Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a fresh take on superhero games. Instead of another 3rd person action game like Marvel’s Avengers or Gotham Knights, Midnight Suns is a tactical game, allowing players the chance to experience strategic turn-based superhero combat.
Midnight Suns‘ combat is not the only thing that sets it apart from other Marvel games. There are a variety of features that make the game feel fresh. Players who are looking for a new kind of Marvel experience in video games or just fans of strategy games like XCOM will find a lot of features to like in Midnight Suns.
10/10 Character Customization Lets The Player Live In The Marvel Universe
Creating a custom player character is standard practice for RPG games, but Midnight Suns is the first game to allow players the opportunity to do so in a Marvel game. It’s hard to describe the joy long-time Marvel fans will feel from getting to hang out with Spider-Man or banter with Tony Stark as a Marvelized version of themselves.
Because players take the role of The Hunter, a new hero created specifically for the game, how that player looks and acts is completely up to them. This means crafting and coloring a superhero outfit to look just how the player wants it and shaping a heroic persona to go with it.
9/10 Deck Building Puts The Strategy In Players’ Hands
Characters in Midnight Suns have more than just a few set moves. Each character comes with a deck of cards that represent their abilities in combat. Throughout the course of the game, players receive new abilities and craft upgrades for existing ones to shape and change combat how they like.
Decks for each hero in the game are customizable, with certain restrictions. As long as a deck has the right mix of skills and attacks, players can customize it however they like to fit their play style. It may take some experimenting to figure out how to craft the perfect deck, but this trial and error is all part of the fun of the game.
8/10 Cosmetic Options for Heroes Reference Their Comic History
Marvel superheroes have a long history. Some of the heroes in Midnight Suns are well over 50 years old and have had a lot of iconic looks over the years. The game includes unlockable cosmetic outfits for each hero, allowing players to choose some of their favorite looks from the comics, like Symbiote Spider-Man.
These cosmetic options aren’t just fun bits of nostalgia for veteran fans, but also an inspiration for newer fans to check out the source material. Players might wonder why one of Blade’s alternate outfits is him in armor and seek out the great Marvel 1602 books. This kind of connection to other Marvel properties always makes games feel like labors of love for fans as opposed to a game that’s just hopping on the company’s recent popularity.
7/10 Upgrading The Abbey Adds Depth To Gameplay
In a tactics game like Midnight Suns, it’s important that players understand everything that they are able to do in order to be successful. Midnight Suns has a great way of easing players into the game’s deeper mechanics through Abbey Upgrades.
As players progress, they can use in-game currency to upgrade the Midnight Sun’s headquarters, The Abbey. Doing so will add new abilities for combat missions, like being able to shove an enemy after moving next to them. This allows players to grow the complexity of their experience in an order that best fits their personal gameplay preferences.
6/10 Hero Hangouts Let Players Interact With Their Favorite Characters
Midnight Suns‘ gameplay is split between combat scenarios and downtime at The Abbey. During downtime, one of the things players can do is hang out with their fellow superheroes. Players can invite different characters to engage in a variety of activities, which leads to conversations and an increased friend rating.
These hero hangouts offer new insight into the characters, which can be especially helpful for fans who might not be familiar with more obscure characters like Nico. Increasing individual and team friendship levels also have a practical application in the game, meaning players feel like they’re progressing even while enjoying downtime activities.
5/10 Dialogue Trees Help Shape The Hunter’s Personality
Giving players multiple dialogue options was a smart move by Midnight Suns‘ development team. Without player input, The Hunter would likely have felt like a bland protagonist who is surrounded by more interesting characters.
By giving players control over The Hunter’s personality, it feels more like they are actually interacting with their teammates than just watching a cutscene. It also allows players to decide which characters they agree with on certain issues, giving players some agency over how scenes progress.
Throughout Midnight Suns, the player will be invited to join various club meetings in and around The Abbey. These club meetings are both a way to gain new abilities for certain characters and also a fun way to interact with the team in small groups.
During club meetings, the player gets more fully immersed in the world of Midnight Suns by doing group activities with the other heroes. These range from magical spells being cast on The Hunter to reveal their lost memories to discussing books with Captain America.
3/10 Spontaneous Character Interactions Make The World Feel More Alive
In a lot of RPGs where players collect a party of characters, things can sometimes feel unnatural. The player’s base of operations will usually feature characters standing in the same location, just waiting for the player to interact with them. Midnight Suns is different.
In Midnight Suns, characters move around The Abbey frequently. Rarely will players find the same character standing in one place doing nothing, and the team will even spontaneously interact with one another. Stumbling into an argument between Spider-Man, Nico, and Magik makes walking through The Abbey feel like actually being in a superhero headquarters.
2/10 Environmental Elements Make Combat Feel More Dynamic
Midnight Suns‘ tactical combat is a lot of fun. Once players get the hang of it, fights feel fluid and stylish, like they were ripped right off the page of a comic book. One aspect of combat that helps keep things fresh is interacting with the surrounding environment.
Apart from using attack cards, heroes can also use the battlefield itself to aid them. Players can push enemies into electrical boxes to stun them, vault off obstacles for powerful attacks, or throw enemies off high ledges to defeat them. This makes each battle feel a little different, as the environment is usually changing.
1/10 Mixing And Matching Hero Teams Adds Variety
When players go on a combat mission, they get to choose which characters to use. There will often be at least one character that is required for a mission, but other than that, the team can be whatever the player wants.
Mixing and matching heroes on a team together give players the opportunity to experiment with different strategies. Some heroes work better together than others, and players get to experiment and decide what they like best. This just adds more variety and customization to how Midnight Suns is played.
