Monster Train 2

I've always found roguelikes to be a fascinating genre. Games that fit into this sector can be exceptional from a design and mechanical perspective, but if the nature of losing all of your progress and starting from scratch at the end of a "run" isn't at least somewhat fulfilling, the overall whole can come crumbling down in almost an instant. Personally, I think this very concept is what holds back games like the otherwise excellent Blue Prince, as failure begins to weigh on your motivation and sap your interest in seeing the credits roll. It's also because of this that developer Shiny Shoe's Monster Train - and now its sequel - impress, as while the roguelike nature can be brutal and demoralising, the core gameplay loop is so entertaining that you never end up caring too much about failure.

For anyone who hasn't played the original Monster Train, this sequel acts in a very similar manner. It's a tiered deckbuilder, which means you fight an array of combat encounters on a battleground spanning three floors, where the aim is to defeat attacking enemies before they steadily work up the floors and attack your "heart", which in this case is the train's engine. If enough damage is dealt to your engine, the run is over, but until your engine is smashed beyond repair, you can keep progressing forward through the randomised levels, acquiring new upgrades and cards, and taking on fresh battles too. The actual naming convention of the game doesn't really have much weight to it when looking at the gameplay, as the train is mostly just a set piece and environmental tool for progressing through the world, and the monsters are the cards that you use to battle.

As per the storyline, there is one, but you probably won't pay all too much attention to it. Essentially, instead of being set in hell and revolving around taking back the twisted domain, now angels and demons have joined forces to mount an assault on heaven, in a bid to take back the celestial city from the invading Titans. To do this, you have to move through the regions of heaven, which are defined by stages that each include randomised encounters (for example, a store, an opportunity to acquire new cards, maybe a well to heal up a portion of your train) and end with a combat mission. If you manage to succeed in this latter area, you will be able to continue onwards until you reach the centre of heaven and begin the effort to free the city. Again, there's a narrative tying this altogether, but you probably will forget all about it after an hour or two, devoting your attention and time to the juicier parts of Monster Train 2; namely the deckbuilding gameplay.

What Shiny Shoe has built in this sequel is some of the finest deckbuilding gameplay you will come across. Not only is it packed with depth and complexity, enabling you to do all manner of quirky things to fit how you intend to play in a run, but it's also, by design, intuitive and quite straightforward. This isn't a card battling experience like Magic: The Gathering or Pokémon: The Trading Card Game where you have to ponder over the intricacies of each card and whether it's plausible to actually make a move within the broad and grey rules. You don't need to be an expert or hugely pedantic about the specifics here, as rather it's closer to Hearthstone or Gwent, where the effects are clearly laid out, how a card fits into your build is well-explained, and typically the biggest challenge you will face is managing your deck size and cutting the fat as each run progresses.

Shiny Shoe does look to throw a few curveballs at you along the way, usually in the form of new deck options that overhaul how you go about your business. There are two starting decks, or clans as they are referenced in-game, but you can unlock an additional three, each of which have their own champion, playstyle, and cards. It does take time to learn their intricacies and become familiar with how they work, but it's not a huge commitment and you can quite easily switch between clans on different runs, and even combine two as part of a hybrid deck. For example, you could take the powerful and resilient dragons found in the Pyreborne clan and team them up with the mad scientists that constitute the Lazarus League. The point is, the option is entirely yours.

Then when it gets down to business the focus shifts to creating a balanced deck, one that has the right amounts of easily placeable and not too expensive units and also ludicrous and dangerous units, matched up with helpful and powerful spells, rooms that can change the tide of the battle, and equipment that can turn a bad unit into an exceptional one. That may seem easy enough, but in practice, I promise you will find your deck crammed with crap a lot of the time, leaving you to figure out how to overcome each battle without knowing what you will draw from your deck after each turn.

Again, the random nature and the finality of the roguelike element can be crushing and frustrating at times, but this is also the nature of the beast for these kinds of games. Some runs will just feel like the world is against you from minute one, and others you'll be on cloud nine and feel unstoppable until your luck suddenly turns. However, for Monster Train 2, the deckbuilding, the intuitive and simple nature of the action, the speed and pacing of the gameplay, and the fact that a run never tends to eat up too much of your time, all mean that losing feels more like a nuisance than a kick in the teeth. You will wish that you don't have to routinely begin from the start, but at the same time, you'll be just as excited to start all over again, and this is without question Monster Train 2's biggest strength.

Shiny Shoe captured lighting in a bottle with the original game and this sequel just builds on that great formula further. For anyone searching for an enjoyable and engaging game to play for 30 or so minutes at a time, or anyone looking to hunker down for hours at a time, you really will not go far wrong with Monster Train 2. Games should be fun, and this is precisely what this indie sequel is.