Monster Train

Monster Train is truly one of the greats of the genre. If you love Slay the Spire or other similar roguelikes then this game is a must buy. In my opinion, the biggest thing that keeps this from being the same level of Slay the Spire is the impact of micro decisions on overall gameplay. You can see the effects of the small decisions you make on every floor of STS in higher ascensions, whereas in Monster Train you are fine until you aren't. It can be quite jarring at first as most of the floors are practically inconsequential from a health preservation and overall difficulty standpoint and then you can just get crushed by a boss.

I believe this was a very conscious decision by the Devs as you know from the very start of the run which boss you will be fighting at the end of each "Act". This makes it so you know what types of decks and units you should be building and thus helps shape your run much earlier. Knowing these things is a difficulty curve in itself that you get used to with time, but it does feel like it takes away at times from the decision making process in-between boss fights.

Regardless, this is a phenomenal game that deserves the praise it gets and I can't wait for the second iteration in the series coming out later this year.

One of my all time favorite deck builders. I have probably 200 more hours of this on Game Pass, and I still play it all the time. Wish it worked better on Steam Deck though!

The train theme and the overall look of the game was honestly a huge turn off. I only purchased this game because it went on a super sale, and honestly I regret my harsh judgement. My only gripe with this game is that they directly and completely stole a ridiculous amount of ideas from Slay the Spire. The enemies are graphically and mechanically rip offs in multiple spots and the relics and cards have a ton of 1:1 straight up plagiarized content. The developers of STS don't seem to mind though! It's very well utilized and feels great, if you had no prior experience with Slay the Spire you'd think nothing of it.

This game is like playing 3 copies of Slay the Spire at once. It's deep. Its complex. It's a deckbuilder. Its a tower defense. There's SO much to unpack in the games mechanics. You really truly feel like every run is completely different. Most roguelikes after about 10-20 hours feel very same-same but different. This game IS different. The idea of selecting a Primary Tribe and a Secondary Tribe really help the complexity of deckbuilding, allowing for some seriously cool and unique ideas. They really took a lot of Slay the Spire and made it MORE and made it set up in a very streamlined and efficient way. This game is an absolute masterclass in the Roguelite genre. You will not find a more complex deckbuilding game on Steam. Knowing what I know now, I would happily pay $20 for this game. But damn am I happy I spent under $5! Don't let the weird graphics and theme turn you away, this is awesome.

One of the most unique and fun Rogue-like deckbuilders out there. The art is charming and the gameplay is very addicting. A must-try for any fan of the genre.

Nice variation on the rogue-lite theme. Fun, fast, nice UI, variety of builds with 6 factions * 6 archetypes per faction * mixing 2 factions.

fun deck building game with a twist definitely worth a look

I just made it to covenant level 2 without using a guide. FYI, it was hard and took some perseverance.

Is it better than Slay the spire? I'd say maybe. Both are extremely addictive.

I'd rank them StS: Downfall, then StS, then MT in that order. However, they are all a solid 9/10.

Definite must buy if it's on sale.

Monster Train, Slay the Spire. Okay I said the two things. I'm going to compare them for those who are hungry for a deck builder at the moment. StS focuses on gradual micro choices over combats. There more frequent, but the impact isn't immediate until a bit later. Monster Train is similar, but more viseral in its choices. This can make it a bit harder to parce what a good choice is, but gives you more apparent benifits. Instead of 20 choices, some combat, some not, building to a boss fight. This game has 8-9 fights, and a box of choices to make per segment that feel a lot more impactful. So, it stands out, its cool, and might just scratch that itch if you have it. Give it a shot.

Got super addicted to it, played 50 hours and beat rank 25 in a little over 1 week, GREAT GAME.

Will be no lifing the sequel when it comes out

In the moment of writing slay the spire has 97/100 and this has 96/100, in that one percent there is a lot of quality. Monster train plays (and looks) like a generic mobile game. Monster train is one of the easier card games and is probably great if you have little or no experience with this kind of game but it will offer a veteran player nothing but dull disappointment.

Fun and addicting. Easy to learn, hard to master. They really knocked it out of the park with this one.

If you were playing Balatro, and want to try something a bit more complex but not nearly as hard to get in to as Slay the Spire, this is your game. It has the same feel to it with the way everything plays out after placing your units and playing your spells to provide that similar dopamine hit as Balatro when your jokers and hand are popping off.

Watch a video first, and even though it may feel intimidating, you catch on quick. BTW Umbra is awesome once you unlock that faction/deck.

