Marvel’s Midnight Suns (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S) is a Firaxis strategy battle game with a relationship simulation built in. What? Let’s talk about it.
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Hey we're back with another episode of Before you buy that show would give you Some straight up gameplay and our first Impressions of the latest games Releasing as usual it's me Jake baldino And today we're talking about Marvel Midnight Suns uh this is the latest game From faraxis the people behind so many Incredible games like the civilization Series The Modern x-com games they are PC strategy game Kings if you ask me and What they've done here is make a Multi-platform Marvel superhero game not Something you totally expect from the Nerds and for Access I was actually a Bit worried but what's the deal well a Lot of people chalk this up as XCOM but With Marvel heroes and uh believe it or Not it is not that it's more of a Strategy tactics RPG thing with almost Persona-like elements where between Battles you're doing a bunch of random Things you're chatting with teammates With in-depth character and conversation Mechanics and a bunch of busy work if it Sounds weird yeah it is it's gonna Either work for you completely or kind Of half fall flat I'm enjoying it Actually more than I expected but it's Got some sticking points and it's a lot Of game in here so let's just go now the Story setup is Lilith has returned to Once again take over the world and she Was revived by Hydra scientists and
That's really only the beginning as Things quickly become this massive Adventure encompassing a shocking amount Of places scenarios Marvel hero and some Pretty in-depth elements from the comic Universes but you uh you the player are Someone known only as the hunter a Centuries-old warrior occasionally Revived to fight Lilith and other Worldly forces now you are connected to Them in personal ways and uh yeah after Sleeping in a coffin you are brought Back to life in the 21st century by Doctor strange and Iron Man and Caretaker of the midnight sons and That's where you create your character With some pretty limited character Creation options at first but the hunter Serves as the kind of generic vessel Through which the story is told this is A completely new made-up character it's Not like a comic book reference or Anything so your male or female Hunter Is kind of like a sexy fancy talking Warrior Man or Warrior Princess type That you can eventually make cool Through in-game choices and costume Unlocks but a lot hinges on them and I Don't think it quite lands they just Kind of always look and come off goofy To me and the game tries to balance them Being a person from another time without Being too stereotypical but it kind of Comes off all over the place that might
Just be me but you know the other angle Of the story is the big emphasis on the Magic Arcane side of the Marvel comic Universes you meet up with Tony Stark And Dr Steven strange because they want To save the world but they along with Captain Marvel and a few others are Collaborating with the midnight suns in This game Universe an older order Dedicated to protecting the world from This spooky stuff and the main crew is Blade yes blade Magic from the X-Men Nico manuru from The Runaways and the Freaking Robbie Reyes version of Ghost Rider you know the one with the car so I Began to already tell from how I'm like Pretty excitedly breaking this stuff Down I'm a bit biased I love this stuff I always have so I'm gonna be a bit soft On some of it because I love seeing Other Marvel characters being Represented and also just having the Main guys shown in a different light Like I said though there are a lot of Angles to Marvel and a lot of it pursued Here though and a lot of it hinges on Caretaker Lilith Agatha Harkness doctor Strange and the Magical stuff that isn't As flashy or as exciting I I don't know If the game does it justice here it's Hard to bring that stuff from Comics to Here but it walks a line between that Stuff and awesome good old-fashioned Cool superhero stuff seeing one of your
Favorite characters show up having a big Battle with a legendary villain and even Seeing these cool new Lilith evil Corrupted versions of some characters It's actually pretty damn awesome some Of the filler stuff in between I don't Know not so much but uh we'll get to That now the strategy combat is a lot of Fun it's not hyper complicated actually It's got just the right amount of Statistics and Buffs to get you thinking But not completely bury you it feels Lighter and a bit more casual than other For axis games which at first kind of Weirded me out but I got used to it and Quickly started enjoying these battles It's turn-based uh yours and the enemies And you can use cards that act as moves Within your turn you have a limited Amount of card plays for your turn and You need to balance spending card plays But also using cards that use up your Heroism points so you also typically Start with one character move per turn But the characters often tend to move Around a lot for a variety of reasons so Yeah it's a card based system but it Doesn't totally feel like a full-on card Battler the cards obviously dictate what Moves you can pull off and are based on Drawing them from a deck you set up yes But the decks aren't massive everything Is manageable and there's a bit more to It than the cards a lot of the combat is
