Part 1 (Sep 2023) · #2 of 18 in that tierWatch the moment (1:29:27)
Monster Train
- Developed by
- Shiny Shoe
- Published by
- Good Shepherd Entertainment
$24.99
Monster Train is a strategic roguelike deck building game with a twist. Set on a train to hell, you’ll use tactical decision making to defend multiple vertical battlegrounds. With real time competitive multiplayer and endless replayability, Monster Train is always on time.
Consensus
S82/100
Steam players95.8% positiveOverwhelmingly Positive22,965 reviews
Metacritic ↗86/100Users: 7.9/10
VG Insights estimate ↗≈689K copies · ≈$11.5M gross
What creators say
Ranked Aug 2024 · #5 of 12 in that tierWatch the moment (0:53:42)
Ranked May 2023 · #7 of 9 in that tierListen to the episode
Scored 8.47/10 · tier derived from the score
Ranked Jun 2023 · #6 of 11 in that tierWatch the moment (0:47:25)
Ranked Sep 2024 · #2 of 6 in that tierWatch the moment (0:15:01)
Ranked Apr 2023 · #9 of 22 in that tierWatch the moment (2:03:54)
What players say
A 2020 roguelike deckbuilder from Shiny Shoe in which you defend a multi-floor demon train's pyre from angel invaders by placing units on vertical floors, pairing two clans per run.
Monster Train is broadly regarded as one of the best roguelike deckbuilders after Slay the Spire. Steam shows about 96% positive across roughly 23k reviews (Overwhelmingly Positive), Metacritic critic score is 86 from 27 reviews (all positive), and the Metacritic user score is 7.9 (lower and more mixed than Steam). Critics and players praise the floor-placement tactics, clan mixing and snowball-into-broken-combo runs. Criticism centres on the small enemy/boss roster, a long unlock grind, balance at top Covenant ranks, and dated art. It is not early access; it has had free content updates and a paid DLC (The Last Divinity), and since 2025 many reviewers steer newcomers to Monster Train 2 instead.
Players love
- Multi-floor train layout adds spatial tactics (what goes on which floor, floor-wide effects, hit-point math) that Slay the Spire lacks; critics called it its own kind of puzzle
- Pairing a main clan with a secondary clan produces many synergy combinations and encourages experimentation
- Each clan has a distinct signature mechanic, which keeps runs feeling different
- Snowballing into an over-the-top 'exodia' deck and steamrolling enemies is deeply satisfying; some players say it feels more empowering than Slay the Spire
- Boss challenges are telegraphed up front, so you can draft toward them; several reviewers like this clarity
- Runs are fairly short and playable in bursts; the game is accessible to genre newcomers and ramps up via the Covenant difficulty system
- Upbeat soundtrack, and strong replay value (players report hundreds of hours and 100% achievements)
- Steady free updates added champions, mutators, run records and Steam Workshop mod support
Common complaints
- Very small enemy and boss variety: players say you see essentially every enemy within a single run, and encounters feel like repetitive bullet sponges
- Runs are short and deckbuilding feels cut off just as it gets interesting; only about 10 fights per run compared with dozens in Slay the Spire
- High Covenant ranks (around 20-25) scale enemies so aggressively that many cards and some clan pairings become unviable, forcing the same 'broken' combos
- Some complain drafted cards are not much better than starters, or that picks are obvious, so choices feel less meaningful
- Art style and animation are polarising: several call it mobile-game or Hearthstone-like, cheap looking or ugly
- Reported crashes or hangs on startup linked to the intro video (AVProVideo/Unity errors) that some say persist years later
- With Monster Train 2 containing the first game's clans and more, a number of recent negative reviews say not to buy the original at $25
Can feel tedious
- Unlocking all clans, cards and Covenant levels means replaying the same handful of stages many times, and some reviewers describe it as more grind than strategy
- Low Covenant ranks are seen as too easy, and reaching meaningful difficulty takes 15-20 runs
- Late-game balance feels restrictive: players can sense at the start of a run whether it is doomed, and failing is less fun than in Slay the Spire
- Repetitive encounters and bloated card mechanics make runs feel samey after the first dozens of hours
- Weak narrative, so there is little story motivation between runs
- Drafted cards often feel only marginally better than the starter cards, so some players feel drafting choices matter little and the meta-progression is outrageously long
What's unique
- Vertical multi-floor battlefield with a pyre you must protect, mixing deckbuilding with tower-defence-style positioning
- Two-clan deck construction (main plus allied clan) with a champion choice defining the strategy
- Units persist and level up across fights via upgrades, making the deck feel like an army that grows stronger
- Covenant ladder, with a campaign structure where bosses are known in advance and players draft toward them
- Playing the demons defending hell against angels gives it a goofier, lighter tone than Slay the Spire; one reviewer calls it Slay the Spire's chiller, goofier cousin
- Competitive PvP multiplayer mode, unusual for the genre, and later Steam Workshop mod support
Players want
- Add more enemy types and bosses (Metacritic users and critics such as Softpedia asked for more boss variety)
- Fine-tune Covenant scaling and clan balance at the top ranks so more cards and clan combinations stay viable
- Reduce or streamline the unlock grind, since factions and content are gated behind repeated runs of the same short campaign
- Give players more ways to reduce variance (starting-hand or loadout options) rather than rerolling setups
- Lengthen or deepen the drafting phase so deck building feels less rushed
- Fix the persistent startup crash and improve Steam Deck and other platform stability
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Card BattlerRogue-liteCard GameTurn-Based TacticsDeckbuildingRogue-likeTurn-Based StrategyPvPStrategyDifficult
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Tier list Part 1 (2023)
Monster Train is a deck-building roguelike set on a three-floor train, where you manage three separate boards at once. He calls the gameplay amazing, with one of the largest pools of possible builds thanks to faction and champion choices. He admits it can overwhelm people new to deck builders and that it is challenging. He has played it a lot, loves the art and soundtrack, and ranks it high A, possibly S.
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