Marvel's Midnight Suns

One of the legit strangest games I have ever played.

You play as someone named "The Hunter", which is your birth name, given to you as a baby. You're a centuries old dead god who is brought back to life in a full suit of armor to help Marvel superheroes fight your immortal mom. The game actually starts with Ghostrider telling you to get bent, and then you fight against a Venom/Hydra team-up.

Midnight Suns is a game that feels like 3 different games mashed together:
-A turn-based deck-building card battler, which is how you fight and defeat enemies- Which might turn some people off in a combat superhero game, but it is actually super well executed here.
- A semi open world rpg. You can choose conversation choices that reflect how the other characters interact with you (You can be a big ol' a-hole if you want). You also run around unlockable maps opening chests, archiving lore, and picking up collectibles (including tarot cards and journal pages from Salem witches). You can even go mushroom foraging.
- A life sim where you build up friendships with superheros (Blade, Magik, Deadpool, etc) by hanging out with them, and bringing them gifts. There's even a "superhero only" social media. You also can customize tons of things from your bedroom to the hero's outfits (Seriously, you can literally choose what swim trunks you want Dr. Strange to wear). There's even a photo mode where you can create custom comic book covers.

It is so, so weird, but it is SUPER fun so far. I'm really enjoying it, I think maybe it's unintended, but it is hilarious. This feels so insanely like being a kid at the movie theatre playing in the arcade in the strangest of ways. There is even an invisible announcer that screams out "K.O." every time you kill someone like it's Mortal Kombat. I wish I knew more people who have played this so I could talk about it more. It feels obscure for being a Marvel game made by the XCOM team, but maybe that's because its sort of niche.

AND, last but not least- You CAN pet the demon dog.
($100 is crazy though, buy it on sale lmao)

This game was simply ok.

Pros (for me anyways) - The battles were well done, the whole using cards was iffy at first but once i learned how to use it better i found myself enjoying it more than i thought. It looks really good and i feel as though they put a good amount of effort into the character models and environments.

Cons (opinionated again) - The writing/dialogue is a bit off. I've seen the complaints of others and agree with most so i wont expound on it. The friend level thing seemed forced and lifeless. Some of the cut scenes seemed deep and meaningful but most felt like an after school special. The biggest issue for me is the optimization. Its laggy and crashes often even now that the 2k launcher is gone. I find it ridiculous the store runs fine but the game doesn't.

Picked up the game on sale.
Mixed review, personal experience may vary.

TL;DR = Game is enjoyable, but a main character is insufferable however and ruins the experience.

Gameplay is enjoyable, if a bit buggy sometimes. (Cards not being removed from your hand, softlock when team combo someone on the arena edge).

Honestly didn't mind just running around the abbey map exploring.

Even the friendship stuff got a chuckle occasionally, like asking Morbius if he eats bugs.

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Minor complaint, the game commits the cardinal sin of choice based dialogue. In that the selection you make does not match up with what your character says. This can lead to annoyances when the "summary" line does not accurately reflect what the dialogue will entail.

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Major complaint. One of the characters is so infuriating that I cannot be convinced to finish the game. They're a central character, and thus reappear alot. They're short sighted, selfish, and impulsive. One example being that when one of their plans backfires critically and almost ruins absolutely everything, they double down instead of reflecting. They love to complain about the situation and about others, but take no steps in trying to resolve this, to talk to anyone meaningfully, rather they throw tantrums and complain. This wouldn't be so bad by itself, but the game wants to insist that this character is right, leading them to be absolutely insufferable and infuriating.
The character itself is written well and well realised, it's just a character I can't stand.

If you can put up with Nico, I recommend the game.
But, if like me, you can't stand high school teenager drama type characters with no critical thinking abilities, You might have a hard time finishing this.

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Disclaimer. I don't care about Marvel. Maybe her previous comics make her less annoying, I wouldn't know.
I haven't watched any marvel movies, nor read any comics, my decision to try the game was based on the gameplay.
I can only judge the characters presented by the Media in front of me, and can make no comments based on supplementary material.

cool card game. too bad the combat sequences are set so far and in between USELESS and ANNOYING DIALOGUE! It is so hard to stay invested with how much stupid, bombarded "social networking" is in the game. I would not recommend. Play slay the spire instead.

