Monster Train Review
Though there have been more nuanced depictions of Hell in media in the past few decades, it’s still uncommon to see the Inferno or its denizens cast in the role of the protagonist. I suppose this can be blamed on the millennia of anti-Hell propaganda central to the Christian faith, but I’m always on board for depictions of Hell beyond the one-note pit of suffering stereotype. Things like The Good Place, Sandman, and Afterparty do a great job of depicting Hell as a place with an actual ecosystem, looking at the beings who inhabit the realm of God’s punishment and how they live their day to day lives. So I was pretty excited to see the release of Monster Train, a game about the forces of Hell battling divine trespassers on a train.
In Monster Train, Hell has quite literally frozen over. An army from Heaven known as the Gilded Wing, led by the angel Seraph, has invaded Hell and managed to extinguish the Pyre, the source of Hell’s eternal flames. The player takes on the role of the Hellborn, the conductor of the Boneshaker, a train that traverses all nine circles of Hell and serves as the last bastion against the divine crusade. Aboard the train is the last remaining shard of the Pyre, the only thing capable of reigniting the heart of Hell and saving the denizens from a cold death. To fight off the Gilded Wing’s attempt to destroy the remnant of the Pyre, players recruit soldiers from across the five tribes of Hell: The Hellhorned, the traditional imps and demons of hell with crimson skin and curling horns; the Awoken, possessed trees and plants grown from the souls of the damned; the Stygian Guard, sorcerous sea creatures harnessing forgotten magic and the power of a slumbering titan; the Umbra, Lovecraftian nightmares from the darkness outside of reality; and the Melting Remnant, creatures made of wax who strive to either burn brightly or never burn at all. With these forces at their command, the Hellborn must pilot the Boneshaker to the deepest level of Hell, slay Seraph and the Gilded wing, and restore the fires of the underworld.
Monster Train is a roguelite deck builder, meaning that players assemble and control their army by constructing a deck of cards, with each card corresponding to a soldier or spell at the Hellborn’s command. The deck will always begin the same way, depending on which two factions the player has decided to invoke, but will be expanded and refined as players get new cards. The more they play, the more new cards will be unlocked to be encountered in later games. As the player descends through each ring of Hell, they must fight against the Gilded Wing by playing cards within the three floors of the Boneshaker to kill the invaders before they can reach the shard of the Pyre. After triumphing over each encounter, players then get awarded with new cards as well as powerful artifacts, which grant niche, persistent bonuses for that game. While this mechanic is certainly not new, Monster Train makes it feel fantastic because of how wonderfully crafted the different factions are. Each of the five factions has a clear identity cemented both by their lore and by the way they play working in perfect synchronization. The Hellhorned are clearly the muscle of Hell, thanks to their high attack and health stats. They seek to be in the fight all the time, reveling in the violence. They also are the only faction to have access to the Rage and Armor mechanics, with Rage increasing damage and armor protecting them from damage. It says a lot that the Hellhorned don’t care about healing, they don’t have time to stitch their wounds, only to bolt on another plate of metal before getting back into the fray. The Umbra, by comparison, are equally violence-oriented, but they gain power by devouring subordinates through their unique Feeding and Gorging mechanics, a reference to their truly monstrous nature. Where the Hellhorned deploy a phalanx of trained, eager warriors, the Umbra deploy a single champion, horrifyingly powerful from the many underlings filling its belly. No faction is best or worst, only different, and can never operate alone since players must always pick two to invoke, which means players have to find inventive ways to mix these diverse groups into a force that can, hopefully, repel Heaven’s incursion.
