So this game released today, and I knew approximately nothing about it until I saw it in the Steam new releases.
Oh boy! Another deck-building roguelike!
Don't get me wrong. I love them. There are just so many now, and a number really don't do anything original. But the number of positive reviews on this was really high. Yeah, a number of "I got it early" and "I got it free" ones, but lots of them had hundreds of hours. And these weren't just, "Great game! A++++" reviews either. Some well written reviews among them for sure.
Ok, sure, $20 launch price. I'll give it a go-oh my God where did the past four hours go?
This game is legit. It does quite a bit to differentiate itself from StS. First, you aren't a singular character. There are five different factions of demons (oh right the story is that your train contains the last piece of the pyre that kept the fires of hell going and hell has frozen over and the angels will stop at nothing to destroy the final piece of the pyre) and you choose a primary faction and a secondary faction for each run. The primary faction dictates your champion, but the creatures you put in play don't end with the champion.
You see, if anything, Monster Train is part deck-builder, part tower defense. The train, which is the playing board, is four levels. Enemies enter on the bottom, and each round they attack, then move up a level. The fourth floor houses the pyre. If it gets destroyed, your run is over. In the first three levels, you're able to put monsters in play to attack the enemies as they move up the train. The order of placement matters, as damage is dealt from front to back from both sides.
I won't get into any more minutiae, but will say there are upgrades along the way, adding new cards, relics, and meta-progression here, as one might expect.
I've honestly not played enough to complete a run, or to know what the longevity is like, but so far it seems like $20 very well spent.
Oh boy! Another deck-building roguelike!
Don't get me wrong. I love them. There are just so many now, and a number really don't do anything original. But the number of positive reviews on this was really high. Yeah, a number of "I got it early" and "I got it free" ones, but lots of them had hundreds of hours. And these weren't just, "Great game! A++++" reviews either. Some well written reviews among them for sure.
Ok, sure, $20 launch price. I'll give it a go-oh my God where did the past four hours go?
This game is legit. It does quite a bit to differentiate itself from StS. First, you aren't a singular character. There are five different factions of demons (oh right the story is that your train contains the last piece of the pyre that kept the fires of hell going and hell has frozen over and the angels will stop at nothing to destroy the final piece of the pyre) and you choose a primary faction and a secondary faction for each run. The primary faction dictates your champion, but the creatures you put in play don't end with the champion.
You see, if anything, Monster Train is part deck-builder, part tower defense. The train, which is the playing board, is four levels. Enemies enter on the bottom, and each round they attack, then move up a level. The fourth floor houses the pyre. If it gets destroyed, your run is over. In the first three levels, you're able to put monsters in play to attack the enemies as they move up the train. The order of placement matters, as damage is dealt from front to back from both sides.
I won't get into any more minutiae, but will say there are upgrades along the way, adding new cards, relics, and meta-progression here, as one might expect.
I've honestly not played enough to complete a run, or to know what the longevity is like, but so far it seems like $20 very well spent.