As an avid fan of X-COM, and MARVEL, I thought this would be a no brainer, boy was I wrong.

The core gameplay/combat is fun. It's sort of like X-COM meets a deckbuilder, and has enough innovative and creative abilities for each MARVEL hero to make it fun and interesting. The only problem is, all of the boring stuff in between each mission. The great thing about X-COM is being able to run mission, after mission, after mission. There never seems to be a lull for long, Which is great. But, with this game, literally, not figuratively, of the first 5ish hours of the game you get 3 maybe 4 missions, and those missions may only take 20 minutes to beat. So then you're left with about 4 hours of walking around a big, open, boring base, while being smashed over the head with even more boring exposition from characters you really couldn't give a flying f*** about.

Witchcraft this. Witchcraft that. Blah. Blah. Blah. Agatha this. Agatha that. Blah. Blah. Blah. You're a demon born. Blah. Blah. Blah. This goes on... and on... and on... you just find yourself checking out after each mission because of all this utterly boring exposition being delivered to you in dull, uninteresting, uninspired dialogue by voice actors/actresses that really don't seem to care either. But, you figure, alright, maybe I just have to get through all of this, because it's introducing new game mechanics for upgrading my cards, and what not, and maybe then it'll pick up the pace a little.

Nope.

It just goes on... and on... and on. The dull droning just never stops. I've almost ten-hours into the game, and I'm so unbelievably disinterested in the story and characters. It is mind-numbing. It is every bit as bad as most of the dreck coming out from the MCU now. It feels like something written by the people behind the Agatha TV Series. It's every bit as boring and uninteresting. Now add in a dash of a half-baked friendship mechanic with all of the Hero characters, and it gets even more boring. Mind you, this half-baked mechanic can only really be accessed once per day cycle, which is basically the game's turn system. Making things worse, when you finally do start to unlock more missions, you can only take one per day. Which means that those you don't take, will disappear from the map and you miss them.

Normally, I'd be fine with that sort of a mechanic, as in X-COM you can't take every mission either, but the issue is, that all of the pointless and boring stuff that goes along with each day cycle, means you'll be spending the better part of each hour in this game, doing more boring, and pointless activities, only to spend maybe 15-20 minutes in the actual good part of the game, the missions.

It's a shame.

The core is there, but this game desperately needs modding to shorten all of the out of mission bleh, and give you more time in said missions.

Oh... and something that's really sad, is that the mission locations, while featuring some neat interactable objects, are effectively static maps. They don't change or evolve as the mission goes on. They feel so small, and confined. Again, in X-COM, you would enter into some maps that felt huge, and which would evolve as the mission went on. In this, you spawn in, sometimes without even the slightest bit of a cinematic, and fight wave after wave of enemies that just come running in from the edge of the confined space.

The after-mission photo-mechanic that is carried over from X-COM 2 is back, and it's a neat thing to have, given the fact that they're all Comic Book characters, and you can create your own Comic Book covers after each mission, but it lacks any real innovation, and feels far more restrictive. You can't even write custom text for titles and or captions; you're instead limited to utterly repetitive, generic text generation, which leaves you with only so many combinations before you start giving up.

Overall, the game is a neat concept, but it lacks the polish, the creativity, the innovation, and the fun of the X-COM series, which is a shame, because it's such a neat concept; taking X-COM and making a MARVEL game with it. I mean, just imagine if you took X-COM 2's gameplay, and replaced the soldiers with MARVEL characters, each with their own abilities and powers. That would be amazing! Instead, we got this, which ends up being an utter disappointment.

TL;DR I bought this on sale. Got the 'Ultimate Edition' for $20. I have about 700ish hours in X-COM 1 & 2. I love the MARVEL Universe and their characters. I will probably 'NEVER' complete this game, because it is so ridiculously boring.

