize your unit placement and spells towards incoming waves of invaders and select your path alongside the tracks, although this time that path is headed from a re-lit Hell as much as the gates of a corrupted Heaven as an alternative of down. The 5 fully new clans have given me an unlimited quantity of toys to mix and experiment with as I construct up momentum towards the ultimate boss battle on every run, particularly in tandem with the brand new gear system that permits you to combine and match components, and a wholesome variety of different sensible tweaks to the unique’s extremely replayable setup. In truth, Monster Train 2 is definitely among the many most compulsively replayable video games that’ve ever gotten their hooks into me – I’ve already sunk over 90 hours into it (totally on Steam Deck) with no signal of shedding steam.
What makes every roughly hour-future so gripping is that there are non-cease selections, and each certainly one of them feels significant: which two factions will you pair up, which of your main faction’s two champions do you’re taking (and which of their three very totally different talent paths do you lean into), which Pyre Coronary heart (with related bonuses) do you fit in – and that’s earlier than you draw a single card or select a single sport-altering artifact. All of these selections compound upon one another, and should you play your playing cards proper and construct synergies and combos you possibly can grow to be so wildly highly effective that it feels as if you’ve fully damaged one thing. However then, as you rank up and the enemies in subsequent runs grow to be extra highly effective, it rapidly turns into clear that should you don’t break it, it should break you. Like each nice roguelike or roguelite, this isn’t a sport it is best to count on to win each time, however each devastating loss makes the following win that a lot sweeter (and normally unlocks one thing new).
It’s so constantly attention-grabbing due to the intricate means the entire techniques work together, from the straightforward positioning of your models in order that the sturdy shield the weak to the extraordinarily vital order of operations to maximise the results of your spell playing cards as you attempt to play as many as attainable in a flip by lowering casting prices and producing extra power to spend. Determining which actions to take first can typically spell the distinction between successful and shedding, and Monster Train 2 permits you to experiment rather more than the unique did by constructing in buttons to reset your flip and even restart an entire battle (which, in Monster Train 1, you sort of need to cheat to do). This may successfully put an asterisk subsequent to your rating on any leaderboard as a result of realizing what’s coming provides you an enormous benefit, however I’ve discovered it to be a useful device to assist me study the easiest way to play my hand – and let me salvage some actually enjoyable builds from untimely ends after I made a nasty transfer. (For instance, if I overlook to make use of one of many new particular talents that some models have on a cooldown timer, akin to a protect slam, a dragon’s fireplace breath, or potion brewing. These continuously slipped my thoughts, although there’s a outstanding icon reminding me!)
Randomness will at all times play an enormous position in a sport like this – generally I find yourself with a weak deck that bites the mud within the first or second battle (even after a couple of retries), generally it’s dynamite out of the gate however then will get completely destroyed by a boss that counters my strengths. (It does let you know at first of a run which main bosses you’ll face, so you possibly can plan to counter them should you suppose forward.) However one factor that makes Monster Train 2 a minimum of a bit extra predictable than the unique is that there’s now at all times a deployment part initially of each battle, guaranteeing that you just’ll have an opportunity to plop down a minimum of a couple of models earlier than the motion begins. Particularly should you’re packing a deck filled with spell playing cards and buffs, it’s reassuring to know that you just aren’t going to finish up with out anyone to solid them on for a number of turns.
A brand new layer of complexity is added within the type of Tools playing cards, which allow you to buff a unit with extra assault and protection, plus particular talents like rising Spikes whenever you’re attacked, Trample, Life Steal, or constructing extra everlasting assault energy with each kill, to call a couple of. A few of these work together in superior methods with a unit’s pure talents, and you may even mix two items into one with the intention to, for instance, create a weapon that each expands the capability on a flooring with each kill but additionally grows the outfitted unit each flip, making them dramatically extra highly effective. So long as they hold scoring kills, they’ll at all times have room to continue to grow. And since these gear playing cards are shuffled again into your deck each battle, you’re inspired to swap them round to totally different unit sorts for various results (or you possibly can pay to improve one in order that it’s constantly out there within the deployment part).
On high of which might be the brand new Room playing cards, which can be utilized to boost every of your three flooring with particular results. Some merely make your guys do +15 harm with each assault, others give them stat boosts on summon or Reanimation (the extra you die, the stronger you get), one nukes every thing on that flooring for 50 harm every flip, one makes spells cheaper, one other makes them extra highly effective, and one provides you money for every thing that dies there. That’s only a sampling of them, they usually’re one other wealthy alternative to reinforce your characters with much more advanced piles of modifiers and multipliers.
One other new swappable half is the Pyre Coronary heart of your prepare itself, which sits on the fourth flooring of your prepare and serves as your persistent well being bar. It might probably now be swapped out initially of a run to both provide you with a as soon as-per-battle enhance like a couple of factors of power or freezing your playing cards in place for the following spherical, or radically alter your run by ditching the usual beginning playing cards and letting you draw some randoms to interchange them. There are a bunch of those to unlock and check out, which additional shakes up future runs.
All of that lays the groundwork for the colourful new clans themselves. These 5 factions are simply as amusingly goofy wanting and neatly designed as those who got here earlier than them, and there’s no finish to the unbelievable combos you possibly can give you by combining their particular talents. They’ve too many enjoyable issues about them to listing – literal volumes of guides will likely be written about methods to use them at excessive ranges – however my favourite to play as needs to be the fungus-primarily based Underlegion: lots of their models and spells can construct up big stacks of harm-over-time Decay (just like Frostbite) that melts enemies to puddles of goo, or they will give attention to spawning more and more highly effective stacks of mushroom troopers – and generally, when the celebrities align, the act of spawning mushroom troopers triggers big stacks of Decay and Sap to render enemies toothless as they die.
