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cover-Marvel's Midnight Suns

Monday, October 28, 2024 2:29:13 AM

Marvel's Midnight Suns Review (Geardan)


Playing the Long Game

TL;DR: A surprisingly fresh take on turn-based tactics featuring a decently-varied Marvel roster. A terrific combat system meets an okay friendship simulator, but your overall enjoyment will depend pretty heavily on how much you already like these characters.
I was on the fence about this game, and held off on buying it for a long time, but eventually snagged the Legendary Edition on deep discount. I'm really glad I picked it up, and had a great time with it, but can't recommend it unconditionally. If you DO decide to try it out, I highly recommend getting all the DLC; the game would feel incomplete without it, and several of the features it adds are significant quality of life enhancers.
You take on the role of the Hunter, child and historical slayer of witchy big-bad Lilith. Recently returned to the mortal realm after 300 years of the big sleep, you're tasked with stopping mommy dearest before she can feed everyone's souls to chaotic old god, Chthon. Hunter is your original character, and you are free to customize them, to an extent. They can be masculine or feminine, and there are a decent number of cosmetic selections, but only a few faces to choose from. This being the Marvel universe, I created a red-headed bombshell with piercing emerald eyes in order to fit in.
Over the course of the story, you'll build up an enjoyable mix of big name heroes and B-listers. There are no really deep-cuts, but at least it's not all established MCU headliners. At first I was annoyed that there were so many Avengers in the lineup, but it actually works well with the story. Inter-team dynamics play out in interesting ways, as the titular Midnight Suns get frustrated with the big boys showing up at the last minute and trying to run the show without asking for any input. They don't all instantly get along just because there is a common enemy, and characters react realistically to having their toes stepped on.
This game is a bit of a genre mishmash, but primarily you'll rely on your superpals in turn-based tactical battles that really impressed me. This isn't just another grid-based tactics game with characters each getting one move & action, etc. Instead you'll build a deck of eight power cards for each hero, and every turn you draw from all of their decks randomly. You start with three card plays and one move for your three-person squad. You build a shared resource pool of Heroism by playing most powers, then spend Heroism on either powerful moves, or to use environmental hazards to deal damage, stun enemies, and more. Arenas are fairly small, but the combat system was novel and intriguing enough to keep me engaged over my very long playtime. On top of the solid combat fundamentals, the large roster of characters all play fairly distinctly, and you'll likely want to use them all fairly regularly.
When you're not battling, you'll settle into a fairly cozy routine at your headquarters. Each morning you'll have Iron Man open your card pack, from which you'll choose powers to augment your decks and start new research. Doctor Strange will open any artifacts you've acquired, Blade will arrange your daily sparring match to raise a team member’s stats, and Captain Marvel will send heroes out on away missions and report on yesterday's missions. After all that, you'll execute your next mission, then return in the evening for club activities and hangouts. These flesh out the characters and build up your relationships with your teammates, which leads to better passive benefits in combat. This relationship-building is where your mileage is going to vary based on how you already feel about these characters; if, like me, you're nostalgic about Marvel comics, you're going to enjoy this aspect of the game. If you've grown burnt-out on them from MCU shenanigans, or just don't really care about them, this part of the game will really drag, and the benefits are really too good to ignore. It's definitely something to be aware of before committing to Midnight Suns.
Finally, you'll also be exploring your hideout and deepening your connection to the old gods. While this can be interesting, it's definitely the weakest portion of the game. The Abbey is huge, and there are plenty of little mysteries to unravel, but I didn't really get into gathering reagents and running around to open chests. There are roughly a billion cosmetic items to unlock, but it gets a bit tedious. Worse, your progress in the side story related to exploration doesn't carry over to New Game +. It's all optional, but again, it feels like you're missing out on a lot of content if you neglect it.
In addition to all the above, you'll be spending a ton of time exploring all of the various progression paths. Raising levels, grinding friendship, upgrading and modifying powers, completing research requirements and projects, crafting combat items, managing a bunch of different currencies, petting your hellhound, and so on. There are a ton of systems to wrangle, but thankfully they tend to come in bite-sized chunks, which keeps them from getting overwhelming.
In summary, this is a great game*. That's a big asterisk, and it shouldn't surprise anyone that a licensed game isn't going to be for everyone, but if you just aren't into the idea of a LOT of chin-wagging with these characters, the excellent tactical combat is not going to be enough to salvage the overall experience. If you still love these dummies, then you'll have a wonderful (and very long) time with this one.