It is a turn based system which works well, especially for people with limited hand function as we can take our time a bit

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☑ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☑ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☑ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☑ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

Don't let the edgy costumes fool you, this game has fun with all the characters you hang out and fight alongside. Lots of little references to stuff from the comic books, and fun social righting.
The actual mechanics for the battles is fun enough, especially with all the added mechanics with the Abbey and deck building beforehand.

This game is so much better than you'd think it would be. I mean, it's way better than I thought it would be anyway. Such a unique take on tactics games by adding deck builder elements, and somehow it still feels like a marvel superhero game with it's mechanics.

This game goes on sale quite often for under $10. PLEASE give this game a shot sometime, I promise you won't regret it.

fantastic gameplay, graphics look awesome (except for peter at times, he can look a little rough) story is very good imo, the combat doesn't really get dull with the deck building aspects in the game. If you like deck building RPG style games, I would give this game a shot 1000000%

very poggers, shame game didn't perform that well/marvel burnout prob affected but it's a really good strategy game and fun and well made and epic and so cool and i love morbius hes my favourite dlc character

Awesome game! good fun and great characters

The gameplay is awesome, but the dialogue is unbelievably terrible.

This came out during covid, so I am going to assume that the writing is a result of the writers not having talked to another person for quite a while at that point.

I found the dialog (& especially introductory/expository title cards) unbearable. The constant quips are painfully cringe inducing; nothing is taken seriously & each character is written with the exact same voice (which is typical of recent MCU slop). The writing is so bad that I couldn't get far enough through the game to make a fair assessment in a broader sense; the combat seemed decent, but not good enough to offset the godawful writing & the unnecessarily hideous character models. Pretty unforgivable given the fact that this is from a major studio. I bought this at a steep discount -- even then, I really can't recommend this.

I liked the game. The mechanics were fun and the story was interesting. The dlc story was pretty good too. I like the interaction between heroes, the references to other storylines, the dlc story was very good.

I will say some of the dialogue is kind of cringey at times and the ending of the main story was kind of disappointing. The random super villian encounters were cool but kind of turn general missions into a drawn out thing. Also deadpool had a terrible kit.

I hope they make another and they make the dialogue less campy and the make it so it gets less grindy for friendship. Also please learn what radiation is and how it works. I know that is a nit pick on my part but please.

But overall it was cool.

Its a somewhat shallow game, with a gameplay loop that seems to annoy most people, but i really did enjoy my play-through, and by the end, i was left wanting more, which can only be a good thing.

Summary:
Its a turn based tactical game, where unlike Xcom, you dont move each character each turn, you have a set number of moves, 3 by default, that can be used by any superhero, the battles are played out more like a puzzle than a action packed fight, usually there are certain enemies you need to eliminate in order, to clear the mission. After the fights, theres a vast contrast in gameplay as your taken to the mansion, chat, hang out and power up, research etc.

Story:
Well, its terrible, i was never invested in it, but i didnt let that get in the way of my fun factor while playing the actual fights. The mansion gameplay itself is so out of place, giving more of an 'Adams Family' feel to the game. A lot of dark and eerie stuff around, cauldrons spells and witchcraft, so out of place in a superhero adventure game, i was constantly puzzled by where exactly this entire theme came from, it really does feel like your playing two completely seperate games at times.

Look and Feel:
I have to say, i was so impressed by the music in this game, it really amps up the immersion unlike any other game ive played, sounds are great too, every punch, slash and knockback really feels great. Graphics are meh, i was really unimpressed by the fact each character, especially the women, are the exact same template model, making them not so unique. I feel the females especially got a little neglected, all same bust size and booty size, very generic and boring. The outfits also are very meh, you will get 100 variations of jeans and cargo pants, all the exact same template.

Overall:
I got the game on special at 80%, defiantly worth it, the negative reviews are correct, the loop can be boring at times, a little too much talking, the friendship and bonding part could have been fleshed out a little more, since it makes up such a vast part of the game. But in my opinion, its all salvaged by how fun the combat is, and the immersion the game itself creates. I did enjoy it, and i would reccomend the game to any fan of tactical turn based combat.

