Another day, another world-ending threat in the Marvel universe. This time, an ancient evil known as Lilith has been resurrected by Hydra. As is often the case, evil can’t be controlled and now Lilith and her monstrous armies are out to take over the world and only the Midnight Suns can stop her. After resurrecting an ancient warrior who did Lilith away the first time that is.
As a fan of the original Midnight Sons run back in the 1990’s, my enthusiasm was over the moon when I heard that a game based on the dark, magical side of Marvel was coming. So I was rather surprised when I heard that the game was going to be developed by Firaxis, makers of the popular XCOM games. Even more surprised when the game was announced as a strategy title, similar to the XCOM games. But after a stint recently with some other superhero strategy titles that proved the two genres made stunning bedfellows, I was more than willing to give it a chance.
At its core, Midnight Suns is two completely different games wrapped together in one massive, Marvel smorgasbord. On the one hand you have the action side of the game, which is a card-based strategy title similar to the XCOM games. On the other side of the spectrum you have the game’s extensive exploration and social RPG side. They’re two disparate parts that shouldn’t work and yet, somehow, does. Spectacularly so I might add. Firaxis hasn’t just made a great strategy game, they’ve also made one of the best Marvel games period!
If you’ve played a strategy title or XCOM game before, then you know how this pans out. You’re dropped into a battlefield and have to take turns at wiping the enemy out. Simple design, complicated implementation. And strategy buffs wouldn’t have it any other way. Midnight Suns takes some new and novel approaches to the familiar turn-based design.
First, battlefields are usually one-screen locations that you have to fight on instead of complicated levels to move across. It may sound limiting at first, but the design is anything but. Second, and of course most important, is the card-based system. Instead of the typical skillset found in the genre, in Midnight Suns you have to customise your character with a card deck of various abilities and attacks. You can only hold so many cards though so your choice on what to take with you needs to be carefully thought out.
Once you’re in the field with two other heroes, those cards are randomly pulled up in each turn. You have limited moves for playing a card, rerolling cards and moving your hero per turn. The trick, of course, is making use of such initially limited seeming moves to turn the tide in your favour. Each card comes with its own abilities such as knockbacks, discarding a random card on use or, the most important one for me, refunding a card play per enemy knockout. Cards are split into standard attack cards, defensive cards, healing cards and Hero Ability cards. Want to use Iron Mans Unibeam, then you need a card for it. Hero cards require a specific heroism level to use though, which can be built up with attacks, which adds even more depth to your choices for when to use the attack versus holding out for a different opportunity.
The heroism meter also lets you make use of the game’s destructible battlefield. Enemies can be knocked into explosive items, or walls while you can chuck rocks or drop crates on groups of enemies. There’s a nice array at your disposal, though each one of these will also consume a certain amount from your hero meter to use. In a pinch, these are useful, but they can also be detrimental if you waste your gauge on them and find yourself needing a hero card you don’t have the resources to play at the last minute.
Battles tend to follow a similar set of conditions: defeat all enemies, procure an item, defeat a boss, etc. But each battle plays out differently enough that you won’t find yourself getting bored as new enemy types are introduced, etc. One design style that did annoy me though, was the addition of enemy reinforcements that would pop in at specific points. It made certain battles run on longer than they needed to. Enemy ads also happen in boss battles which can be frustrating as bosses are quite a handful themselves.
Unlocking new cards happens as you progress in the game, usually by picking up resources during missions. They can be scanned back at your HQ to see what they may contain and are randomised. Cards can also be upgraded into new, more powerful versions with extra effects by combining two of the same type of card together.
When not out on missions, you’ll be spending the rest of your time in what amounts to a social RPG with exploration elements. The Abbey is your base and is comprised of many areas, some of which you’ll need to unlock as the game progresses. It’s here that you’ll get to customise your deck layout, customise your hero with a variety of outfits and cosmetics, choose you missions, upgrade your cards and socialise with the various heroes that will join you on this journey.
Increasing your friendship with Marvel’s most powerful comes down to talking with them, giving them gifts and hanging out with them. It’s a fairly simplified system but is very time-consuming as there are multiple levels of friendship to chew through. But it does come with perks such as unlocking character combo attacks and their Midnight Suns outfits.
The game also has some pretty stellar writing going for it. There’s plenty of dialogue to listen to or read when in the Abbey and it’s backed up by some great VA. Special shout-outs to Yuri Lowenthal for voicing Spider-Man again and Michael Jai White making Blade his own. Why he wasn’t cast as Blade in live-action, I’ll never know. . .
There’s a lot to do and unpack at The Abbey. So much so that it’s overwhelming with all the customisation options available for cosmetic and rooms, dialogue to listen to, cards to upgrade and new areas to discover. There’s a little bit of Mass Effect and Persona’s social systems thrown in here and somehow, it all just works.
Visually Midnight Suns is a striking game, though it took a while for me to get used to some of the character designs. The Abbey is a gorgeous location to explore and the games Battlefields, while they may end up rotating a bit much, are full to the brim with detail. The attack animations are particularly superb, with some wonderful stylised moments and effects that really showcase how powerful the heroes are. Things explode, the ground shatters and missiles bombard entire groups. It’s continuously, dynamically entertaining.
If I have any gripe with Midnight Suns, it would be that the friendship-building takes a little too long to do if you’re looking to max out the friendship gauge.
With a near sixty-hour runtime, Marvel’s Midnight Suns packs in some stunning voice acting, excellent writing and a thrilling, you-have-to-pay-attention tactical combat system that gripped me from the beginning. Midnight Suns is one of the best Marvel games around right now and you owe it to yourself to give it a try.
Grab your copy here https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/marvels-midnight-suns
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