To be frank, I never really gave Firaxis games a chance ever, being known for turn based tactical combat style titles such as the XCOM franchise. Well, like with most things, if you throw in a popular license (Like Marvel in this case) more people will come to check it out, which includes myself. Going into “Marvel’s Midnight Suns,” I was still very hesitant, because I really did not believe this specific genre in gaming was going to do it for me, but after putting some time into it, I really got addicted to the overall rhythm to creating strategies and seeing them through.
Loosely based on an old Marvel comics run back in the early 90s called “Rise of the Midnight Sons,” the story revolves around multiple teams of superheroes such as the X-Men, Runaways, and of course the Avengers who all have to come together to stop a supernatural force named Lilith. With the supernatural involved, its characters such as Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Magik, and Blade that take center stage here. But where does the player come in? You play as a hunter, an original hero that is fully customizable to your liking. Being key to the story it’s up to you on how you want it to play out and what relationships you wish to strengthen along the way. Seeing all these Marvel characters in one game is pretty dang cool, with some solid writing that gets really creative with how some characters would react to one another, such as the veteran Avengers dealing with the new younger crew.
Having not played the XCOM games, I’ve been told that “Marvel’s Midnight Suns” is more or less just like one of those games but with the Marvel skin on top of it, but not just a complete copy, and enhanced one from everything they’ve learned before with a lot of new tricks up their sleeves. There is a whole new card deck building system that really keeps things fresh as your specifically tailored team fights off enemies in missions. Each character can bring their own deck of 10 cards into a battle, which doesn’t seem like a whole lot, but it’s enough to get creative. The more you play as a character the more cards you get to unlock. There are about a dozen super heroes from the Marvel universe to add to your roster. You can only bring three heroes with you at one time, these heroes vary in filling different types of roles such as a tank or DPS, but if you play with the same characters too much, it’s possible they will have taken a beating and will need time to rest up, which will encourage you to always be switching up your team.
The battles themselves do a good job of mixing things up, sometimes you may be tasked to save civilians while holding off hordes of enemies. The game never felt repetitive, even with how long it is (it could take a minimum of 40 hours to finish) and that’s because of the variety in decks and cards. With each turn coming up next you won’t know which cards you will be dealt, so even with heavy strategizing, there’s still that level of uncertainty that keeps you on your toes. The environments are also very important, you can use things around the map to your advantage and help you against the enemies turn. The option to knock enemies off the map completely can also be possible, the game is kind of you to give you a percentage of possibility of the likelihood of being able to accomplish this, which helps tremendously in your strategy.
When you’re not doing missions and trying to save the world, everyone regroups at The Abbey, a very nice mystical home base for our characters to relax and interact. It’s fun to explore and this is where relationships are formed. You can develop friendships by saying the right things to the heroes to grow your friendship score. This is also something that will pay off in battles, so I highly recommend you make friends with the ones you like. This is also where the writing shines, getting to know all these characters and seeing all the interesting dynamics play out.
My biggest gripe with “Marvel’s Midnight Suns” is by far the graphics. I often try not to pick apart a game for something as trivial as graphics, but there’s something really special here, but the really bland character models and lack of texture everywhere really don’t look great. The worst is the characters, everything is so stiff, especially their faces, so when they speak and say something emotional, that’s not really what I’m seeing displayed on their face, they really struggle to emote. All-in-all, I was really hooked by this one and it may still not be for everyone, but hopefully the Marvel brand is large enough to get more people to check out this really fun game, like it did with me.
8.5/10
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Related: Nick Navarro Reviews
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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