Loved this game, didn't think I'd be into the turn-based/deck building aspects of the game, but in practice it's actually pretty fun and engaging, feels like you're playing a weird game of chess and the pieces are replaced with some of your favorite marvel heroes. This was my first experience with this style gameplay, and since then I've also acquired other similar titles like the XCOM franchise. This game is a great introduction into these types of games. On lower difficulties it can be a great laid back and story-rich experience, I'd often plan out my next moves while having a movie or something playing on another monitor without too much distraction to either activity. Can be a satisfying challenge on higher difficulties as well, enemies turn you into glass but it makes you have to prioritize strategising turns ahead and using different card combos you might not need to bother with in the early game. The gameplay itself isn't reinventing the wheel but the story and more specifically the character interactions are so compelling and does a good job of making you feel like YOU are a part of the team, on par with the square enix guardians of the galaxy game if not better. Hoping for a sequel, if you're skeptical wait for a sale but I'd say this is a comfortable pickup at any price. The DLC is definitely worth it as well, I enjoyed the game on release before the DLCs dropped and enjoyed the game then, but now the game doesn't feel like a complete package without it.

This game is the closest you can ever get to perfecting the formula of great companion characters. The cast is the best part of this game, and anyone who says the Relationship building sucks doesn't know what they're talking about. Each character is written both exactly as you'd expect, and with such a depth that it builds upon that legacy. It's really fun to be able to leave your mark on the Marvel universe, and make friends and allies with some of the biggest names, cast in the best way.

I originally wasn't into the Card Game idea, but I really came around to it. It's really cool to play through them like combat puzzles, with plenty of opportunities for defenestration and environmental damage. Each hero's card-set is so well designed that they all play a little different, allowing for strategic and flavorful combination. I haven't played a Marvel game that utilized it's characters so well since Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

The story is pretty good, but pretty much what you'd expect from a comic book event series. Think about any of the comic events, these are the vibes. Characters are transformed and die in interesting ways, that'll certainly be undone by some sort of cosmic force, it's kinda the name of the game here. What it is, though, is a very fun thrill ride. Lots of little twists and turns, and the level of dialogue choice can really make your experience *yours*.

The DLC is pretty worth, I even enjoyed Deadpool, he wasn't annoying and had a really fun play style. Game is super good, underrated even, especially from the X-Com devs. Masters of the Strategy genre for sure, they can turn a silly card game gimmick into a really fun tactical puzzle game.

TL;DR: You want a Marvel RPG with a fun Tactical Card Gimmick and solid representation across the Marvel Universe? Get this game.

Extremely fun however the only thing that feels weird is my male character moves like a female.

An actual hidden gem! While it does suck that this game will likely never get a sequel, it is very replayable and I see myself playing it years from now. Seriously, gratuitous gunship helicopters, some of the best turn-based combat I've ever played, hot steamy geriatric lesbian romance, what DOESN'T this game have? I know it's a bold claim to make right after Marvel Rivals and the re-released Marvel vs. Capcom 1 & 2 have all made a splash, but this is genuinely the best Marvel game I have ever played. Most of the original team is here with Blade, Morbius, Strange, and Ghost Rider (albeit as Robbie!) and the newer additions all fit really nicely. The teambuilding narrative that plays out between missions is fantastic worldbuilding. The roster is fantastic.

I am enjoying the base game. The added bonuses are completely not needed. Mostly just extra skins. There's plenty of content in the base game. There's are more than enough skins in the base game too.

The combat is fun. Deck building / card-upgrading is fun. The main story is good. Most conversations can be skimmed (and there are a lot of them). All annoying treasure-hunt type stuff can be googled.

I dislike Marvel movies and i would still consider them Citizen Kane next to the writing in this turd. Gameplay is ok if you like deck building, but not good enough to win you over if you weren't a fan before. The game sucks for the first 10 hours as you're stuck in tutorials with awful, awful, awful characters (Nico, Captain Marvel, and Iron Man are the most annoying). It gets better for about 15 hours as you near the end of act 1 and get better characters ( Spider-man and Captain America are decent), and begin exploring the abbey grounds solving puzzles. By the end of act 2 you've seen most of what the game has for you and you just want it to be over.

