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The deckbuilding rogue-like genre has grown quite a bit over the last 5 years. My first experience with a game in the deck-building rogue-like realm was Hearthstone and its introduction to dungeon runs.
What are dungeon runs? Well, generally they mean a game where you start off with very little and gradually grow your character, deck, powers as you progress through stages. You take on incrementally more powerful enemies as you, yourself get incrementally more powerful.
Immediately, I was enraptured by the idea of constructing an increasingly powerful deck of cards and finding the perfect combination to make my build absolutely unstoppable.
Monster Train brings that same intoxicating gameplay to the table but offers up more variety in deck types and play styles than perhaps any other deck-builder I have played up until this point.
For this very reason, I consider Monster Train another great game for the Xbox Game Pass Spotlight, and much like my time with Hearthstone and its dungeon runs, I find myself continually coming back to attempt new combinations and thread that thin line between greed and genius to construct the ultimate winning team.
This Monster Train Don’t Stop
If you have played a game like Slay The Spire (also currently on game pass), or the aforementioned Hearthstone, you have a good idea of how this game plays.
Monster Train features over 200 cards and 5 clans. Each clan has its own deck and style of play. An interesting wrinkle in Monster Train is that when you start a run, you actually choose two different decks from the 5 clans and that combination will be the foundation for every other card you collect on your run.
When you select your primary clan, you get to choose one of its powerful champion cards. The secondary deck you choose will determine the other types of clan cards you can collect for your deck. Every combination provides an interesting synergy that takes some time to understand and develop.
Cards are broken up into magic and monsters. Monsters are like minions, character cards that have health and attack stats. They are placed on the board (in this case, one of three train car levels) and they stay there to fight off opposing monsters until they lose their health and die.
Magic cards are used instantly. They can do damage, create buffs, or provide some other status effect. Some spells just target individual monsters or some target multiple monsters on a level.
Most decks will have a combination of magic and monster cards and depending on your play style, you can lean more heavily into one or the other.
Monster Train is all about finding out which combination works best and which way you prefer to play. So far, I tend to enjoy using monsters more than magic because they are more predictable, a monster is placed and stays there as long as they can be kept alive, magic cards rely on some luck as you hope to draw the right cards at the right time however if you spec out your deck right, magic cards can be incredibly powerful.
Each clan has two champions to choose from, a champion is a powerful character card that will be the backbone of your deck. When you pick your champion you also get the option of picking 1 of 2 powerful abilities for them to have.
These abilities give you a base concept to build your deck around, for example, if you choose the Stygian Guard you may select the champion Tethys Titansbane and give it the chillwind power.
Chillwind makes Tethys Titanbane’s apply 10 frostbite to any unit it attacks. Frostbite is an effect in the game that does damage to opponents at the end of every turn.
As your deck grows you can add more frostbite cards to buff and multiply the frostbite effects of your champion and ultimately, gather enough to have a frostbite deck capable of completing an entire run.
While your monster train moves on through the different stages of hell, you also unlock upgrades for your champion. You can continue to buff the initial power you choose for them (in our case, chillwind) or you can decide to give them an additional power and spec them in another direction.
On top of that, you have your secondary clan cards which use different effects and powers of their own. It sounds really complicated but the game does a great job of slowly introducing you to all of these concepts.
You are pretty limited in what cards you can use when you first set out and your access to new cards grows as you win more runs and get familiar with the game. The heart of Monster Train like all other deck-builders is giving the player a multitude of choices that will greatly affect the outcome of their game.
Another way in which Monster Train really reinforces the choice and story narrative is in the moments when you have an encounter. These are small story segments where you get to make a choice that can enhance your deck.
Every choice you make has some kind of consequence, in the best scenarios you are just going to have to pick what you think is the best card out of the bunch and forgo the others, in some cases you may have to make a sacrifice that could wind up hampering your run down the line.
There are also choices before most major battles, you can decide to make the upcoming fight more difficult in order to receive more money or a special item. This dilemma between progression and greed is a key one found in many deck-builders and I love being faced with it.
Monster Train is an excellent choice for the Xbox Game Pass player who wants something different
One of the strengths of Xbox Game Pass is that it lets gamers experiment wtih new game types they may not normally try. Monster Train is just that kind of game for many who are used to playing more mainstream titles.
I recommend this game to anyone who has dipped their toes into strategy games like Xcom, Gears Tactics, Advanced Wars, or Fire Emblem. Although these games are different, they all have that same strategic DNA.
Fans of deck-builders, dungeon run games, and roguelikes should of course check this out, it’s just as good as the best of them available and has enough original ideas to keep veterans happy.
Monster Train is an attractive package, the excellent gameplay is accompanied by a simple and pleasing art style and very good music. Developer Shiny Shoe has created a fantastic new edition to the genre that I can’t wait to go back and play some more as soon as I’m done publishing this article. Check it out for yourself on Game Pass, Xbox, or PC.
Have you played Monster Train? Do you have a favorite deck-building game you think I should try out? Let me know with a comment below!
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