Monster Train, the acclaimed roguelike deckbuilder from developer Shiny Shoe, is making its way to PlayStation 5 today, 25th July, some four years after its original release.
Monster Train sees players attempting to restore Hell’s inferno after it freezes over – a task requiring them to ride a train carrying a burning pyre deep into the heart of Hell.
At first glance, it’s all a bit Slay the Spire, with branching pathways providing choices on how to progress and level up each run. But the proper fun comes in combat, where the real-time card battling sees players unleashing their hellish minions against the forces of heaven – gradually moving between multiple floors of the titular train as they try and defend the pyre on top to win.
As Eurogamer’s Robert Purchese explained in 2020, “The skill is… not only [in] surviving those rounds and stopping their fighters reaching the top, but scaling up your damage and survivability, via buffs (spells and the like), for when the boss arrives. When the Final Wave comes, things change. Instead of the usual routine of playing your cards, then everyone trading blows and a new round beginning, you enter Relentless Mode where characters on one row continue to trade blows with a boss, until either they are dead or the boss is.”