Also, the game has some technical bugs throughout, but the worst is by far the final mission. I don't know if the engine couldn't handle all the characters on screen, or there's too many particle effects, but the fps absolutely TANKS. i dropped from a stable 60 fps throughout the game to about 18-20 fps during the entire end mission. It was also annoying to play.

If you like babysitting super heroes and tactical turn based combat, this game is for you!

I went with low expectation and for the price that I got it during discount, game is good. Not a fan of card based games but surprisingly it has good and fun card-based combat system. Story is decent, hero-card effects and skills are animated nicely, some exploration around Abbey at night for solving side-quests, card upgrades, friendship lvlup, items crafting, balancing HUNTER's light and dark balance and Exclusive skill unlock later based on it etc. are some nice touch. Missions are quick and even hardest of the mission is fun simply due to its combat mechanic and some strategic elements that will get you win at a dire moment. It does not have XCOM's miss rate even at 90% lol, but fights are fun in this game. However, these get boring soon, as exploration has no value once all side quests are done (which are very few in my opinion), once you are mid game and have decent lvl team you won't be even crafting items. Annoyingly game still has some bugs even after so long time, like texture tearing, one of the wall-frames in the room can't be accessed, Ancestral costume and passive skill related to it is not received upon opening the said chest in the location (Nexus Mod fix available), etc. The D-Day had nice twist but I felt the battles were easy and ending was super weak. It was like re-living the final season of Game of Thrones, all hyped villain but not satisfying finale. Only things that kept me going was I wanted to unlock every hero and their exclusive outfits along with their exclusive skills before the final chapter. And off-course my beautiful Wanda's companionship :D . Overall, it's not worth full price so get it only during discount that includes DLC's as well [which shouldn't be more than 12-15 USD (game+dlc's)].

LOVE it. Strategy, story, Marvel, customizing your characters...what's there not to like? Heavy on story and humor, so if that's not your thing and you just want to fight, I guess you might get bored? I love the balance of fighting, dialogue, plots and jokes. Some exploration and side quest stuff too. 10/10

This game is amazing. Music is good, combat as well, and on top of that 1A character development, Defiantly worth it especially if its on sale. But think more like Persona than XCOM so please keep that in mind when checking it out.

Great strategy game, I love the story and local exploration. The diversity you can get with most of the cards makes the game ever changing and different for each player. If I were to add anything, a multiplayer mode where players battle it out against each other would add a new level of challenge.

the combat game play is a lot of fun. i wish you could skip the story somehow. i only want to play the missions, which are a lot of fun.

Super underrated game. If you can get past the use of 'cards' there is a really deep strategy game with a great cast of Marvel Characters.

best turn based hero game there is currently. lacks the customization of Freedom Force but removes the %Chan ce to hit that other titles have done. So its pretty slick.

Fun, good story, and good strat

This game really took me by surprise. Its existence nearly passed me by when it launched in late 2022.

Little did I know: Firaxis Games and the XCOM team had just made a Marvel XCOM Mass Effect Card Battler.

WHAT?

I don't normally click with card battlers, and I am very burned out on superhero multimedia, but Midnight Suns quickly got its hooks in me, and I could not put it down. Maybe I'm just burned out on trash multimedia.

- If you like Marvel content, that's an easy reason to enjoy this. There's a good mix of superstar Avengers heroes and lesser known Midnight Suns heroes in the game.

- All of this game's DNA screams XCOM, the battles have just been converted to a smaller arena based around card battling, rather than a large cover and fog of war-based combat system. All of the management systems at play in your out of combat base, The Abbey, are very similar to XCOM headquarters. Train with your heroes, upgrade your cards, buy items, explore the Abbey grounds to find secrets and loot, and quite a bit more in-between combat missions.

