It's better than Slay The Spire, it was our best card game of 2020, and now the sequel has a proper release date
I gotta be honest, Slay The Spire never quite sunk its claws in me the way it did for other people. That's no criticism—the game's great—I just lack whatever piece of brain chemistry it is that makes some people while away weeks at a time on run after run after run.
Which is weird, because I very much do have whatever inner secret sickness it is that makes people lose vast amounts of would-be productive time to runs of Monster Train, another deckbuilding roguelike (but this time there's a train in it).
There's something about its factions and room-based, vertical setup that just scratches my brain in a way that STS' more straightforward, single-character progression doesn't. It's undeniably messier than Slay The Spire, but I have to admit I like that.
Monster Train 2 is due out six weeks from now on May 21, and promises a continuation of the first game's multi-level card-battling with "five brand new clans" and new room and equipment cards, which let you add modifiers to your units or to the whole dang train itself. Like I said, I lost more time than I'm comfortable admitting to the first game, and I suspect the imminent release of the second will jeopardise both my career and interpersonal relationships.
Which might not go for everyone at PCG, mind you. Although our staff hivemind declared the original Monster Train the best card game of 2020 back when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, our own Jody Macgregor scored it a respectable but unscintillating 77% in his Monster Train review, praising its combos for letting him feel like he had "sneakily broken the game" but lamenting a frustrating randomness to its decks and upgrade paths. Nothing I've seen of the second game so far makes it seem markedly different from that experience but, hey, that's just what some of us ordered.
2025 games: This year's upcoming releases
Best PC games: Our all-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPS games: Finest gunplay
Best RPGs: Grand adventures
Best co-op games: Better together