Marvel’s Midnight Suns Preview: A Deadly Game Of The Year Contender?

A Tantalising Possibility.

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Marvel’s Midnight Suns is an interesting proposal. A turn-based tactical RPG using Marvel characters, developed by the studio behind X-COM. Every other reveal just made it even more intriguing, with characters being revealed left, right, and center, and an eventual reveal of a rather intriguing card system. There was even the tantalizing prospect of being able to create your own completely original Marvel character that could interact with other characters, creating a new dimension.

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But then the delays started hitting, and they didn’t stop hitting. The game was pushed from March 2022 until the second half of 2022, with an October 7th, 2022 release date later revealed. This was then delayed in August to an altogether unknown date, with the only promise being that the game would launch by the end of Fiscal Year 2023. The game was then given the final date of December 2nd, 2022, with no date for last-generation versions of the title. 

This raised the usual question of whether the game was really ready for release if it would release in a form unbecoming of the concept and if Marvel’s Midnight Suns could do what a game like Marvel’s Avengers could not, and capture the mind like Marvel’s Spider-Man & Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy did.

Having now played the title for around eight hours, I can confidently say that Marvel’s Midnight Suns eclipses just being a good game, and makes itself comfortable as a game-of-the-year contender.

A Whole New Side Of Marvel

The game opens with a basic tutorial introducing you to the card systems, immediately setting it apart from the X-COM franchise. It’s once we’re out of this tutorial that it gets altogether more interesting, though. We meet Lillith, the mother of all demons, and find out that she’s up to a rather nefarious plan to take over the entire world (as most of these plans tend to go). She’s also corrupting the souls of villains and heroes alike, with characters such as Venom and your standard HYDRA goon falling under her spell and becoming souped-up versions of themselves. 

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Knowing that they don’t stand a chance against her alone, the heroes, (which I’ll list later), resurrect the long-dead daughter of Lillith, the Hunter. This is where you come in, creating your own character and choosing their dialogue to suit the style of hero you want to be. You’re not quite given the freedom of say, Mass Effect, but you’re given enough choice that you can mold yourself.

Throughout my time with Marvel’s Midnight Suns so far, it’s done something I actually didn’t expect, though. It’s made me actually care about the character I created and the relationships I’m developing with these other Marvel heroes. The thing is, Firaxis could have very easily just made a character creator and called it at that, but they’ve given your character as much depth as the other Marvel Characters and allowed you to form friendships with your teammates through bonding activities and your choices. Speaking of the team, you’re given the ability to control the following characters (though I must admit in my time with the game I didn’t manage to unlock all of them):

• The Hunter
• Iron Man (Utility)
• Captain America (Tank/Damage)
• Doctor Strange (Support)
• Captain Marvel (Damage/Tank)
• Spider-Man (Distributed Damage)
• Wolverine (Tank/Distributed Damage)
• Blade (Damage)
• Nico Minoru (Support)
• Ghost Rider (Damage)
• Magik (Control)
• Scarlet Witch (AOE Damage)

Each character has its own specialty and is customizable, with the pre-existing Marvel heroes having outfit variants available for you to choose from before you go into battle. It’s interesting to see how these characters gel together, and how they complement each other, something I imagine will still be the case in the final game. They’re also fully voice-acted and sound like how I’ve always imagined these characters would talk in the comics. A special shoutout to Lyrica Okano, reprising her role as Nico Minoru from the now sadly canceled Marvel’s Runaways. It’s very easy to imagine this version of Nico Minoru as being the same as the one from that show and it’s all down to her absolutely immense performance. 

Marvel’s Midnight Suns Offers A Different Type Of Marvel Game

As I previously mentioned, the game offers up a different experience to X-COM. Firstly, there’s no permadeath here. Your teammates can get injured, but they can’t die. There’s also a completely different combat system in the form of the card system, a system that’s fabulously executed and basically allows you to actually fight. You get a certain number of cards you can play per turn, a variety of different card types (ranging from support to AOE to status effects to general attacks), a certain number of times you can move, and a certain amount of what the game refers to as redraws, which is just the ability to ditch a card and pick a new one. Your movement and your attacks can also interact with the environment around you, with an example being that if you hit an enemy with an explosive, that explosive will detonate and obliterate them. With movement, you can use the environment around you to blast into opponents and deal damage. 

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I wasn’t expecting to gel with the card system as much as I did, but it’s incredibly satisfying to pick the right moves and know that your decisions led to the defeat of your enemies, and the card system is a large part of what makes the game so fun, and something I’m excited to experience more of.

My time was split between a high-end gaming PC and a Steam Deck, and I’m happy to report that the game runs like a charm on Steam Deck. With settings set to Low, you can get a pretty stable 60FPS out of the game, and with all settings set to Medium, you can get 30FPS out of the title. Obviously, some people might not be able to live with the compromises of low settings, but as somebody who just wants to play the game on the go, it’s a sacrifice I’m more than willing to make. 

If Marvel’s Midnight Suns can continue to keep up the energy that it exudes, the quality that it so wonderfully has, then it has the potential to be a late entrant to the Game Of The Year discussion. It’s so much fun to play, it’s a joy to talk to these characters and it’s a devilishly stylish game. Not even the Mother Of All Demons can bring this game down.