Marvel’s Midnight Suns - Review

When 2K announced that they were making a new Marvel focused game, my main thought was that it would be a 3rd person adventure, likely developed by Hangar13. What I didn’t expect to discover was that it was actually a tactical game developed by Firaxis, best known for their work on Civilzation and XCOM. Having sunk more hours than I would have thought possible into the game, I can honestly say that this is the best tactical game for players who are not fans of tactical games.

As the story of Midnight Suns plays out over dozens of hours, I will only provide the set up here, some of the story points are predictable, if you know comics, but overall it is worthy experiencing on its own. Hydra has gotten up to their old tricks and tracked down something that would provide them with unlimited power and with them opening the box, they get Lilith, or as they call her, Mother. With that happening, Iron Man and Doctor Strange head out west in the hopes of recruiting Johnny Blaze to help them out, denied the pair return to the Sanctum Santorum when Captain Marvel joins in. The Scarlet Witch is attempting to hold the wards back from the invading forces of magic-boosted Hydra, but in the end the heroes are not able to do that. With Wanda trapped inside the Sanctum and Doctor Strange cut off from it, he seeks help from someone known as Caretaker and the Midnight Suns. The solution that they come up with is to raise the Hunter, the child of Lilith who previously defeated her some 300 years earlier, at the cost of their own life. The Hunter acts as the player character, so them asking questions that seem random helps bring you into the story and as you can customise the character to look how you want, it really feels like you are stepping into the world.

As I said, I won’t say anything more on the story but I will try to explain something’s in the most general terms I can. First up is Hunter, as the player character, being able to ask questions on things makes sense and given that they have been dead for the past 300 years, also fits well within the story. It never feels out of place for you to ask a question or make a comment and the more you interact with folks, the more options get presented to you. Initially the Avengers side of the group are a little weary at Hunter, given that they are the child of Lilith, their hesitance makes sense. While the Midnight Suns group embraces the recently revived, if only because they feel Hunter is a perfect fit for the mystical nature of the group. Oh speaking of that group it contains Blade, Magik, Nico and Ghost Rider, the latter of whom is not Johnny Blaze but rather Robbie Reyes. The prequel shorts that Marvel and 2K have been releasing over the past few weeks, start to explain how the group came together and while watching them will help you out, it is not a mandatory thing.

When I said before that the story plays out over dozens of hours, that was not me inflating the length, nor was I doing nothing but side missions. After almost 23 hours, I finally hit chapter 2 and that is when things got really full on. It is interesting though that with the first chapter, I never felt like I was stuck in a place, sure the game wouldn’t let me push through mission after mission, but it was for a good reason. The game balances pushing the story forward, with interacting with your team mates and those interactions can actually help you out in the long run. Spending time with Nico reading a book or chatting with Blade about the upside of being the Daywalker, increase friendship ranks, which in turn unlock new options in combat and beyond. The reason I bring that up here, more on it in a bit, is that with each interaction, you start to learn more and more about the characters, which in turn makes the story more impactful. I am not underselling it when I say that if you invest in the story that is here, you will find one of the best superhero stories in gaming.

Tactical games have never been my favourite genre, they rely way to much on the randomness of things, like being point blank in front of an enemy and then missing them, it feels cheap. Thankfully while Midnight Suns is a tactical game, is is nothing like XCOM, though you could make a case for calling it XCOMIC. The tactics come down to the cards you use during battle, knowing when to make use of select cards, can vastly change the outcome of your turn. The cards you get at the start are basic, but as you play through the game you will earn new cards and then you can use them in battle, ensuring that there is always something new to play. Each card has requirements on its ability to be used, some can be played at will, others require heroic power, which is generated by playing cards. Some cards like Hunters Heal will generate more Heroic power than a base attack, so choosing what card to play, is just as crucial for planning ahead. There is one mission that requires you to have 10 heroic to play a special card, which can be hard to get, when you are having to attack and whatnot. The downside to the card system is that you can only ever take 8 cards into battle and there are limits, for example only 4 attack cards. Because each character that you can take into battle has access to different cards, if you prefer to take the same three heroes each time, you can dedicate time to ensuring those decks are stacked the way you would like. Just a word of caution on that, there are some side missions and even main ones, that require the use of a set hero and if you don’t know their cards well, it can bite you when it comes time to play them.

The cards are also upgradable, meaning that the cards will evolve over time, if you want to spend time to do that. Some of the cards will see their damage increase, others will gain additional effects and more and as you need to combine two of the same card to level it up, you won’t end up with a massive pile of cards to deal with. Getting the cards is done in a few ways, sometimes you will get them once you complete a hangout with friends, but more often you will get them from Gamma Cores that are rewarded in some missions. The Gamma Cores and other collectibles are so vast, that keeping them straight will take some getting used to, worse when you want to level up something, but can’t due to a lack of a resource you were not even sure existed. In addition to the cores, there are Artefacts, coins, sparks of various colours, books, tarot cards, gifts and much more. Each has a part but it is the sparks that are truly the most important, as they not only let you upgrade cards, but also let you brew potions, make items and all that. It is not a small matter to say that the amount of sub-systems the game offers is staggering in its depth and you will need to put some serious time into them, in order to understand them all.