As a huge fan of rogue-likes, deck builders, synergies, and replayability, this game certainly scratches that itch. I wouldn't consider it super underrated, but I feel like it still deserves more attention and to be included in more conversations alongside some of the other great in the space (Binding of Isaac, Slay the Spire, etc). I'd personally put it in my top 5 out of the ones I have played.

Every run is unique enough to keep you coming back. Plenty of different characters and builds. Plus the unique mechanic of choosing a combination of 2 characters for each run means that the diversity is definitely there.

If you are a fan of Slay the Spire then this is a must play. If you are a fan of deckbuilder games in general this is a must play. Such a great game and on sale for $7 on Steam sale is a steal for many hours of entertainment. Also a second game is coming soon!

Game has been out awhile, what more could I add? It is a great deck builder with nice visuals and tons of combo builds.

Fantastic. If you like Slay the Spire, this will keep you going. Unlike that game, having more than the one hero / unit is a good feature that makes it more fun. Pretty easy to learn but gets more interesting as you unlock things.

I love playing this game it has many choices for strategy and feels complex enough to keep my interest. There are a couple clans to pick from to play and each has a different way to play. Plus each clan has 2 heros to pick from and depending on the hero you pick, your strategy will change. Plus when you play and pick a main clan you will pick a secondary clan to be a supporting group, so depending on what 2 clans you play together will also change your strategy. There are many choices to make between battles depending on the cards you draw that adds more ideas to your strategy. You start out with only 2 clans to play and the more you play them other clans will unlock and introduce new ways to play. I have been looking for a game that can keep my interesting like this for a while... thanks developers.

Pretty fun. Similar to other games in its genre but feels less punishing than a game like Slay The Spire for example, more of a roguelite than roguelike experience. Got it on sale for like $3 so would recommend it at that price 100%.

A truly excellent game. It gives your deck and unit a great room for improvement in every run, and in particular an RPG-like feeling of preparing your "hero" for the final battles.

Having 6 clans (one in DLC), mixing any two clans in any run, and choosing two variants for both clans all create a lot of replayability.

I think the game is very easy to understand, so that's another advantage. After playing for 10+ hours, you might begin to realize that there is some mechanics that you're not sure about (which is maybe the only slight cons of this game), but the game's wiki pages will solve this problem.

A very well structured turn-based game with rogue-like or possibly arcade-like elements depending on what you believe is rogue-like. Things will end eventually but you will progress as you gather better cards and evolve what cards you have.

The play field is multiple levels of train cars with the top car containing your Pyre or heartbeat of your train which you need to protect. Think of it like Donkey Kong with the top Car containing the princess. Creature cards are placed per Car on each level and the enemy starts from the bottom Car and works its way upwards. Again this is turn based with a limited amount of cards you can play in your hand which will contain creature cards as well as spells etc. The enemy marches towards the top each turn (ala Tower Defense) and if you can't stop them from reaching your top car then they will take a whack at your pyre which will also attack them back with extremely high damage. At some point the final round starts, the boss appears and marches it's way upwards.

Defeat the boss and you win, your train advances to the next map where you can do some upgrades get rid of some cards, purchase spells etc and then the next round begins on that map with a new boss.

At some point you won't have good enough cards or enough cards to win in which case the game ends and when you start a new 'run' you add to what you've been doing so you slowly get stronger and stronger.

The game is very very well balanced a blast to play and all the reviews here are accurate absolutely worth purchasing.

Yeah it's pretty good. Feels like a roguelike deckbuilder tower defense, a bit more loose feeling than Slay the Spire or Darkest Dungeon. There's nothing in it that feels super "wow amazing that's so cool" but it's a solid take on the genre and hits hard on the engine-building.

Permanent ads on Homescreen.
Always tacky, ugly, invasive form of ad creep.
Always a downvote.
Stop trying to normalize this practice.

This game is incredible. Very addicting, you will spend lots of time thinking of what to do next while not stressing yourself out, it's the perfect level of complexity. This makes time fly so beware.

Played it a ton on gamepass when it first launched. Bought it to support the devs on the second installment. This is easily one of my favorite roguelite-card battlers and Im super excited for the next one!

When Slay the Spire is about the meticulous, finely granular gameplay pattern of slowly building your deck by compromising between slightly better-statted cards for deck-size (and keeping an eye for insane card draws), Monster Train is about the explosive, broken combo of card games.

Were MTG Blue-White control is StS, then MT is amalgamation of Jund deck: it's about all the explosive turns, the big dudes, and the creative interlinks that glue the whole deck together.

