You know, when I first booted up Monster Train back in 2020, I rolled my eyes. “Oh, a Slay the Spire clone, is it?” I chided. But within about 10 minutes, Monster Train had completely derailed all those pithy little putdowns that were gestating in the back of my head. In under half an hour, it had punched my ticket, good and proper. This is no mere clone of Mega Crit’s 2019 deck-building opus, no. It’s a fully-fledged competitor; a competent rethinking of the genre, a serious rival that legitimised roguelike deck-builders as a genre. And I fell in love with it.
The game remixes Slay the Spire’s genius ideas with its own, unique flair. Instead of pushing forward to the heart of all evil in Slay the Spire, Monster Train flips the script somewhat – and has you defending against waves of angelic foes that are dead set on extingusihing the fire you’re chaperoning to the heart of the underworld in order to rekindle the flames of hell (yes, really).
It’s got more of a tower defense vibe to it, then; setting you and your team of demons against other teams of behorned baddies. It’s a less lonely affair than Slay the Spire, where your lone warrior/thief/robot pushes into the hostile world.