Marvel's Midnight Suns Review – All's Fair In Tactical & Marvelous Comic Warfare

Midnight Sons were a name that invoked fear, carnage, and intrigue throughout its history in Marvel Comics since the group's formation and debut in Ghost Rider #31 in November 1992. Firaxis, together with 2K Games, are bringing this supernatural outfit, albeit with an interesting line-up in the latest Marvel superhero game, Midnight Suns (swapping the "o" for a "u" because why not). 

There has been a considerable amount of excitement leading up to its release; generally, among Marvel fans like myself, many aren't familiar with this ensemble of heroes. While many are pleading with Marvel Studios for a live-action adaptation of the group, for now, we'll have to accept any appearance of this band of misfits, even in a video game, and I'll take it happily.

If you're unfamiliar with Firaxis, they're the team behind the wildly successful tactical strategy franchise XCOM, and they're bringing this expertise to a Marvel game. How much of that will be brought over to Midnight Suns was a surprise success, with a few minor issues which can be resolved over time.

With a new line-up consisting of long-standing and non-canon members, can this motley crew overcome the "Siege of Darkness"? Based on my 40+ hours of playing Midnight Suns I was left both surprised and eager for more hellacious combat. We're certain it will please players of RPGs, Superhero games, and long-time followers of Firaxis.

An Age-Old Feud Between Mother And Child

At the center of all the comic fanfare and Blade's hilarious quips is a centuries-old rivalry between Mother and child: Lilith and the Hunter. In your interactions with Sara/Caretaker and Agatha Harkness, you'll slowly begin to uncover what led to the doomed relationship between them.

Firstly, speaking with various heroes within the Midnight Suns and its allies can provide some missing information on the history between Lilith and the Hunter. More importantly, you'll also learn of the close relationship between Sara and the Hunter and Sara and Lilith.

Some heroes will also comment on the relationship between Sara, Agatha, and Wanda Maximoff/The Scarlet Witch, with whom the latter also has a storied yet fractured relationship with Sara and the Midnight Suns. Once reaching a certain point within the narrative's first chapter, the Library becomes available, detailing what happened between Sara, Agatha, and Wanda and its resulting fallout.

But the most significant way that the narrative trods onwards is by completing the story missions from the Mirror Table at the War Room. You'll mostly find Sara at the War Room, whom you can converse with but also imparts advice before taking on the next story mission.

You can also explore the areas surrounding the Abbey, which acts as your hero team's secret base. The more you explore, the more you will acquire various collectibles, providing insight into Lilith, the Hunter, Sara, and Wanda. These collectibles also help you uncover the history of an ancient bloodline known as The Blood, and your interactions with Agatha help in this regard.

Collecting faded journal pages from the journals of Agatha, Wanda, Sara, and the Hunter provides subtle yet vital information on the relationship dynamics. Hiram Shaw's journal pages also offer insight into their final battle, which resulted in the Hunter being "dead" for three centuries, ironically coinciding with Lilith's resurrection.

Aside from the Hunter, Sara, Lilith, Agatha, and Wanda, the game also boast a unique social simulation mechanic with the Friendship Level, which helps the Hunter become more acquainted with members of the Midnight Suns. To some extent, it helps progress their stories, and their relationships or connections with other characters, like the one between Magik and Wanda, have me particularly interested and invested.

To increase the Friendship Level with each character, bringing them on story or general missions, selecting the best possible dialogue options, and participating in Hangouts or inviting them to Havens can increase or decrease your Friendship with them (I'm deeply sorry, Carol Danvers). Lastly, Hero Requests also help boost Friendship Levels with the heroes involved, contributing to which path the Hunter embarks on Light, Dark, or Power (which represents a balance of both).

Picking various dialogue options has a dual-edged purpose for not just progressing the Hunter's story, but of those they aligned themselves with and whether the Hunter chooses the path of the Light or the Dark. Make a wrong move, and you'll have to deal with the consequences eventually (once again, I'm really sorry, Carol Danvers).

There Is Room For More Exploration

I'm a massive sucker for an RPG, and while it is a surprise that Firaxis handled that aspect reasonably well, I'm still slightly conflicted with how immersive the environments could have been. I set off to explore the grounds of The Abbey quite early before reaching a point in the game when I was allowed to.

One of the interesting points I've noticed is that only some features are fully available to be interacted with, as you'll need to progress with the story missions for specific mechanics and characters to be unlocked. The Words of Power is one mechanic you can get right in the first chapter, but you need to acquire each skill by completing story missions and continuing to meet with Agatha during the nighttime.

Using a Word of Power is connected to The Blood, which allows you to open up the areas surrounding the Abbey, find more collectibles, and fill up the map. But some areas need other Words of Power; to do so, you'll need Moon Seals, which are rather tricky to find and can hamper the exploration.

As I have a knack for prioritizing exploration first, the story later, I found myself with little to do once I reached the point where I could explore the Abbey within the first 15 hours. This may be a good thing, but I had hoped that since the Abbey has such an integral role in the narrative, there would be some focus on exploration.

Granted, the game isn't an open-world RPG, but it does leave the feeling that if the Abbey were such a significant feature, there would be considerable effort to make exploration feel as important. But for now, the game's exploration aspect would be best left once the story progresses further and the Hunter can continue to venture into areas beyond the centuries-old walls of the Abbey.

