Monster train is a turn based card strategy where you fight your opponent inside the train, protecting the Spyre. It's very much like Slay the Spire with extra layers to the combat system. It's also less RNG as you know where you're heading to.
Gameplay
5/5
Each run starts by selecting one of two (three in total) superpower options for the champion and an artifact of our choice. There is also a temple (from DLC) which allows us to gain artifacts and various rare upgrades for an additional difficulty.
Our goal is to get through 9 rings of frozen hell in a monster train; that is 8 battles if we get to the final boss.
Each combat starts off with deploying your champion unit against waves of enemies. Most of the time, the enemy boss will be flying between the floors deploying some distractions and joining the forces at the last wave into the combat phase or simply spawn last. Until that time you're supposed to fill up all floors with units and buffs to survive.
The boss destroys the floor once it clears it from our units and it means we have less space to put units and less turns to beat the level. If the pyre falls, it's game over. Luckily, pyre still shoots back so it can serve as a 4th floor well if you've got dazed cards and increase its strength. We can also upgrade our Pyre with additional damage, armor, health and apply dazed to enemies entering it.
The cards have various effects and can be upgraded, having 2 upgrade slots by default. The best part is 5x duplicating double, triple or even quadruple upgraded cards but having so many upgrades on one unit is uncommon. Each unit takes up space in the floor so when they're full we can use magic on top of it, and it's wise not to have too many units without enough buffs because they will be easily wiped out in the late game so there should be a nice balance.
Another great feature is the alliance. We get to receive cards from two races depending on which railroad we choose or when we receive after battle rewards. We can make useful synergies, but sometimes allied cards just do not fit with our main one and only take up valuable space in our deck, but we can still get rid of them.
Between battles, there are events like merchants for units, spells and artifacts, special caverns, duplicate hellvents, remove vortexes and health wells. We can even gain an extra gold. And the best part is, we can preview our run from start to finish, however we do not know the outcome of special events. So it is always wise to first take gold, buy upgrades, visit cavern, and then take artifacts, duplicate and regain health.
Apart from those, we will be able to upgrade our champion 2 more times, once in mid and once in late game. We can have as many different artifacts as we get. They make the run easier in a way.
Early game offers 5+1 champions, starting at level 1. We can also play Daily Challenges which are always Covenant 1. That is where the PvP element comes in. We can create our own runs and share them with friends. Our rankings are saved after we finish the run. We can also play simultaneously with other players at the same time, being only time limited.
In mid game, we unlock the second champions and higher covenant ranks, probably reaching covenant 10 and getting used to all of the races in the game and learning some useful strategies. Now it is about making the perfect decks with a bit of luck from rewards.
We will understand the whole concept of the game once we reach Covenant 20. Upon reaching 25, we gain even more difficult challenges that are usually available to mix up in custom games. The game is significantly more challenging than Covenant 1 and we can even easily lose the first battle with all challenges accepted.
The game has a very high skill ceiling and me as an occasional card player, now only became an addict thanks to this game. I usually gain half or third of the best players ranked in the daily and custom challenges.
Replay value
5/5
There are 5 races + 1 in the Last Divinity DLC;
Hellhorned - high damage multi strikers, rage and armor gainers focused on melee combat.
Awoken - high health gainers, multi strikers and sweepers with abilities to draw more cards.
Stygian Guard - incanters, frostbiters and spell users, low melee damage and starting HPs.
Umbra - unit eaters, lifestealers, damage shield gainers, a lot of small units, late high stats.
Melting Remnant - stealthers focused on resurrecting units and slow stat and gold gainers.
Wurmkin - eggs and worms, echo infusers, focused on making the floors magically strong.
Every run is unique, we can replay the same alliances and get different starting decks and meet different bosses.
There are 3 major bosses and 12 minor bosses; they are accompanied by many heavy and support units. There is also a bonus level with 1 more boss but I only got there once.
Graphics
4.5/5
Animations are pretty simple, units are not moving too much, spells look decent but playing the game at a default speed makes the run go over an hour instead of half an hour at best.
Units and champions are very distinctive but there is a small issue when it comes to stacking the floors, especially with ascending, descending, behemoth and Umbra units that can easily reach the 7 maximum count and the units overlap each other, we can still apply buffs on our units, however it requires careful moves when selecting the right ones. It seemed more problematic when I played on the laptop with the touchpad.
Music
5/5
There are energetic tunes of symphonic music playing, each boss has his own soundtrack. Tracks are cool to listen to even outside of the game.
Verdict
10/10
When I saw Monster Train, I did not expect to get hooked so easily. It starts off simply, gradually opening itself and revealing challenges. It is successful because it can appeal to casuals as well, spanning between 25 and more difficulty ranks. It has few and uniquely built alliances requiring different playstyles, and offering a lot of replay ability from random seeds.
I like it more than Slay the Spire but both games are great.
Similar games: Slay the Spire; more RPG features - Banners of Ruin, Trials of Fire, Hellcard.