BATTLE TRAIN Review for Steam

BATTLE TRAIN REVIEW

This is Gaming Cypher’s review of Battle Train by Terrible Posture Games, Nerd Ninjas, and Bandai Namco.

Strategy games are on the rise lately and a lot of indie developers are coming up with some unique take on the genre. One such category is the roguelike deckbuilder. Recently we tried out Battle Train, which brings its own unique take on such a category of games.

Battle Train is based on the concept of a wacky reality TV game show where contestants battle with weaponized trains. The game follows your journey as a contestant trying to take down the show’s long-reigning, over-the-top champion, Aalvado. While trying to get through the competition, you’ll need to master the art of track-laying and tactical card-play, and this is where our game starts off at. The initial few runs are like a tutorial where you are learning the basic cards and enemy types.

The game is completely 2D with a bright, cartoonish art style. And the world is presented as a series of battle maps, though due to the roguelike nature, you might not be able to defeat certain bosses on your first few attempts. But once you unlock more powerful cards and train parts across runs, you should be good to get the real domination started.

Players can utilize a diverse range of cards, including basic straight and curved tracks, intricate intersections, and a deck of ability cards for buffs and attacks. The trains themselves are crucial for executing strategic plans. Additionally, more powerful cards and train parts become available later in the game through winning battles and visiting shops. You can get stronger in a run by collecting resources on the map, which lets you play more cards per turn. These resources can be retrieved by destroying obstacles or simply building your tracks over them.

Players have access to a bunch of side objectives and puzzle stages to complete while on their run. And sometimes fighting bosses with their unique mechanics makes it very much challenging to complete a run. Though the core gameplay is on PC and Switch, we found the controls to be intuitive on both.

Overall, Battle Train bridges the gap between a simple puzzle game and a deep strategic deckbuilder. It brings some interesting gameplay that I have not experienced in a strategy game before. The game’s insistence on story-gated progression can occasionally slow the pace, but the rich tactical gameplay and delightful characters more than compensate for this slight detour. I would rate this game 8.0 out of 10.

Battle Train is available for PC via Steam.

Related: Reviews by Hemal Patel

Hemal Patel

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A gamer turned into a game developer. A huge batman fan and follower of Arkham Series, generally I like to play mostly Action and RPG genre of Games. Into the Abyss!!! PSN: AbyssRyder