Monster Train Is A Blazingly Original Deckbuilder Now On Xbox Game Pass
All aboard!
Imagine if Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer were set not in the frozen wasteland of a ruined Earth, but in the depths of Hell instead. I know that’s a strange thing to ask of you, but there’s a good reason for it. New on Xbox Game Pass this month is a game with that exact premise that’s also a reinvention of the deckbuilding roguelike format with a sequel on the way.
Monster Train is the first new Game Pass addition of March, coming to the subscription service on March 4. It’s a card-based battler with some similarities to the giant of the genre, Slay the Spire, but with some changes that make it a whole different beast.
Monster Train follows a group of rail-riding demons trying to bring the heat back to Hell.
In Monster Train, the forces of Heaven have won in a battle against Hell, all but extinguishing the Pyre, the source of the realm’s eternal flame and covering the land in ice. The remaining demons have made the questionable choice to turn the flickering remnants of the Pyre into the power source for a massive train, which they’re driving into the heart of Hell to once again cover the whole of it in fire.
That effort, if you can believe it, takes the form of card-based combat. Each battle takes place aboard your train, a monstrous vessel split into four floors with the Pyre on top. Each round, a handful of heavenly warriors will board on the bottom floor, and if they’re not defeated, they’ll move upward each round, attacking the Pyre if they reach the top. If the Pyre is defeated, it’s game over.
Multi-level battles in Monster Train center on stopping the advance of angelic warriors aboard your train.
In some ways, Monster Train has more Magic the Gathering than Slay the Spire running through its fiery veins. Your deck is made up of spells and monsters, and playing the right combination of the two is crucial. Spells can offer some quick damage or add buffs to your army, but monsters do the bulk of the damage to the enemies invading your train. Each turn, they’ll attack and be attacked by whichever foes are on their level. In the final phase, a boss will board and trade blows with your creatures on the bottom level until one side is defeated.
Monster Train’s floor-by-floor structure makes it feel like no other deckbuilder out there. Since opponents move up a floor each turn, you can’t settle in for a battle of attrition, instead needing to plan out which cards to play to stop their advance. Loading all your best monsters onto the first level can be an effective way to cut off the invaders early, but doing so also risks leaving the train’s upper levels undefended. At the same time, spreading your focus too thin can mean leaving them all vulnerable to being picked off one by one if you don’t save enough energy to boost their power, too. Wrapping your head around the idiosyncrasies of the combat system can take some time even for seasoned deckbuilder fans, but the game’s novelty makes it a wholly original experience.
Monster Train has multiple distinct decks to collect and upgrade.
Monster Train takes another cue from Magic in its multiple deck types. Each of the game’s decks is a themed set of cards that prioritizes different types of monsters and abilities. Some excel at empowering monster cards to turn them into something truly fearsome, while others focus more on offensive spells or overwhelming numbers. Mixing and matching cards from different decks gives you the ability to customize the experience and create strategies that aren’t apparent from the start. Finding the combos that work best for you is a great incentive to keep playing, which is something every good deckbuilder needs, given that replaying them again and again is central to the experience. The sheer variety of cards on display in Monster Train can make it feel a little impenetrable at first, but once you’ve got the basics down, that diversity of options is one of its most compelling aspects, constantly reminding you that there’s another way to approach things when a battle isn’t going your way.
Monster Train has been out since 2020, but now is a particularly good time to climb aboard. A sequel was announced in February with a release planned for later this year. Monster Train 2 currently has a demo available on Steam, if the original’s Game Pass release has you craving even more.
