Marvel’s Midnight Suns has earned rave reviews from critics, hailing it as one of the biggest surprises of 2022.
With 56 reviews rated on Metacritic at the time of writing, Marvel’s Midnight Suns has earned a combined score of 83 with no overall negative assessments yet from the press. Jordan Middler with VGC gave it a five out of five stars, calling it a combination of a Firaxis strategy game and Persona 5. Middler noted how the game managed to subvert expectations more than any game in recent memory, calling it “brilliant” and praising its characters and writing as its best attributes. “It’s impossible to say enough good things about the game’s writing,” Middler wrote. “Firaxis, a studio famed for being the master of “one more turn” gameplay, has managed to include dialogue engaging enough that we found ourselves searching out “one more dialogue tree” before heading back out to battle.”
The Guardian’s Keith Stuart gave it four out of five stars, noting its “incredibly challenging” gameplay combined with strong RPG elements, such as decorating the Hunter’s room or helping Blade with his love life. While Stuart found some of the “Gen Z humor” offputting at times, overall, he appreciated the writing on the characters and opportunities to interact with Midnight Suns’ multiple heroes.
IGN’s Dan Stapleton also had high praise for the game but largely centered it around Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ unusual card-based gameplay. He described it as emulating the “duke it out” nature of superhero fights often seen in comics and films, where villains fly into walls or are knocked about like ragdolls. Stapleton especially loved the randomness provided by the cards, “forcing you to think on your feet in order to make the best possible use of the hand you’re dealt.” As he puts it, “the unpredictability of it keeps me from falling into the rut of repeating the same routine every battle once I find something effective.” However, he found the necessity to make the other heroes like the Hunter frustrating at times, describing it as “self-insertion fan fiction.”
Christian Donlan at Eurogamer also heavily praised the gameplay, calling it “a proper bit of a delight on the battlefield.” It also surprised him by proving to be a true card game and did not simply utilize them to handle attacks and spells. Instead, he noted how it requires a strategy to play right and can prove quite challenging. Unlike Stapleton, Donlan enjoyed the interactions with Midnight Suns’ multiple heroes, finding them delightful in themselves and not just as a forced part of gameplay to increase strength in battle.
CBR’s own Noelle Corbett emphasized the freshness of the title, noting how it pays homage to the comic characters without feeling like “fanservice.” She also praised interactions between the player character, the Hunter, and the other notable heroes like Doctor Strange, Wolverine and Iron Man. In particular, the RPG elements give players a chance to experience the life of a Marvel hero. As Corbett puts it, “Plenty of video games have tried to replicate the feeling of being a Marvel hero, but Midnight Suns lets players truly live as one.”
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is scheduled for release on Dec. 2 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Versions for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch will launch sometime in 2023.
Sources: Metacritic, VGC, The Guardian, IGN, Eurogamer, CBR