- A friendship and hangout Social system with all of the heroes. Have some beers with Blade or go fishing with Wolverine, and you get battle bonuses for building these relationships, creating a great side progression system.

- I honestly don't play enough card battlers to give an expert gamer opinion on how deep the card strategy and deckbuilding is. But I started the game pretty inept, and by the end I was fine-tuning my hero decks, playing cards for a turn or two ahead, and optimizing my combat action sequences for maximum effect.

- The one DLC expansion that came out before development ended, The Good, The Bad, and the Undead, was just as high quality as the base game and integrated into it seamlessly. It was also amazing near the end when Morbius screamed "ITS MORBIN' TIME"

- This has a LOT of dialogue, in a dialogue system that will be familiar if you've played the Mass Effect trilogy. The writing is never that good, in fact it can be quite comic book hammy at times, but this game is suitably epic. I accomplished a lot, but did NOT "100%" this game, and this was teetering on 90 hours played. That's bigger than the entire Mass Effect trilogy on completionist runs.

Some smaller criticisms of the game that I didn't love:

- They tried to go for a premium currency and loot grading system that just reeks in a single player game. Unacceptable. Alas, development of the game has ceased, and the Legendary Edition of this game includes ALL content.

- Some of the mission variety, particularly Story missions (move critical path/plot forward), left a bit to be desired. I never minded General missions (mostly side/optional missions) having recognisable presets, but to launch into Story missions and often have them padded out by the same presets as General missions was disappointing at times.

- Not a big fan of level scaling enemies, and the enemies in this game will do so until you reach max "normal" levels, after which there are "heroic" levels where you begin to eclipse them. This almost felt like an irrelevance to explain, but I was just shy of max level after finishing the game, so enemies scaled for my whole playthrough.

- That this game fell under the radar so hard, I never got more DLC expansions. We could have had Thor! And Squirrel Girl!

That's about it. I strongly recommend this game. If "Marvel XCOM Mass Effect Card Battler" speaks to you at all, you need to try this.

Game of 2022. great gameplay with even better out-of-combat elements.

Dude this game would've skyrocketed if it wasn't for some questionable design choices and questionable marketing. I love the game but the weird middle-school "drama" and increasing friend levels (weird hangouts and trying to please people) was awkward. I'm all for cheesy comic book dialogue from the golden era but let's be real, I really wish it was darker in tone. It's "dark" in the sense that it has that late 90s-early 2000s edgy angst. It's like watching Blade but they took out the cursing and blood.

Let's be real, people were expecting Xcom with Marvel characters. Straight up, bringing in Marvel characters on a tactical map and playing a polished version of Freedom Force mixed with turn-based action and stellar graphics. It's definitely unique and works with what it's got, I almost wish it played like a rogue-lite. And dude, we should've gotten some more obscure characters but I know that doesn't pull in the masses.

That's it for my gripes. This game is addicting and we're kinda strapped for good superhero games, especially ones that let you control a squad of your favorites. Aside from the "hub" slowing down the action, I really love it. Graphics are slick, superheroes can feel powerful if you build the right deck, and though we still have the Avengers in it, it's not just about them and we get to play with characters who deserve a bit more spotlight. Despite what I feel about the tone of the story, I still think it's pretty solid for a superhero game. Throwing some goon into an explosion to wreck other badguys and then slamming down with some crazy AOE attack you've been saving your points for is insanely satisfying. Also, it has Ghost Rider. That was enough to make me buy it right there.

If you picked it up for PC, seriously look into modding as there are some tweaks out there that make the game feel more streamlined.

I'm not a Marvel-phile, although I have a little familiarity. This hit a nice sweet spot of being a good game, with a decent amount of story, and some exploration aspects to balance the repetitiveness of the combat missions. I learned about some Marvel characters I hadn't heard of. The deck-building side was good, and mostly well-balanced. It was just the right length.

I would buy a sequel, which is about the best recommendation I can give for a game.

Great game because it’s a unique concept. There were some rough edges but overall the novelty matches the games length and is worth playing if you are a marvel fan. Surprisingly good voice acting!

