The new game by the XCOM makers shows amazing potential. Strategy expert Daniel was able to play it and was very enthusiastic. This is what you can expect in October.
While Marvel has stood for exuberant success in the cinemas for over a decade, the heroes remain a risk on the PC. Sure, games like Marvel’s Spider-Man make the box office shake, but there are also candidates like Marvel’s Avengers, which makes for disappointed faces both financially and qualitatively. And even if a game is objectively super, it can still fall by the wayside. That’s what happened with Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
What about the next big project? Because Marvel’s Midnight Suns will be released this year on 7 October 2022. A strategy game that, for once, doesn’t have such a sonorous name to show for itself. Because the Midnights Suns are to the Avengers about as Akito is to Tempo handkerchiefs. Hardly anyone knows them.
But Midnight Suns has another strength: this turn-based strategy game is developed by Firaxis. That is, by the people who are responsible for Civilization and XCOM. The people who put turn-based strategy on their toast in the morning.
Nevertheless, many strategy fans are sceptical. Especially since talk of a map mechanic didn’t exactly elicit rapturous applause. This doubtful reaction could turn out to be a mistake. In the meantime, the first groups of people have been allowed to play the strategy game for themselves – and they are quite enthusiastic.
Table of Contents
The most important question: How do the round battles play?
Let’s get the most important point out of the way first: no, Marvel’s Midnight Suns doesn’t play any less involving or strategic than an XCOM just because cards now matter. Of course, the battles already give the impression of more of a card game than we might be used to, but according to Daniel, that doesn’t change how much fun the battles are.
The Foundation
In it we have control of mostly three different heroes, recruited not only from team members of the Midnight Suns. The Avengers also have their fingers in the pie and therefore send big names like Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Dr. Strange and even Spider-Man into battle (it’s not possible without the big players after all). However, the squad is supplemented by heroes from the second row and, above all, by magical figures such as Ghost Rider, Blade or complete exotics like Nico Minoru.
Important here: Midnight Suns is not an XCOM with Marvel heroes The battles are clearly structured differently. There are no sneaking passages at all, and the battle locations are more like small interactive arenas than large level environments. To win a fight, we have to cleverly combine our available skills, the level environment and the enemy types with each other…. let’s say combine. According to Daniel, this almost feels like a puzzle, only with a lot more krawumm.
The game system
Each hero has a deck of 8 cards that we have put together, which are shuffled together before a battle. With three heroes, this results in a deck of 24 cards. We draw six of them into our hand and each round we may play three, move a figure, use an item and exchange two cards.
Depending on the card, a different hero or heroine acts, which can be attacks, healing or buffs. So-called hero cards trigger exceptionally powerful attacks. Then Iron Man pulverises a whole group of thugs with a hail of missiles or Captain Marvel lasers several enemies out of existence. But these cards need heroism points, which in turn are built up by all the other cards.
Random intervenes much less in the action than it did in XCOM. Of course, it’s still a bit of luck which cards end up in the hand, but the abilities are only dependent on random damage or hit rolls in rare cases.
According to Daniel, the system makes for extremely fun, entertaining battles that are even more bombastic than in XCOM. It just feels really good to take apart powerful villains and their henchmen with the heroes – without losing any of the strategic ambition. Sounds great!
If you want to see this in action, check out This gameplay presentation from IGN:
How well does the mixture of role-playing and strategy game work?
It’s not just the Avengers and the Midnight Suns who stand in the way of the enemies. More than any game from Firaxis before it, Midnight Suns is also a tactical role-playing game. This goes so far that shortly after the tutorial we already create our own character. We are completely free to determine their appearance, but their background is set in any case.
We create a character called Hunter, who was buried for many years and is now being brought back to life by Dr. Strange and Co. Hunter is considered the only hope in the fight against the demon goddess Lilith (Diablo 4 says hello). That is why Hunter is usually set and has the greatest potential for individualisation. Although we can train and improve all heroes, only Hunter has three different development paths open to him.