MT skips the slow-burn of deckbuilding game by offering various cards which have absurd effects/stats for their mana costs, and since the stage is inspired from Dante's Inferno's 9 rings of hell, each ring gives you progressively more rewards as you complete each ring. At first and second ring, you may just remove a card or add a couple upgrades to a few core pieces, but by the final 8th ring, you can upgrade 3 cards, duplicate your best-upgraded-rarest card, remove multiple junks, buy 3+ relics, and so on. It is a nice stage progression that doesn't overwhelm you at the start of the run, but once you get the feel and direction of your deck from the card and relic drops each ring, you'll find yourself hammering and molding the deck to perfection as you go.

Admittedly, the Covenant levels (StS Ascension difficulty level) strictly limits the archetype variety on max difficulty, so RNG become more pronounced there than StS. But don't let that discourage you the best part the game has to offer: the daily challenge. Even better: community-created challenge. People added rules and restrictions that, while breaking the base difficulty, enhances the fun part of the game. I even encourage you to delve deep this mode just to understand the secret sauce of deckbuilding before tackling high Covenants.

Monster Train is very similar to Slay The Spire. The two games are virtually identical in concept, but different enough to be their own games.

Big difference between the two is Monster Train is far more forgiving with RNG and card/relic selections. Where Slay the Spire can and will throw complete bullshit at the player that will kill a run whether its stacking crap cards or picking a boss that the deck you built won't work against, Monster Train offers a different, less frustrating play style where the cards and decks available to the player synergize better making it easier to build a deck. The game's design compliments the RNG pretty well making it rather gentle. It doesn't feel designed to fuck the player over and piss them off like Slay the Spire does.

Difficulty wise, Monster Train's is variable. Playing it straight is pretty easy, but it's set up in a way where you have the option to crank up the difficulty pretty high if things are going to easily for you.

I've only played for a few hours and its pretty addicting. Finding it very enjoyable so far.

Presently Monster Train is on sale for pocket change. Not sure if its ever going to go as low as $2.50 again, but that price is a fucking steal for what it offers.

smh i thought this was about monsters running a train on me description is wrong

Still a good game tho 8/10. DLC's so hard tho

I saw clips of this game and thought it looked cheesy but couldn't resist the sale. Totally worth the 4 dollars. Shops, random encounters, and a scaling difficulty mechanic which delivers boons and upgrades is everything a rougelite player deserves, and Monster Train provides.

Contrived garbage. Waste of money. Waste of time. Just play Slay The Spire and/or Darkest Dungeon.

Really fun game. Strong influence from Slay the Spire, but defiantly has it's own uniqueness which appreciate. Downsides for me is probably the artsyle, animations, how many card effects there are with names that aren't intuitive imo and also it feels quite easy until you ramp up the difficulty unlocks.

That said it's hands down a game you should play if you love card battlers, it has heaps a classes where you can then pick a main and secondary class allowing for heaps of combos and unique play styles.

I've been dodging this gem of a game for quite some time now and finally managed to purchase it on a sale. All I can say is that it has been a wonderful experience for me as I love the excellent polish, soundtrack, SFX and art this game has to offer. I love that I'm on the wrong side of heaven and the right side of hell. 3:)

Game worked for 10 hours and now every time I die the game won't complete. The boss kills my core and then he just returns to floor 1 and I get zero XP and I can't progress the game anymore.

Takes from a bunch of deck-building rogue likes and combines them with a new multi-room combat system. Heaps of information flying around, but all works surprisingly well! Lots of people comparing it to Slay the Spire, but I'd say it has more in common with Wildfrost. Both very different games in their own right, and very replayable.

Monster Train definitely feels like a Slay the Spire clone, but luckily it does enough things differently to overlook that despite the fact that the qualities it keeps from StS only add to the playability.
So far, I've found the game very enjoyable and the only negative things I really have to say are: sometimes there's broken English (minor issue), the enemies definitely feel repetitive but I'm so focused on trying out different things that I definitely don't mind it too much, there's some minor issues with the gameplay (if I have full health, I shouldn't be able to visit a node that gives me health I feel like, it doesn't tell you you can visit nodes in any order).
To be fair, I also bought this game for like 2 bucks or something lol. I think I would've happily bought this game at 25-50% off, I don't know if I'd be happy if I paid full price though.

At first I wasn't too into it, maybe something with the animations and art style....but after a few games the core gameplay started to grow on me and became addicting. Interesting style with the multiple levels. I'm sure I'll sink a good amount of hours into it until all the cards are unlocked

beat in under an hour. very easy to get broken builds.

Ah yes, a Train full of Monsters—the roguelike card builder that promised infinite replayability and limitless combos. And you know what? They weren’t lying. Because here I am, one all-nighter later, whispering to myself, "Just one more run..." while my responsibilities crumble like a weak deck with no block cards.

