Game file / ROGUE BY ROGUEMonster Train 2
Monster Train returns with all new clans, new enemy factions, new challenges, new modes and more! Defend your Pyre in the classic three-tiered, vertical gameplay that made the original roguelike deckbuilder a hit.
Why this score?
Original text · Simplified Chinese
单位布阵、双氏族与新卡型提供高质量构筑空间，主要问题是胜负摆动过大和状态信息过载。
Core gameplay
Weight 25%8.5 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
三层布阵与波次结算让出牌顺序和站位直观影响结果，爆发成型反馈强；部分战斗过早变成碾压。
Builds & strategy
Weight 25%9.0 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
氏族配对、装备和房间卡把单位、牌组及楼层连接起来，取舍丰富；个别族系协同偏弱。
Replayability
Weight 20%8.5 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
敌人词条与氏族搭配迫使换用布阵和成长路线，难度与挑战支持重玩；首领变化仍有不足。
Randomness & fairness
Weight 20%7.5 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
伤害预览便于复盘，部分首领硬克流派和极端强弱局减少中途修正机会。
Polish & usability
Weight 10%7.5 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
快照肯定伤害预览和便利功能，但状态叠加、过大界面和闪动效果会使复杂局面难以读取。
- Reviewer
Original text · Simplified Chinese
Rogue by Rogue · AI 资料评测- Version reviewed
Original text · Simplified Chinese
具体构建未知；以所引资料描述的版本为准
Scope and limitations
Original text · Simplified Chinese
基于收录资料与官方页面的主观归纳，未进行试玩。资料横跨首发及后续首领调整，未覆盖官网列出的全部新增 DLC；不以可解锁氏族总数单独给重玩加分。
Review sources 02
- 01Archived materialView archived external material ↓
Original text · Simplified Chinese
收录评论与社区资料（2026-10-01 快照）
使用 作者观点摘要 的 Tier list Part 4 (2025) 及 玩家好评与批评 中的机制、交互、重复与易用性反馈；未将外部分数或旧等级用于计算。
- 02Web sourceView original ↗
Original text · Simplified Chinese
Monster Train 2 官方产品说明
2026-10-08 访问。确认三层防守、新氏族、单位与卡牌升级，以及房间卡和装备卡两类构筑工具。 官方页面不单独证明平衡或稳定性。
Video reviews
Reviews and deep dives from YouTube and Bilibili, in every language. Open the original video to watch.
Other voices, for reference.
Archived third-party reviews and community material may refer to different versions. External opinions and ratings are presented separately; consult the original videos for their full context.
Community discussion
A sequel to Shiny Shoe's roguelike deckbuilder in which you defend a Pyre atop a three-floor vertical train by pairing two of the clans, drafting units and spells, and snowballing them against Titan-led enemy waves.
Monster Train 2 is received as one of the best roguelike deckbuilders, praised by both critics and players as the original refined and expanded. It holds 87 on Metacritic (31 critic reviews), 'Overwhelmingly Positive' on Steam (about 95% of roughly 10,200 reviews) and a 7.8 Metacritic user score that is noticeably lower than the Steam figure. Critics and fans tend to describe it as a 'safe' but confident sequel that obsoletes the first game, with huge content depth and replayability. The main pushback is about boom-or-bust RNG, enemies and bosses that hard-counter specific builds, a cluttered and oversized UI, and weak story writing. It released May 21, 2025 (full release, not early access), and has kept receiving updates, including a paid expansion (Destiny of the Railforged) in February 2026.
What players praise
- Huge replay value: 10 clans with a main-plus-ally pairing, plus covenant ranks, challenges, daily runs and Soul Savior mode; reviewers report hundreds of hours without boredom.
- Snowballing combat feels explosive and satisfying; assembling a broken build and steamrolling bosses is the recurring highlight.
- New systems (equipment, room cards, Pyre Hearts, the deployment phase) add build depth; IGN and Metacritic critics singled out equipment cards.
- Clan reworks and new clans are widely liked; original clans were rebuilt and are unlockable without extra cost, and the mushroom-themed Underlegion is a fan favourite.
- Strong soundtrack that keeps getting called out by both critics and players.
- Visual clarity aids such as the damage preview and improved quality-of-life over the first game.
- Good value and respectful monetisation: $24.99 base game, a free demo, and players note first-game content was not locked behind DLC.
- Accessible enough for newcomers to deckbuilders while still deep; some players who bounced off Slay the Spire say this one clicked.
What players criticize
- Heavy RNG and boom-or-bust runs: several reviewers say fights are either trivial or unwinnable, with few tight, close matches.
- Enemy and boss design can hard-counter a build (incant enemies, floor silence, sweep, cleave, magic shield, resurrection), punishing experimental builds.
- Post-launch bosses were criticised by some long-time players as overtuned and too dominant.
- UI is busy and oversized: players say it feels designed for mobile, is hard to read on PC, and everything flashes and shakes.
- Story, dialogue and cutscenes are widely regarded as weak (described as laughably or charmingly bad depending on the reviewer).
- Some feel it is expansion-sized rather than a true second game, and that the first game has better bosses, writing or polish.
- Status effects and card interactions pile up to the point where units carry too many effects to track.
- Some long-time players argue it lacks the difficulty and challenge options of Monster Train 1 and is too easy at the top if you know the tricks.
Distinctive features
- Three-floor vertical train with a Pyre: you position units on floors while enemies advance floor by floor, unlike Slay the Spire's single lane.
- Main clan plus allied clan pairing across 10 clans creates very many combinations, each with alternate starting champions.
