Things were going well as I stepped into Shiny Shoe’s San Francisco office to preview Monster Train 2 — suspiciously well. With a smile and reassuring demeanor, I somehow managed to waltz past a check-in desk and right into a party. With today’s announcement revealing the game’s May 21 release date, I suspect the revelers were celebrating the, at that time, undisclosed milestone. Within moments, I was intercepted by a smiling PR rep before I could find out too much and ushered into a conference room to play the game in whose honor everyone outside was toasting.
My good luck would hold, however much I doubted it would, as I emerged from my preview as an undefeated Monster Train player. Which was unexpected as I had not dived too deeply into the original title. Neither the game’s creative director Andrew Krausnick nor the publisher’s communications lead Harris Foster seemed worried about that fact, though.
Both were quick to assure me that the sequel’s core remains unchanged though its narrative setup puts players in the position of defending a heaven overrun by titans. Another noteworthy change is a much-appreciated undo feature. This added option was, according to the team, one of the most requested from fans. Taking the form of a button nestled among the UI, choosing undo will take back all the cards you played that turn and effectively reset everything. You can do this as much as you want, a boon to new players just figuring out the ropes. However, with veteran fans in mind, there’s also a tip-of-the-hat stamp at the end of the level for anyone who plays without using the feature.
I didn’t have long to sit and listen to changed details, as Krausnick eagerly explained the company believes playing the game is the best tutorial — a reason you won’t find a separate experience before plunging into the action. It’s nice to believe that recently accepting the strategy sicko part of my identity helped things go smoothly, though I do have to thank Foster’s largely expressive body language for pointing me in the right direction.
Setting out my forces to confront enemies that would slowly climb up the levels of my train — the creative director assured me he knows trains don’t usually work this way, so suspend your disbelief — I could tell I’d made a decent or poor choice depending on whether Foster’s head nodded vigorously or automatically shook. This last he seemed to do a lot when I whimsically decided to name a low-level unit and protect him above my actual champion.
“We let things get pretty big,” explains Krausnick. Something I soon discovered for myself as I chose a perk for my champion that would give him a buff whenever he moved position. I continually exploited this to, hopefully, build an unstoppable one-man army. After two successful battles, it seemed to be working. However, time flies when you’re fighting monsters that would make Lovecraft crack a smile. I had to put down the controller and call it a day while I was still ahead. We’ll have to see whether that streak continues when Monster Train 2 launches next month.
Leave a Reply