At first, I thought I was playing the game. Then I realized the game was playing me. Every run starts different—confident, strategic, ready to break the game with some genius combo. Then reality hits. The deck I built? Garbage. The enemy? Unfair. The RNG? Laughing at me. But do I quit? Of course not! Because on this run, I will become an unstoppable force of nature. Probably. Maybe. If I can just draw the right card at the right time.

And let’s talk about the combos. The sheer, ridiculous, absurd combos. At first, you’re just happy to survive. Then, 50 runs later, you’re pulling off an all 0 ember required, breaking the damage counter, and watching the enemy just sit there helplessly while you cackle like a mad scientist. And that’s when you realize—this game isn’t about winning. It’s about creating absolute chaos.

Would I recommend it? Only if you value your free time and sleep schedule as much as I do (which is not at all anymore). 10/10, please send help, I can’t stop playing.

Great game.
Concept is rather simple but executed brilliantly. Multiple clever ideas that make it replayable and a game I see myself coming back to. Especially at the current price - good deal.

Is the game fun? Yeah. The concept is great--a unique take on deck building with the tower defense style mechanics mixed in. It sucked me in right away.

Its biggest weakness is the difficulty, or lack thereof. This game is almost comically easy: the heroes and their upgrades are over-tuned, it's too easy to remove cards from your deck, individual card upgrades at the shops are overpowered and underpriced, you only need to draft a couple good cards to steamroll through a run, the pyre is overpowered and the low-level minion monsters pose no threat even if you let them leak through to the top floor, you aren't punished for poor card sequencing, and the rewards for beating bosses are too generous. I have lost only 1 run in the entire I've played, and that was the very first run where I died with the final boss on 3 HP remaining. I've played the highest difficulty available to me every run and haven't found it to be any more difficult than previous runs. Maybe once you get to the highest difficulty you can actually lose, but it feels like I would have to intentionally throw for that to happen.

I understand that a large part of this game is building a win-streak, leveling up each clan and completing a run with every possible card, but it would feel more rewarding to win if winning required more skill or more luck, like many other deck builders. Starting with a limited, under-powered card pool, losing a decent amount initially, and slowing unlocking better cards as you play more is much more compelling for me.

That being said, I think the game is fun and has a great hook. It just needs to be balanced better. Hopefully they fix that with the sequel.

Amazing game, very addictive. It always makes me want to play one more round and then realize it's morning already. XD

In my opinion much better than Slay the spire. Very enjoyable and replayable game.

fun game with simple mechanics but deceptively hard

This game is worth the full price. If you are thinking of buying it on sale JUST STOP THINKING AND DO IT.

Fun roguelite deck building game, definitely worth on sale. Dont think i would pay like 25, but at 5 or less,definitly.
It's like a mobile game from ads if the mobile game was actually good n not pure bait.
Mechanics are fun,there's enough classes for replay it.
Mod is also worth it, but the difficulty power creeps a bit too steeply, rough without mods.

especially for $2.49 this is a /ton/ of fun. No idea how I'd never heard ofit, but great game! Fun twist on the general roguelike card strategy genre

150 hours and maxed achievements should tell you how amazing this title is.

A must buy if you enjoy crunching numbers and being strategic while trying to make OP combos.

I really like the Unit + Floor system and some of the upgrades can go hard, there is also a nice balance of being able to pick certain cards to tailor your build so you don't feel locked in to just 1 strategy. Playing this after it went on sale has me excited for the upcoming Monster Train 2.

I also really like the music, it's super atmospheric and fills the silence, usually I mute music and after listening, I did not so this is definitely a point in its favor. Some people do not like the art/style but I think it's very nice looking and the animations lively for a skeletal system, not too stiff. A lot of the card art is pretty forgettable, there are a few standouts that look very good though.

This is one of those games where you'll either play 20 hours of it and never think about it again or you'll play hundreds of hours and it will never leave your recently played queue.

It is endlessly replayable. Every time you load up a game it feels different and you will have to adapt your deck building strategy on the fly. It is a text book example of not judging a book by it's cover because there is a depth of gameplay hiding behind its simple facade that is breathtaking.

I would say based upon my total hours, that I enjoyed this game quite a bit. The sequel is coming, and enough is similar that you could easily use the original to bide your time. The DLC is definitely worth it as well.
The difficulty can get decent if your luck is faulty like my own. The ability to mix and match clans, and the alternate heroes all make for an addition level of enjoyment, and there are plenty of play styles and cards to mess around with. All aboard!

It is short the endgame is stupid.

The RNG is balanced in the beginning but by the end the tolerances are just too narrow for the sheer amount of variance.

Good effort, bad results.