Based on positioning and using the Environment to your advantage lots of Moves encourage knocking enemies in a Certain direction to slam them into Other things for damage bonuses like Kick a guy into an electrical panel or Pick up a garbage can and throw it a Dude's head you know super heroic stuff But it leads to a lot less staring at Numbers and stats and more just kind of Sitting and thinking about the matches As puzzles like you know when there are Sub-objectives especially other than Just like killing all the enemies Sometimes it's about thinking about how To optimize every single thing going on And every move to do something in a Short amount of time or really sometimes Accomplish everything in just one turn Keep in mind though these battles aren't Always short they're not just pick up And play type things but either way like It could be really freaking satisfying Man I really enjoy the battle system Here it's not perfect you know a Majority of the levels are pretty small Though you know either small or just Limited and that was a bit of a bummer I Get it's smaller battles like with you Know you only have three Hero characters Playable during a match but still you Know a little bit more depth like layout Wise or situational wise would have been Awesome and it would have made it even
Better but it's already pretty damn good Now there are a bunch of different Difficulty modes too I know a lot of Folks like to really feel the pain with XCOM games and for Access games and it Seems like they're still willing to give It to you there's a string of different Difficulty modes and you can unlock them And they typically modify percentages Like say giving enemies 25 more Health But you get more XP and currency bonuses You know stuff you'd expect as more Characters are introduced pretty Consistently battles can get a little More complex like if you want to mess Around with portals magic Buffs and Debuffs and traps and it's all there but It's all relatively manageable the game Is good at like at a glance info so you Know what the hell is going on even if You're not like a strategy game expert Characters have big screen filling Cutscene attacks that are absolutely Incredible Spider-Man Spider Sense kicks In and it's iconic looking Wolverine is Obnoxiously mean as he should be at Least in battle Ghost Rider's big move Is incredible and team attacks look Pretty stunning say like having Captain Marvel do some insanely big explosive Blast like a Super Saiyan while blade Jumps in from the background like it's Wild stuff the presentation aspect in Combat is really damn good it's still a
Like this type of game though so Characters will sometimes stand Awkwardly between or in the middle of Turns or sometimes something Dopey will Happen but it's still really in the Moves and the actual attack and moveset Animations they always look stunning and It makes combat more satisfying even When you're just clicking a button and You couple that with some really good Cinematic music probably at least in the Top five of what I've heard this year And it's pretty cool the other half of The game is focused on the Abbey now This is like home base this is the old Spooky haunted Church castle that the Midnight Sun shack up in along with some Of the Avengers for this Mission and This is where things are a bit more Mixed for me personally this is where You improve your characters you power up Your deck of cards and then a bunch of Other busy work now I'm sorry If that sounds harsh but the game Heavily focuses on giving you a lot of Optional stuff here that I just found to Be kind of tedious collect this look for This lower Pages here not a lot of it Really resonated with me but uh Thankfully like I said a lot of it is Optional the game starts slow and puts a Lot of work into setting up complex Reasons and processes for everything Like unlocking and opening new card
Packs to unlock new abilities has to be This thing where you collect from levels And bring back to Tony Stark for him to Decrypt with the same cutscene every Time and the same goes for Doctor Strange with his research branched trees Like this stuff I want to get from this Is useful I want to unlock this stuff of Course but some of it just feels Needlessly complicated almost like Chores there are some games where after Battles I love coming back to the base And cashing stuff in but here as much as The stuff is useful it just like wasn't As satisfying to bring home the goods You know then there's all the team stuff There's friendship meters to increase For bonuses and lots of story stuff the Game's kind of focused on like a day and Night cycle so like you have a day you Do a battle you come back and then you Go to sleep and start it all over so Every day you can spar with a team Member and then of course you can walk Around essentially this superhero Hogwarts and just talk to everyone you Know do favors for them little loyalty Things and uh essentially go on friend Dates like go fishing with blade or read A book at the fireplace next to Tony Stark it's really silly you know the Marketing suggested some cool darker Stuff here but the game is surprisingly Light-hearted I'm pretty forgiving
