Monster Train 2
Developer Shiny Shoe
Publisher Big Fan Games
Format PC (tested), PS5, Switch, Xbox Series
Release Out now
H ow can you not love a deck-building game that includes a card called Pseudoscience? Pseudoscience comes with a range of buffs, only one of which will be randomly applied once the card is played. It’s dangerous and unpredictable, which is entirely fitting. The card belongs to a clan of mad scientists and their abominations, whose standout conceits include the ability to mix up attributes and create new one-off cards on the fly. This outfit’s all about the unstable nature of creativity.
This is entertaining stuff, even before you get into the synergies and combos. It’s also an early indicator that Shiny Shoe still understands that a deck-building Roguelite should feel like a laboratory, even before you throw in cards based on mad scientists. Speaking of new things, however, Monster Train 2 is simultaneously the careful, precise kind of sequel where it’s initially hard to spot the biggest alterations and evolutions. For the first hour or so, the game feels like an experiment in which not many of the variables have been tweaked.