Each of these unlocks different abilities. Especially exciting: these paths are linked to our decisions in the story. In the cinematic dialogues, we always have to give answers and can demonise dark magic, welcome it or react neutrally. If we choose an extreme reaction, this creates dark or light points. These points are in turn necessary to level up in the corresponding talent tree. Our characterisation of Hunter thus actively determines which abilities this character can use in combat.
What else is there to do?
Conversations are primarily held in the so-called Abby. An old magical abbey in a pocket dimension that serves as headquarters for the Avengers and Midnight Suns. From here we go on various main or side missions, but as Hunter we can also flirt with all kinds of heroes and experience them from a very human side.
Depending on sympathy, Hunter may have personal conversations and then eventually invite characters like Captain Marvel to watch the starry sky at night or have a movie night with Nico Minoru. That sounds romantic, but real love relationships are not possible with the heroes (according to creative director Jake Solomon). But at least very, very close friendships are possible.
After all, Daniel likes how entertaining these dialogues are staged and also written. Especially Iron Man and Dr. Strange are supposed to tease each other permanently and thus provide some laughs. But both are also helpful in the research in the Hell Forge. Here, new items are decoded or maps are unlocked.
The Abby does not seem to be quite as maintenance-intensive as the headquarters in XCOM. At least there wasn’t much to see of it for the time being. There are probably areas that will only become accessible later, but what awaits us there remains questionable for the time being.
All in all, it remains to be seen whether Midnight Suns will actually be as good as the first four hours suggest. But one thing is certain: fans of turn-based strategy must have the title on their hero radar this year.
Expert’s conclusion
It is rare that my initial expectations of a game are not met and exceeded at the same time. I, like probably many others, had expected an XCOM in Marvel garb. Obviously, Marvel’s Midnight Suns is much more and leaves the well-known paths of Firaxis. You might think that something like this would be a difficult challenge for a development studio to overcome, but Firaxis seems to have mastered this skillfully in my first impression. What is coming up looks like it could be a really great tactics and role-playing game.
Provided Firaxis hasn’t miscalculated somewhere after the first four hours I was able to play. I certainly hope that hasn’t happened to them. I have really enjoyed the game so far. Especially the alternation between the gripping and tactical battles, with captivating effects in a convincing Marvel look, and in contrast the calm and decelerated role-playing create a great and rare gameplay mix.
I’m curious to see if the story can carry the game to the end to my satisfaction. After all, as a role-playing game, Marvel Midnight Suns is a first for Firaxis and it’s not guaranteed that Firaxis will be able to carry it through to the end. Still, I can’t deny that I like what I’ve seen so far. I certainly dare to hope so. If only because it would be nice once again to witness the birth of a new and exciting game series.
Editor’s verdict
I was still not sure myself how to judge Marvel’s Midnight Suns. I admit that I actually would have preferred a new XCOM, especially since I’m usually rather put off by games with integrated map mechanics. However, after hearing Daniel’s rave and watching the gameplay scenes, I’m in very good spirits! Maybe it was just a bit narrow-minded to doubt the fun of the game only because of the cards. Cards are ultimately just a different game system than dice, and random rolls have existed in round tactics since time immemorial.
Besides, for me personally, turn-based strategy is best when tactical depth meets a thrilling production. That’s exactly what made XCOM great again! And it seems that Firaxis is consistently continuing this route with Midnights Sun. I therefore believe that I will have a lot of fun letting Spider-Man or Blade thrash through hordes of enemies.
I am still unsure how exciting I find my own hero. So far, his skillset doesn’t make the most exciting impression on me. Fighter-type with two swords – meh. He seems rather lame compared to characters like Iron Man or Dr. Strange. But Daniel at least said that Hunter makes a likeable impression in the conversations and fits in well between the established heroes. So I’ll just let myself be surprised how much I like this character myself in the end!