Because I love comic book wackiness and I've seen every single weird angle of These characters you know I'm actually Okay with having a beer with Doctor Strange or whatever but something about The tone here does still feel a little Off for me it's a couple of things it's The midnight Sons group themselves you Know it's just a bit too teenagery drama Stuff there's an interesting story arc In there with the sons themselves being Pissed off living in The Avengers Shadow And all this other baggage but it's got To be grading for some people some of The writing uh some of the voice acting Can be a bit cringe inducing especially With uh Tony Stark and his weird looking Face but for every moment where I'm Grumbling through a lot of that stuff or Groaning through it there's some great Moments here and there it's like having A long in-depth conversation talking to An awkward Peter Parker or a cool deep Cut comic reference that I appreciated Somewhere some of it did work with me It's like some of it is fan fictiony and Some of it is satisfying The Abbey stuff For me is kind of the weak point it's 50 50. it's certainly not all bad uh you Know there's some of it that feels like A chore there was some of it that I was Dying to rush through to get to the next Battle or the next big story moment or Character reveal uh some of stuff is
Totally optional but there is a lot of It they went all in on the social Simulation Persona stuff then there's Even the battle preparation stuff Leveling up and customizing that's Actually pretty decent and it's in depth If a bit over complicated and even in Dialogue there's a kind of a light Morality system that is nuanced Depending on like who you're talking to It's not just choosing good guy saying Or bad guy saying and those choices I'll Actually net you bonuses and certain Types of attacks for your Hunter if you Want to be more of a light side hunter Or a dark attack Hunter you know and Even if there are some cringe-inducing Conversations here and there uh the Overall story seems interesting I'm just Torn on the whole thing though some People might not be into staring at Static kind of wooden characters talking For hours on end about not really much But plenty of players don't mind that Type of stuff I basically played it like There were certain characters I wanted To hear from and some I found annoying I Wanted to talk to Peter Parker a lot Obviously I'm biased but yeah some Players like this stuff I think Ultimately if it's not perfect uh Faraxis's heart was in the right place They went for it they cared about the Source material but clearly definitely
Wanted to do their own things with it Like they really did some of their own Things with it you're gonna see some Characters say and do some you Never expected and it might rub some People the wrong way uh but others could Shrug it off if you can't tell I keep Saying it I'm very torn here but you Know what a decent fun for axis strategy Battler with some weird comic book cool in it I don't know like that sounds Good on paper and it's still pretty good Here this is a lengthy game that you can Dump hours and hours into even if some Of the characters just sound like overly Quippy weirdos uh when you're out there Fighting your deck building and Following the main story it's really fun Stuff so I think this is a game for very Specific types of players players who Have uh read some comic books and have Tolerances for different and weird Versions of classic characters uh Players who love deep character social Sims and people who love faraxis games I Think if you're at least two out of Those three things then you're in good Shape to at least consider this game It's pretty bold it's pretty different It's not what I expected and although I Definitely pointed out a lot of things I'm not super into ultimately I still Had fun I leaned towards that side but Of course this is a before you buy you
Know how this goes by now I give you Some pros some cons and some personal Opinion and now I want to hear yours Down in the comments of the characters Revealed who are you looking forward to Playing as the most do you have any Experience with some of the deeper cut Marvel stuff here at least set up let's Talk about anything Marvel and Marvel Midnight Suns and for axis down in the Comments would love to hear from you Guys I gotta say though if this helped You out maybe steered your purchasing Decision just gave you some general Information clicking the like button is All you gotta do we would very much Appreciate that but either way thank you Guys very much for watching we'll see You next time Now's your chance to hone those skills Of yours don't leave any Hydra standing