The mad scientist-themed Lazarus League are my runners-up. They’re largely centered on the brand new gear system, and their roster contains a number of models with one hit level that include gear grafted to them. After they die, it turns into out there to connect to anyone else, giving them a enjoyable Frankenstein’s Monster theme I like to play with. If that’s not your model, although, you possibly can give attention to potion mixing to create more and more highly effective cocktails that grant Rage, Regeneration, Sap, or Unstable (which makes a unit explode if its well being drops beneath the variety of stacks), typically with unwanted side effects like harm shields, Frostbite, and Resurrection, which immediately brings a unit again from the lifeless with one HP.
Typically I’ll let destiny determine by randomizing my choice, and I’m by no means unhappy when it lands on the Pyreborne dragons as a result of their thirst for gold funds all of the unit, spell, and kit upgrades cash should buy should you can stack Avarice (granting cash from each assault). Alternatively, you possibly can give attention to Pyregel, which will increase the harm an enemy takes with every stack. With both of these approaches, you’ll additionally earn golden eggs that may be cashed in for bonus artifacts between battles, or held onto for bonuses for sure models which might be extra highly effective the extra eggs you could have in your cache.
Then you could have the Banished, fallen angels who focus totally on increase Valor (principally a brand new spin on Rage) to buff each harm and, for the entrance unit, armor era. Some models earn Valor by shifting, so utilizing spells and talents to shift them from entrance to again or between flooring creates a extremely cellular model of play that’s fully distinctive to them, whereas others construct Valor by way of Revenge – which triggers at any time when they take harm – creating harm sponges who get spongier (and hit tougher) the extra they absorb.
Lastly, there’s the magic-centered Luna Coven, who, just like the Stygian Guard earlier than them, are my private weakest faction as a result of I’m not pretty much as good at constructing spell harm as I’m buffing up a juggernaut unit. Even so, I’ve discovered success with them by making use of models that construct their energy with each Moon Cycle – the moon alternates between full and new each flip, with every part granting bonuses to sure models, like assault boosts or sweep throughout a full moon. That’s, it alternates each flip until you meddle with it utilizing spells and talents to run up that rating, affecting all models you could have deployed who like when it switches from one to the opposite. They will additionally specialise in increase Conduit stacks on models that serve to amplify their spell energy on that flooring, and should you slot in a Mage Blade weapon it enhances their assault as effectively.
Naturally, all models could be upgraded twice by default from choices in outlets, and whenever you combine in some particular choices you could solely get out of a random occasion, it results in some actually wild combos. Considered one of my favorites I’ve accomplished was to improve a Pyreborne Gildmonger dragon, who’s a weak fighter however provides you a golden egg when he dies, with the Infinite energy. That allows you to get him killed each flip to money in on these eggs – however even higher was lucking into the Worthy Sacrifice improve afterwards, which gave him a particular capacity that allow me kill him off myself in alternate for extra motion factors to make use of for different issues that very same flip. Then I duplicated that card a couple of occasions. Issues bought actually loopy by the top of that run, however it nonetheless wasn’t sufficient to get me greater than two battles deep into the brand new Infinite Mode – the problem ramps as much as madness within the second publish-ultimate boss battle, and I haven’t been in a position to beat the third… but.
On high of the normal customizable runs with rising problem tiers that unlock each time you beat one (as much as 10) and randomized Each day Challenges that throw in three typically dramatic sport-altering mutators, there are additionally a set of 21 hand-constructed Dimensional Challenges to play by way of. These vary in problem from pushover to a few I needed to strive a number of occasions simply to get began, however they do unlock some additional stuff, like new Pyre Hearts and the flexibility to cosmetically customise your prepare’s three flooring. I wouldn’t say they’re vastly totally different from the mutators you’d get from a Each day Problem, however I’m all for extra methods to play. It’s a bit odd that there doesn’t appear to be a leaderboard for every of those standardized exams of talent, however I’ll have the ability to make do with the boards for the Group Challenges, which anyone can customized-construct themselves.
Lastly, there’s a bit extra story this time than the primary sport’s easy setup, advised by way of visible novel-model cutscenes you possibly can watch between runs. We do get a bit drama between the fallen angel Fel and her corrupted brother Seraph that’s taken critically because the gang seeks to retake Heaven from the Titans who conquered it, however the remainder of it’s simply goofiness between the grasping dragons, honorable mushrooms, wacky Frankenstein monsters, and so forth. It’s not dangerous in any respect, simply sort of superfluous subsequent to different revolutionary roguelike storytelling like that of Hades or Blue Prince, and on condition that it’s not voiced or totally animated it’s arduous for there to be a break-out persona amongst them. On condition that it’s totally elective to learn, although, there’s no hurt in constructing a bit little bit of character round this solid of monsters and their artistic cartoonish designs. Together with one other glorious soundtrack of jaunty music, there’s loads of persona on show.
General, there’s only a large quantity of content material right here – particularly as a result of (spoiler alert for anyone who’s been following the trailers, plans to play this already, and likes surprises!) Faucet to Reveal makes this really feel like the one Monster Train I really want (although I do miss the unit-combining energy from the enlargement).