- Deployment phase lets you place units across floors, making decks more spell-heavy and adding positioning decisions.
- Room cards, equipment and selectable Pyre Hearts layer extra scaling systems on top of the deck.
- Destiny of the Railforged adds the Railforged clan with a Forge mechanic plus a Soul Savior mode with upgradeable soul enhancements.
- Daily challenges with leaderboards and handcrafted Dimensional Challenges, plus a free unlimited demo.
Divided opinions
- Whether it is a perfect evolution of the first game or merely a big expansion; some players prefer Monster Train 1's polish and boss design.
- Difficulty and balance: some find it too easy with broken events and builds, while others find bosses and enemy counters punishing.
- Art direction and presentation: many love the art style and mushroom or cat designs, while some users describe the art as inconsistent or bad.
- Destiny of the Railforged is liked (83% positive on Steam, about 325 reviews) but notably less loved than the base game, with some complaining about balance of its new mode.
Repetition and friction
- Long unlock grind: levelling every clan to 10 and unlocking all cards and relics reportedly takes around 100 hours before the full game opens up.
- Having to repeat the same answer to recurring enemy mechanics (silence, sweep, incant) reduces build variety.
- Covenant (difficulty) climbing can feel like a loop of chasing a scaling multistriker or other high-roll engine.
Hoped-for improvements
- Reduce hard-counter encounters or let players see or influence upcoming enemy types so experimental builds are not blindsided.
- Add a UI or graphics simplification option and a less cluttered, more PC-friendly layout (whole train visible without scrolling).
- Restore first-game features some miss: a bigger boss pool, the Divine Temple shard system, and a mid-fight restart option.
- Rebalance or add toggles for overtuned post-launch bosses and weak clans (Awoken, Luna, Stygian and Gilda are mentioned as struggling).
- Improve the story and writing, or make cutscenes skippable or removable.
- Expand challenge and difficulty options and strengthen endless mode, which a Metacritic user called poorly designed.
Launched May 21, 2025 to strong reviews (Metascore 87 from 31 critics; top scores from Hey Poor Player, Screen Rant and Try Hard Guides at 100, Noisy Pixel 95, Game Informer 93, PC Gamer 91, IGN, GamesRadar+, Shacknews and Siliconera at 90; one mixed outlet called it slot-machine-like RNG). Steam ratings have held at Overwhelmingly Positive, with some very high-hour reviewers (hundreds of hours, one at 880 hours). Post-launch content includes the paid expansion Destiny of the Railforged (February 2, 2026; new Railforged clan with Forge mechanic plus Soul Savior mode) and newly added bosses that some veterans found overtuned. A demo with unlimited playtime exists. Platforms on Steam: Windows and Mac. SteamSpy estimates 200,000 to 500,000 owners (order-of-magnitude only; the revenue-calculator site returned $0 so no usable revenue figure). The OpenCritic score could not be verified: the OpenCritic page IDs tried resolved to unrelated games and web search quota was exhausted, so it is reported as null. Metacritic user score rests on only about 77 ratings (71% positive, 22% mixed, 6% negative).
Community sources
- Top helpful positive and negative English Steam reviews (local file) ↗
- Steam store metadata, review counts, SteamSpy owner estimate ↗
- Metacritic critic score 87, user score 7.8, critic consensus ↗
- Individual critic outlet scores and one-line takeaways ↗
- Metacritic user score distribution and common user themes ↗
- Steam store page: features, DLC list, review summary ↗
- Destiny of the Railforged DLC: content, date, reviews ↗
- Revenue estimate page (returned $0, unusable) ↗
Archived creator commentary 1
Third-party summaries based on automatic captions may contain transcription or interpretation errors.
Tier list Part 4 (2025)
Monster Train 2 is the sequel to a deck-building roguelike with an auto-battler flavor, where you place units across three floors and fight waves up a train, Slay the Spire style. He considers the original one of his favorite deck builders ever and judges the sequel better, calling it possibly his favorite deck builder of all time. It keeps the core formula but adds quality-of-life changes, new card types and a big hidden reveal that multiplies build diversity. He gives it an easy S tier and puts it at the top of S.
What the creator praises
- Deployment phase: drawing all units at the start of each fight and placing them freely cuts RNG, while energy limits keep fights from feeling identical
- Huge build diversity from the clan system (two clans per run, two champions each), massively expanded by the spoiler reveal that restores the first game's clans, giving roughly 180 combinations
- New additions like equipment cards, room cards, unit abilities and a selectable Pyre feel like simple, well-judged layers of customization
- Ascension-style difficulty scaling makes early runs easy to jump into and have fun with crazy combos, without overwhelming the player
- Visuals, animation, art style and soundtrack are standout and instantly recognizable
- Rewind and restart-battle options help with mistakes and reveal how strategic and mathematical positioning and spell choices are
Issues raised by the creator
- Spell-focused clan is the weakest: gimmicky and poor at fusing with other clans, even worse than in the first game
- Story element and joke dialogue on units feel unnecessary, though minor
- Pyre of Dominion is slightly overpowered and some balance tweaks are still wanted
- Deployment phase can make fights a bit consistent, and the rewind button can be used to cheat or feels slow and cheap
- Wants more boss variety and more content; community challenges don't interest him
Design observations
- The hidden reveal that unlocks all clans from the first game inside the sequel, doubling build diversity, is one of the coolest things he has seen in a roguelike
- Deployment phase as a design fix for unit-draw RNG in an auto-battler deck builder
- Restart battle option teaches how much tiny positioning and spell choices matter