The combat is also pretty unique and does not rip off from any game that I know of.

Amazing game for me. Great story, fantastic gameplay. Easy to learn, casual enough (if you want it to be). A little bit too much conversations, but it would've been a shame to skip them on the 1st playthrough.

I completed Midnight Suns on a normal playthrough. I’ve logged about 90 hours and earned a bit more than 80% of the achievements, which includes some DLC achievements. I have finished both the main story and the DLC story. I enjoyed the game or I would not have spent the time I did and I wouldn’t have finished the game. I say that because, some aspects of my review may read as negative. Overall, I probably give this game a 7 out of 10.

Midnight Suns is set an alternative universe from the main Marvel universe or the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Were this either of those timelines, at least one of the NPC heroes would be a member of a group she is not listed as a member in. The story addresses occult issues and pulls in a number of obscure heroes such as Mobius and villains such as Sin or Dr. Faustus. Key members of the Avengers and X-Men appear alongside a number of traditionally solo heroes.

The story revolves around the player’s avatar, a previously unheard-of hero known only as “the Hunter.” The Hunter’s story involves death and rebirth, immortality, family struggles and elder gods. Overall, it’s a pretty good story, capturing the feel of a Marvel cartoon. The voice acting is quite good with some well-known, and recognizable, talent making up the cast.

Combat
The combat in this game uses a turn-based, deck building system. Each hero has a configurable deck of eight cards. Typically, three heroes go on any mission, meaning the player has a deck of 24-cards to draw from. Each turn the player draws a hand of cards and receives three card-play actions.

Some cards build up energy, some use up accumulated energy. Some cards are free to play and do not use up a card action and some are free to play if certain conditions are met. Accumulated energy may be used for more powerful cards or used to interact with the battle arena. The choices in how to best use the three card-actions and when to burn power on big cards or environmental effects kept combat interesting throughout the game.

Each hero feels unique. The cards available to them evoke the powers and abilities present in the comics, cartoons, and movies. I really enjoyed the card play of Captain America and I found Spider-Man’s ability to interact with the battle arena to be particularly fun. Some heroes, like Blade and Venom, turned out to be surprisingly effective. A few heroes were a bit lackluster, I never got past thinking of Mobius as “lesser Blade.” But even the more lackluster ones were still fun to play.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this game in spite of the combat, not because of it. While there was nothing “wrong” with the combat, I could not shake wishing this used a more traditional turn-based, action-point model. I believe other reviews list a wish that this game played “more like X-Com,” and I agree even though I enjoyed the combat.

Building the Perfect Base
Between missions the player can work on developing the hero base, exploring the base environment, or reviewing upcoming missions. During base building, the player gets opportunities to add new cards to their heroes’ decks, customize existing cards somewhat, and build resources which affect future missions.
The card gaining mechanic, card crafting mechanic, and card improving mechanic provide a pretty interesting amount of flexibility. The UI for these decisions is very good, it was always pretty obvious how to do the thing I wanted to do.

Base upgrades affect your heroes’ options in future missions. One improvement allows interrogating enemies during missions. Other upgrades modify and enhance the movement options during combat, enabling shoving and other interesting combat choices.

There are a number of currencies in play, so many so that it feels like this was heading towards being a mobile game. There are three different hero currencies uses in upgrading abilities, credits used to purchase base upgrades, intel used for side-missions, and gloss used to buy cosmetics. I didn’t really see any benefit from having so many types of currencies and often it felt like the game was nudging me towards busy work to “get a few more orange currencies, and then a credit, oh but first I need to get an artifact…”

Exploring the Abbey
The player’s base exists in a pocket dimension called the Abbey. The Abbey starts off with only a few areas explorable but this greatly expands through mission unlocks and player exploration. The Abbey has a number of easy puzzles and a plethora of lockboxes, another mobile game staple. I unlocked lockboxes as I worked through story exploration, but about halfway through my playthrough I just ignored boxes for the remainder of the game.

