Wes Fenlon: It’s impossible to play
Monster Train without Ozzy Osbourne
singing Crazy Train in your head. And
honestly, that’s exactly how it should be, because it
is a crazy train. My favourite thing about this
deckbuilder is its wild makeup of factions, which I
can mash together into unlikely allies. The
Awoken, for example, are burly plant boys that I
use as front line defenders to soak up damage for
units I place behind them. But depending on the
faction I pair them with, that
strategy totally changes.
With the Stygian Guard I
sometimes like to go all-in on
spell weakness, using puny
magicians to stack a multiplicative
debuff on enemies and then
one-shotting them. But the
Stygians also have a whole other
set of warriors that grow stronger
every time you play a spell, turning them into
deadly direct damage dealers with the right hand.
It’s breezier than Slay the Spire. You might even
win your very first run. But it keeps layering on
new challenges, and after a few hours it becomes
clear that the easier start was just Monster Train’s
way of making sure it’s firmly set its hook before
reeling you in. Getting the train to the end of the
tracks isn’t your end goal – the real reward is
building a killer faction combination that feels
unbeatable, then finding a single card or relic to
build an even better combo around. That’s when
things really go off the rails. Ay ay ay.
Robin Valentine: I’ve described Monster Train in
the past as a game for people who’ve already put
200 hours into Slay the Spire, though that’s maybe
a little uncharitable. It definitely walks in that
game’s shadow – and overall, Slay the Spire is the
more focused and finely tuned
experience. But Monster Train’s
relative messiness is its strength.
It combines the core tactical
deck-building of its inspiration
with a kind of chaos that never
stops escalating through a run.
Your roster is always stacked with
ridiculous powers and abilities,
and with overwhelming odds
stacked against you, you’re actively encouraged to
throw together effects in combinations that would
feel utterly broken in any other game.
Slay the Spire’s cold efficiency is a wonderful
challenge that keeps me coming back again and
again – but Monster Train is a gleeful explosion of
illegal fireworks that never lets the adrenaline
drop long enough to let you get bored.MONSTER TRAIN
A KIND OF CHAOS
THAT NEVER
STOPS
ESCALATINGTHE GAME OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2020
RISK OF RAIN 2
It’s a hell of a year for
roguelikes with Hades and
Spelunky 2, but my heart this
year belongs to Risk of Rain 2,
a perfect co-op time-waster.
RoR2 is all about broken builds,
finding a combination of items
that transforms you into an
invincible murder machine- that is, until a boss one-shots
you and you do it all over again.
The power curve is seriously
satisfying, and finding all its
secrets can keep you busy for
weeks on end.
Wes Fenlon
BLACK MESA
This Valve-approved remake of
the original Half-Life finally left
Early Access this year, adding
its anticipated Xen chapters to
finish the story off properly.
The new Xen is a revelation,
turning one of the original
game’s worst sets of levels into
a late-game highlight. Purists
will question some of the more
dramatic changes, but this is a
great way to experience
Gordon Freeman’s first
adventure, with vastly
improved visuals and physics.Andy Kelly
PERSONAL
PICKPERSONAL
PICKBEST
CARD GAME