Monster Train

OK, so it does not seem subtle at all! The graphics and sounds are quite over the top, but fun. The subtlety comes in trying to navigate the enemy with the cards and artifacts that you have. The multi-layered defence of your "pyre" usually offers several possible paths to victory, which keeps things fresh. Monster Train is often mentioned in the same breath as Slay the Spire. I lost interest in StS after around 100 hours played (which is great value and it's a great game), but am now 140 hours played in Monster Train and I am still jumping in for an hour or two per week. What keeps me coming back are the interesting custom challenges and "Hell Rush", which is a quick, multi-player real-time battle within the usual Monster Train run format. The GOG version has achievements and cross-play with other platforms, so that's a plus for buying it here.

So I bought this on the advice of my partner, they suggested this as a good "strategy roguelike". The most surprising thing about the game is that it really makes that a genre just by existing, i love other games (FTL Slay the Spire) you could fit it in with but the reason I haven't been able to put it down is that Monster Train takes lessons from all and then teaches right back, ftl often feels like it's luck of the draw, this game lets you see which of two paths you are choosing and what it means before hand, StS often feels unfair in the way that it tells you to build a deck based on the options you are given, and then by the time you're pot committed shows you the final boss and "oh no, it's a hard counter!" This game tells you what the boss is going to be from the start, he even gets a icon in the ui while you're playing, just in case you forget who you're going to have to fight this time. The title of my review is based on the fact that my decade old laptop has a celeron processor and less than 2 GB ram, check the minimum specs again and understand that the game is addictive even with the visuals simply being absent, the UI is only visible in low graphics quality and the game frequently struggles to render the lighting effects for THAT. I only came back here to look because i wondered if the soundtrack was available to purchase, which manages to be evocative, fun and suitably dramatic even when it's the score for (in my case) people grunting in a dark room and trying to beat each other to death. Cannot recommend this game enough!

I'm 6 runs in now and this game is definitely a ton of fun. They took the general idea of Slay the Spire (rogue-lite deck builder) and added their own twists enough that it feels like it's own unique game despite the StS influence throughout. As I've run out of much left in StS, I can see this game taking over as my 1-2 times per week fun relaxation game. It definitely scratches that same itch. The reason I'm giving only 4* instead of 5 is because it follows the slay the spire outline but falls short in two key areas: 1. Story: StS has an incredible unique world with mystery and intigue both into the first 'victory' and long after. It was never particularly deep but is far more interesting than Monster Train. That being said, this type of game doesn't need a story to be interesting, but it's a step down in that department and clearly didn't have as long of an incubation/planning period as StS (I'm sure they rush to get the next StS clone to market and I can't blame them for that). 2. Challenge: This game clearly has an abundance of challenges to keep players interested well into the future, but so far I don't feel I'm learning as I go in the same way as with StS. This may be a result of my putting in over 100 hours on StS so I'm learning more quickly, but I came into this game with no idea of how it played (aside from 'StS-like deck builder on a train') and I was able to beat it on my second attempt. This doesn't ruin the game due to so many items to unlock, difficulty increases and alternative play-types, but for a rogue-like game to be so easy to beat, I was left a bit dissapointed (I was surprised when the game suddenly ended) If you enjoyed StS then you'll enjoy this game as it's definitely worth your money. But if you haven't played StS, go buy that first (they have a mobile version now) and move over to Monster Train when you get bored.

A lot to unlock, low system requirements, great type of game for your laptop. The different units and types of card fighting add a great mixup for what you choose to use. I find the very last boss on each covenant just a tiny bit to tough. An easy chart @ the end battle screen would be nice in multiplayer to see everyone's times for rounds and what not.

If you enjoyed Slay the Spire, you're most likely going to love this game. I'm a huge fan of deckbuilding games and let me tell you, I don't think I've ever found any other game that offers this level of customizability. You can upgrade any card, but not only with just a generic power increase. Every card has two slots for upgrades, which inlcude things like lower mana cost, an upgrade that retunrs the card to the top of your deck when it's played, an upgrade that increases power and removes the card from your deck for the remainder of the battle etc. Same thing with creatures. But here you not only get to upgrade them, with the DLC you can also combine any two creatures, which makes for crazy amount of possible combinations. With that in mind, the game has insane levels of repliability. I highly recommend it to any card game fan.