Marvel’s Midnight Suns: A game finally worthy of the Avengers? We played it!

From Midnight Sons to Midnight Suns

As the proximity of its name suggests, Marvel’s Midnight Suns is largely inspired by the Midnight Sons comics published in 1992 and in which a group of occult-related superheroes succeed in defeating Lillith, the Mother of Demons. In the Firaxis video game, it’s the same thing, except that we find very few of the original members, apart from Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider or Blade. Instead, the studio presents a 5-star cast with both Avengers like Captain America or Iron Man, X-Men like Wolverine or Magik, or occult-related characters like Scarlet Witch. The icing on the cake, the title even offers Spider-Man, which will not fail to attract the attention of the general public.

Side scenario, we find the Hydra which resurrects Lillith in order to monopolize its power. This is to misunderstand the Mother of Demons whose power is to corrupt everything she touches, making the secret organization her personal army. To face this threat, Doctor Strange and Iron Man will contact the Midnight Suns led by Caretaker to resuscitate a very particular being: the Hunter. If this name does not mean anything to you, it is normal because it is an original character created in collaboration with Marvel that the player can fully customize at the start of the game and who will act as an avatar.

In this adventure, the Hunter plays a central role since he is none other than the child of Lillith who lived it three hundred years ago at the risk of his life. If the stakes are serious, this does not prevent the title from making many jokes and other humorous traits, just like in the works of the MCU. Several references to comics are also present, but these are perfectly understandable for those who have followed Marvel Studios films and series in recent years.

In order to resurrect Chthon, her evil master, Lillith will send her legions to the four corners of the world, but also villains from the Marvel universe corrupted by her power, like Venom, and that’s where we’ll be able to talk to you fights. And who says Firaxis, obviously says turn-based tactical combat, and for all those who were expecting a simple Marvel-style XCOM, expect to be surprised. By the developers’ own admission, Midnight Suns’ proposal is the opposite of what the studio has been proposing so far and we’ll explain why.

After choosing your squad made up of three characters, you find yourself directly in the heart of the action without needing to find your enemies. This time, no cover, shot probabilities or even limited movements, here your characters move where they want and never miss their shots since we are not playing simple soldiers like in XCOM, but super- hero. Despite their power, they are still not invincible and certain game mechanics limit their power. If in XCOM the part of randomness is represented by the chances of succeeding an action, in Midnight Suns, it is the draw pile which determines which powerful blow you can trigger during your turn.

A card system easier than it looks

And yes, if we talk about drawing, it’s because the fights are based on a card system that scared more than one when the game was announced. We reassure you, the latter is much simpler than we could imagine and we are far from real deck building mechanics. Basically, before going on a mission, we select per hero up to eight skills represented in the form of cards and which are divided into three categories: offensive, skills to activate different types of effects and heroic. As the name suggests, heroic abilities consume hero points that are collected by playing cards and which turn out to be the most powerful abilities in the game. Moreover, hero points are also used to interact with the scenery to perform actions without having to use cards, such as leaning on a low wall or throwing an object at an enemy’s face.

Generally, the environment plays a very important role in Midnight Suns because some skills benefit from the Knockback effect which allows you to throw an opponent against an element of the decor or against another opponent to do maximum damage. At each turn, we therefore move freely and we play a limited number of cards, to overcome your enemies, often in an impressive way thanks to particularly stylish attack animations.

With this card mechanic, we therefore have the possibility of combining skills to adapt to each situation, especially since each character has his specialty. If Blade is a DPS, that is to say oriented to attack, Nico Minoru rather acts as a healer and support, while Captain Marvel is a tank whose goal is to collect damage instead of damage. others. After four hours of play, it shows that this new approach to turn-based tactical combat remains more accessible than XCOM because the fights are played much more in the present moment. Of course, it is difficult to predict your actions in the long term with the draw system which prevents you from knowing what you will be able to play in the next turn. For lovers of challenge, they will be delighted to learn that the title offers eight difficulty modes to satisfy everyone.

The Abbey, the HQ of the Midnights Suns

But Midnight Suns is not just about fighting since at the end of each mission, see you at the Abbey, a kind of HQ for your team. Within the building, we move in the skin of the Hunter using a third-person view, a first for Firaxis. Beyond the walk, it is especially there that one prepares before his next missions thanks to various functionalities.

If the Hunter can train in the Garden with another hero, Blade strengthens your skills if you have duplicates, while Captain Marvel sends your heroes to the four corners of the blog to collect various objects, including chests. By the way, to open these chests you will have to take a trip to the Forge so that Tony Stark can open them, right next to Doctor Strange who deals with the construction of new buildings and research, familiar mechanics for the XCOM fans. And if you were scared when you saw that the game has micro-transactions, rest assured, this only concerns cosmetic elements such as costumes.. Indeed, Firaxis has already confirmed that chests containing skill cards cannot be purchased with real money.

The relationships between superheroes, at the heart of the experience

The Abbey is also the place where you can interact with other superheroes to increase your friendship gauge with them. Thus, the closer you are to a character, the more the latter will benefit from powerful passive effects and will even be able to do duo attacks with other heroes. In addition to choosing the right answers in conversations, the best way to strengthen your relationships is to meet with your team members and even give them gifts. A rather unexpected dating sim aspect reminiscent of Japanese games like Persona 5, but especially Fire Emblem: Three Houses which is also a tactical role-playing game in which part of the action takes place in a Monastery.

Unfortunately, it is in this kind of sketches that we realize that some facial animations sometimes lack life. As for the characters, if some 3D models look like their comic book equivalent, others have a strangely readable rendering. like that of Tony Stark which is quite unrecognizable. This is all the more obvious as the staging of the conversations is often basic, based on simple shot-reverse shots which fail to energize this kind of moment. An amazing result when you see how punchy the combat animations are.

Conclusion

By the end of our four-hour play session, it’s clear that Marvel’s Midnight Suns isn’t just Marvel-esque XCOM, but a different proposition. By rethinking its approach to tactical role-playing games, Firaxis offers confrontations anchored in the present moment and more accessible, but also more dynamic thanks to impressive combat animations. This result is made possible in particular with the help of an efficient card system, much simpler and more intuitive than we could imagine at the start.

As for the narrative aspect, the latter also occupies a central role, in particular by highlighting the interactions with the other superheroes. Finally, it is more on the visual part that the title sins, with character designs that are not always successful, sometimes rigid animations and a somewhat flat dialogue staging. Nothing to spoil this innovative approach and in any case, we can’t wait to be at the end of the year to get our hands on the final version of this title which promises to be exciting.