On top of the excellent faction design, Monster Train has excellent mechanics for players to craft their deck into the shape they want it to be. Among the rewards players can receive for clearing a ring of Hell are the ability to add new cards to their deck, take out cards that no longer work well enough, or, best of all, modify cards in their deck. I think developers Shiny Shoe must have played some Cardpocalypse because Monster Train has an improved version of the card modification options present in that game. Players can trade in coin they earned in fights to change their cards, increasing attack or health or adding new abilities. But some of the new abilities that can be added to cards are unique to which factions the player invokes, so a game with the Stygian Guard and the Awoken won’t be able to grant their units Rage. Similarly, each faction’s champion, a unique unit only available from the player’s primary faction of the two invoked, has ways they can be upgraded at special Dark Forges. At these forges, one of three upgrades can be applied, improving the champion in a fantastically flavorful way that evokes their faction’s strengths. Whereas the Hellhorned’s Hornbreaker Prince can be upgraded with more damage, more attacks per turn, or armor-gaining abilities, all a nod to the faction’s eagerness for combat, the Awoken’s Sentient can receive upgrades that deal damage to attackers, gain bonuses when healed, or draw the player more cards when surviving damage, reinforcing that faction’s desire to always be strong, healthy, and in the way. Along those same lines, the artifacts players can acquire are also limited by which factions are in play, ensuring players who decided not to bring along the Melting Remnant aren’t given artifacts that boost the faction’s unique Burnout mechanic. I really like this because it helps players expand their abilities without letting them accidentally turn their deck into a barely cohesive pile of cards that don’t play well together.
There is also fantastic game design beyond the minute-to-minute gameplay of each game in Monster Train. In-between games, players unlock new cards, factions, and artifacts based on how much they play with each faction and there is an absolutely indulgent buffet of things to unlock. At the start of the first game, players have access to only two factions, the Hellhorned and the Awoken, and must unlock others by performing certain tasks a number of times. For example, to unlock the magically inclined Stygian Guard, players must play a few hundred spell cards over the course of all of their games. These unlock conditions do a great job of giving players an idea what the faction will be like once unlocked. On top of that, each faction can be leveled up to unlock new cards and artifacts. Whenever a player finishes a game, successful or not, the two factions they invoked for that game gain experience based on how well the player performed. Each level the faction gains unlocks one new card and one new artifact, motivating players to play more games with the same factions while ensuring they don’t get bored with repetitious content. There is also the option to play a multiplayer game, where several players on parallel rails compete to be the fastest to get through the same challenge using the same resources. I never tried this, as I’m a very ponderous player when it comes to these kinds of games, but it’s a good addition for those seeking an additional challenge. Possibly the coolest feature though is the ability to create custom scenarios to play and share with friends. When setting these up, players can dictate which factions to use and apply up to three scenario modifiers from a pool of over 25 possible choices. Once finished, players can share the Sharecode with their friends or over social media to compete against each other or just to watch their friends suffer. These additional features could have been left out of Monster Train and it still would have been amazing, but the developers went above and beyond to include them.
For all of Monster Train’s triumphs, I do have a few small complaints. My biggest hangup is that each game of Monster Train only takes about an hour. I’m sure that’s a positive for many busy people, but I would like to have an option to do an extended-length run, either by including more fights per ring of Hell or by adding a few rings on, which defies the traditional nine rings of Hell, but I’m pretty sure most of the rings in Monster Train are made up anyway. Secondly, while there is a game speed setting that moves the action along faster, I would’ve liked the option to hold down the shift key or some other unused button for a temporary speed boost in addition to the over-arching speed setting. Finally, I don’t think the reward for beating the game with Covenant Ranks, the game’s harder mode unlocked once a player has beaten the game, is good enough. Sure gold-rimmed cards look fancy, but I would like to see something else, perhaps a signature artifact or a new upgrade option for that faction’s champion. But, like I’ve said before, I’m no game designer so I don’t know how feasible this idea is.
I think it’s pretty clear that I’m an enormous fan of Monster Train. Part of this might be due to the fact that this year, especially this past month, has been light on really excellent games so far, but so much of Monster Train is done so well I don’t think it should be ignored. Unless you know in the deepest part of your heart that you’re burnt out on deck builder games, I encourage you to pick this one up. I know $25 is a good chunk of change for a roguelite, but I assure you it’s worth it.
Buy this game at full price
It’s worth every penny they’re asking