Card & Turn-Based Strategy Mechanics Remains The Greatest Heroes

The combat mechanics impressed me the most, making Midnight Suns stand out considerably amongst other RPGs we've seen this year. Utilizing card and turn-based strategy mechanics, one Firaxis is all too familiar with, it gave the game an edge as it pushes you to think more carefully about each hero, their abilities, and how it can work to the Hunter's advantage.

This is crucial, especially when deciding which characters to add to your party line-up for general missions and who to assign to Hero Operations (or Hero Ops). This allows you to use their abilities which can come in handy for facing specific bosses as it requires particular abilities, like attacks, to defeat them.

One of the earliest bosses you'll face will utilize an ability to strike multiple heroes within a single round, depending on who strikes it during that round. Additionally, you'll have to make use of environmental damage and ranged and Heroic attacks to bring the boss' HP down, which this attention to detail can determine the success of the mission.

This all boils down to the Hero Deck, which each playable hero has and is the main component of the game's combat system. Each hero has abilities that come in the form of cards you can equip to a deck, with eight cards being the maximum they can hold at any given time.

While you'll start with a default deck (and so does each hero), you can gain more cards by completing missions and analyzing items at The Hellfire Forge, which are then crafted into new abilities. These cards or Hero Abilities come in three different types: Attack, Skill, and Heroic, which serve as the hero's ultimate ability.

These abilities can be swapped out with stronger or more valuable abilities and upgraded by collecting duplicated or copied abilities to be combined into stronger variations at The Yard. You can also use The Yard to edit a hero's deck, which can also be done through the menu, and salvage for Essence, a material required to upgrade these abilities, which depends on whether the card is salvaged is an Attack, Skill or Heroic ability.

This in turn helps you face enemies and bosses during story and general missions, forcing you to be more strategic when selecting which heroes to bring with you, playing Hero Abilities, and using other heroes' abilities to your advantage in each turn.

Crafting is another heavily focused mechanic, as you'll be upgrading the Hunter's Hero Abilities and those of other heroes. Crafting is also extended to providing items and upgrades for the Abbey and the Hunter's sleeping quarters.

There are also crafting options to gain new cosmetics for the Hunter and other heroes, from clothing items to entire costumes. However, you'll need to unlock the feature to conduct research in which you can build various workbenches and stations at The Hellfire Forge, where you can use multiple resources and Essence to craft them.

However, crafting valuable items forces you to consider what items you can craft at any given time, as there's a limit to the number of items. Some of these items grant the Hunter and their allies unique buffs, which can be played like with Hero Abilities as it can help decide which heroes will use these items in combat.

The crafting and combat systems give the game great depth, unpredictability, and variety for combinations of line-ups and playstyles. This, in turn, provides different outcomes, regardless of whether you win or lose, depending on which heroes were involved, and the Hunter's combat abilities pushed either towards the Light or Dark path.

Boss encounters come in multiple phases, as you'll need to complete specific objectives or use different combat strategies to defeat them eventually. My first official boss encounter took me two attempts and around eight turns on the second try because I needed to remember to use close-quarter combat.

My failure may also be attributed to the fact that I played the wrong Hero Abilities the first time and included the wrong hero in the line-up. This resulted in them getting bonded and KO'd, which made the encounter slightly frustrating, but I was motivated to have the winning deck and defeat the boss eventually.

And this will be like for every boss encounter throughout the game, so just jumping into a mission won't cut out. Spending time upgrading abilities, crafting items, strategizing which Heroes to come along for missions, and the playstyle to use for each boss all help defeat them in one glorious battle at a time.

The Verdict (5/5)

I'm wildly impressed with Firaxis' approach to handling a Marvel gameand there's no question that Midnight Suns is a surprise hit for Firaxis and the Marvel brand. The game's combat system proves why Firaxis are masters of the turn-based strategy formula, which effortlessly merges with card game mechanics. It may take some time to get to grips with it, but when it eventually clicks, it will keep battles fun, exciting and dynamic. There's no question that once you're overcome that initial hurdle, you'll want to keep engaging in battles time and time again.

The crafting mechanics are given prominence by making you think twice about which items to craft, how to use them, and the best or optimal time to use them. It isn't profoundly immersive to other notable RPGs like No Man's Sky or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but it's enough to complement the game's combat systems perfectly.

The narrative will easily be a fun experience for many players, given how the social component allows you to progress in evolving the Hunter as a character. It also gives each Hero a spotlight, which one doesn't often see in superhero games, and makes their contributions to the overall narrative progression feel more worthwhile.

Firaxis also does a brilliant job at making each Hero's abilities essential to the combat system, giving each Ability, Skill, and Heroic action their personality. It makes their abilities feel equally powerful and provides each battle with value while still keeping it fun and unique.

Sure, the graphics can be polished over, and certain Heroes can be somewhat annoying to contend with; undoubtedly, these are areas that Firaxis can rework over the next few months with regular updates. 

Any good RPG worth its salt should have a well-developed story, rich and dynamic environments, and robust gameplay mechanics, which Firaxis nearly hits all marks. It does pain me that the game's exploration was slightly disappointing, but it didn't put me off just how much of a bloody good time I had with Midnight Suns.

After all the battling is done for the day, the best thing to do is to head back to your quarters and pet the equally cool yet adorable Hellhound named Charlie. Overall, Midnight Suns will go down as one of the surprising game releases of this year and an impressive outing for Firaxis once again; I'll be taking Captain Marvel's advice and reinstalling XCOM on my PC because I don't have a C.E.N.T.R.A.L. as they do.

Reviewed on PC. Review code provided by Firaxis Games & 2K Games.