"Leaves no reason to ride the first train again"
About
Monster Train 2 is a roguelike deckbuilder where you defend a vertical three-lane train from invading enemies by stacking monster cards and spells across multiple floors. You build a deck from new clans and synergies, then execute turn-based battles where card placement and combination matter as much as the cards themselves. New enemy factions and challenge modes expand on the original's foundation of defending your Pyre through increasingly difficult runs.
Verdict
Monster Train 2 takes the vertical, lane-stacking deckbuilder and doubles the clans, adds unit positioning and equipment, and reworks the difficulty climb into something that actually respects you. The incant-heavy enemy waves can flatten certain clans into a single viable answer, but the combinatorial depth across ten factions is the best the genre has going right now.
You'll like it if …
- +you love chasing absurd build variety across clan combinations run after run
- +you enjoy puzzling out unit placement and equipment before the turns play out
- +watching synergies snowball a board into clearing itself is your idea of satisfaction
You'll dislike it if …
- −you want a story that anchors the systems rather than flavour you skip
- −you lose patience when an unlucky start can sink a run
- −you expect fresh surprises long past the 20-hour mark
Breakdown
- +Lane-stacking combat layers in unit placement and equipment without sacrificing clarity
- +Pre-battle positioning and equipment add genuine strategic depth to turn-based encounters
- +Reworked 10-tier Covenant difficulty scales fairly instead of arbitrarily
- −Incant enemies on nearly every wave narrow some clans to a single viable answer
- −Late bosses hard-check your entire deck in ways that feel like RNG resets
- +Ten clans with dual champions per clan create absurd build variety run to run
- +Combining any two of ten clans produces a genuinely different run almost every time
- +Roughly double the content of the original at 25 euros, with free clan additions post-launch
- −Enemy and boss variety thins out and gets predictable after roughly 20 hours
- −Plot is thin enough that some players skip it outright, serving only as flavour for the systems
- +Soundtrack lands hard enough that players save tracks to Spotify, carrying the momentum of a snowballing run
- +Clean and readable design, which is what a busy board needs
- −Art is a small step down from the original, though it never gets in the way of reading the lanes
- +Fixes the original's deployment-phase frustrations with steady quality-of-life work
score