Beyond taking on combat missions and the other assortment of side quests, most of the game is centered around the Abbey, your home away from demonic invasion. The Abbey acts as a dorm for all who find their way there, along with a workshop for upgrades, a sparring area to level up friendships and there are also secrets beyond secrets to discover. When you first start exploring, you will come across a host of additional areas, a swimming pool, fishing hole and so on. These areas are few at first, but the more you explore and progress in the story the more that open up to you. Some of these areas require you to discover secrets, solve puzzles and otherwise piece together the history of the Abbey, in order to unlock new areas, so taking time to explore is crucial. At night, you can even invite your friends to spend time with you in areas that you discover, nothing says fun like hanging out in a cemetery with Ghost Rider. These moments, along with the hangouts by the pool, playing games, book club or any other activity are all crucial to helping your friendship level with the individuals level up and the overall team rating. The higher that they get, the more benefits there are in combat, so becoming friends with the characters you like to use, is highly suggested.

It is now time to talk about the games presentation, because there is no doubt about it, the game looks great. Is it the best superhero looking game around, no but it does have a consistent style that helps keep it up there with the rest. Lets talk about Hunter, this is your character and the first time in any Marvel game that you have control over how a character looks and I don’t just mean in the outfit department. The games facial editor is nowhere near as deep as many other games out there, with only a few preset faces in both the male and female variety. From there you can change up eye, hair and lip colour, add some accessories and you are done, thankfully you are not locked into that look for the entire game, as you can change at any time. The other thing with Hunter, apart from story progression tied outfits, you can also change clothes anytime you want, both casual outfits and battle suits, with there being colour pallets for most as well. Customisation is deeper than I expected, but it is not going to suit those die hard gamers who prefer to be able to sculpt cheeks and the colour trim of your shoes.

The rest of the heroes also look good, though some look better than others and a lot of that comes down to their lack of familiarity. Iron Man, Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel, the first heroes you meet look decent, but due to their appearances being in so many other forms, they will look odd at first, though Tony Stark never got better to me. The Midnight Suns, which include Blade and Nico all looks great by comparison, but that is more to do with their anonymity compared to the others, though you could make a case for Blade being familiar. While the heroes have their default looks, you can change their casual and battle suits at anytime, letting you embrace some older or less familiar suits. The world itself also looks quite decent and while you will visit a number of locations over and over again, the unique locations stand out for their design. Given that the game is turn based, you can spend time enjoying the stages, should you want to, though there isn’t any free camera.

Something else that is missing is a photo mode, well let me clarify, the game has a Photo Booth that lets you go about creating your own comic covers, complete with poses, text and such, but that is it. While we are talking negatives, there are two that I need to bring up the first is more annoying that anything and that is the simple fact that you can’t disable subtitles. I understand accessibility being a core pillar of the gaming world and having them on by default makes sense, however let me turn them off. There were times when the game would attempt to build anticipation in a cutscene, only to have it completely undercut by the game showing the full text on the screen. I went searching through all the menus, and there was nothing, I did find the colourblind settings but I was not able to find any option for turning subtitles off. The other issue that I found is with the character models themselves, as I said before some look weird, but this is something else, they clash. Quite often I would see parts of a characters model poke through a new outfit, arms would move through chests, feet through furniture. The most noticeable and constant, the separation line between the heads and bodies of the models, which ends up presenting as if someone has tired to behead a character.

Moving onto the sound side of things, there is good and bad here as well, but let us start with the good. The game has an incredible soundtrack with pieces that help amplify the mystical nature of the encounters, but also mixes in a host of superhero-esq melodies to help make things feel grand. The voice cast is a mix of well know actors in familiar roles and new comers alike, which helps make the characters feel alive. Iconic voice actors like Fred Tatasciore and Steve Blum are voicing Hulk and Wolverine respectively, with Brian Bloom, Josh Keaton and Laura Bailey all back in the world of Marvel, even if the roles are slightly different. Fans of the Spider-Man game on PlayStation will rejoice at hearing Peter Parker voiced once again by Yuri Lowenthal, though the characters are different versions, it still feels nice to hear Peter voiced by the same actor. One character that did have me guessing at times was Nico, after a bit I knew that I knew her voice from somewhere and after a search online, I found out where, actress Lyrica Okano played the character of Niko in The Runaways tv series, so that was a nice addition. While some voices do feel like they are not quite right, that again comes back to the familiarity with the characters in other forms, Josh Keaton who has played Spider-Man before and more recently Norman Osborn has done a great job as Tony Stark, but there is just something off to me.

Speaking of off, lets address the bad with the audio, the first is that the Hunter voice, at least in female variety, feels stilted. One could make the argument that it is due to them having been dead for 300 years, but I can’t get behind that. There are times when the character will say things quite normally and then other times when they speak as if they are an AI reading a script, the balance between the two is just not there. Your mileage on this may vary, especially if you choose the male form, but it is something to be aware of. The other issue is the quips, oh god the quips, after an attack either performed by you or against you, the heroes make quips. Now normally a bit of levity is never a bad thing, however there is something to be said about too much of a good thing, the game even knows that it was a potential issue, because it includes an option to tone down them. The problem is even with it set to half, the game still has them say things a lot and even worse, after the first 20 hours, some of those lines start to repeat a lot.

2K’s Marvel’s Midnight Suns is one of the most refreshing superhero games I have played in a long time. It offers up an interesting story that plays out over a long time, giving you plenty of time to get absorbed into the world, but beyond that, it offers up gameplay that is fun. Tactical games have never been my thing, card based games even less so, but the combination of the two here is done so masterfully that even my lack of interest in the genres was easily overcome. There are some presentation issues here and there, but those are not game breaking, more just annoying and while the voice work is stupendous, it does repeat a little to much. With all that said and done, should you pick up this game if you are not a fan of tactical games, hell yes and if you are a fan of the genre then you will likely enjoy the variety compared to the norm. Midnight Suns is an incredible game and while it is a much slower paced game than many around today, with a story and characters that are well worth investing in, the way it all comes together is a real Marvel.