You also get opportunities to interact with the heroes that make up the Midnight Suns. A lot of this involves cutscenes which might be familiar to people who enjoy games like the Fire Emblem series. Many of the heroes are well-written. The banter between Iron-Man and Dr. Strange was quite enjoyable. I also liked my interactions with Eddie Brock (Venom), Blade, and Captain Marvel.

The NPC interaction is usually pretty well-written, but some of it really is a bit cringeworthy. The NPC’s seem to have an almost pathological need to be the “best friend” of the main character and this really undermines some of the heroes. I dreaded talking to Captain America. I know Steve Rogers is going to be kind of “out of touch” in his responses and that’s part of his charm, but Marvel Suns’ Captain America fawns over the player in a way that really takes away from the awe and shucks that makes Captain America who he is. Dr. Strange is another whose emotional arc really veers away from what makes the comic book character engaging.

One exceptional callout though is one of my favorite B-list Marvel heroes, Magik. I enjoyed those interactions and didn’t really mind the “becoming friends” part since it really just meant that I didn’t ‘quite’ irritate her as much as other people did. Magik’s backstory involves some significant tragedy and I think they captured the pathos of that pretty well.

My other dislike with the writing is that people don’t talk the way the Midnight Suns talk. Therapists and Counselors talk that way, but normal people do not. The Hunter, a reincarnated 600-year-old Monster Killer frequently comes across using terms straight out of a Psych 101 textbook. It’s kind of jarring listening to a character whose backstory involves hobbies “most of which aren’t even legal anymore” wax large about emotional balance and personal space. The relation building dialog really took me out of the story, to the point where I had to weigh the mechanical value of increasing a friendship rank with the cringe of the cutscene needed to get there.

Closing Thoughts
Its obvious that Firaxis wanted this game to start a franchise. It’s pretty evident that won’t happen and its sad. I suspect that the choice of the card-battler system made this a failure to launch franchise. It’s not a bad card battler, but I can’t help but wonder what this would have been in an action-point, turn-based game… without the Psych 101 friendship simulator! There are a lot of hits, but some decent misses in this one.

Solid game!

The exploration of the home base feels underwhelming, and the enemies could benefit from more variety.

That said, the graphics are satisfying, and the gameplay system innovates just enough to feel fresh. I recommend starting on hard difficulty to avoid the game feeling too easy or dull.

An extremely fun game that tries just one too many things. The gameplay, story, and characters are all fantastic, but the uninspired hub world is more or less meaningless - fortunately, it is mostly optional as well, and there is no need to engage with it in any significant way. I highly recommend this game to any Marvel fan.

Game has weird RNG based difficulty. One try you might get all the best cards early on which keeps your heroic level high, the next you only get "pull more card" abilities and then can't take actions for the next three turns while your team gets destroyed.

Insane amount of "cut scenes" that are extremely dialogue heavy with no real outcome. The game has promise but it gets in its own way A LOT and can be very frustrating. Uninstalled.

I'll admit the friendship mechanics are strange, and the card system seems like an odd choice, but this is a VERY fun game. If it's on sale, grab it along with the season pass to get every hero.

The heroes are realised exceptionally well in combat, and the card/deck system is inspired, but the combat is let down my nonexistent level design, a lack of impactful or interesting enemies, and objectives that are rarely exciting to engage with.

And the less said about the dialogue the better. You would do yourself a massive favour by just skipping as much of it as you can, else you could easily double the length of your playthrough with useless conversations that are seemingly endless in their abundance.

There is definitely a gem buried somewhere in here. I wish I liked it more.

Fantastic strategy combat game hidden deep behind one of the best written and most obnoxious dating simulators I've ever played.

I recommend it as a game to play around with and just appreciate how these character's interact. However, it's not a "diamond in the rough". It's a piece of copper at best. Nevertheless, copper still has value and I am willing to buy it.

Marvel Midnight Suns really could be a good "OC-insert hero into Marvel Universe" game if only it was polished better. It still suffers from making the main character a "very important figure" and his/her backstory and personality is a combination of everyone else. And it's so weird to see everyone talks to him like he's their best friend since childhood. But at the very least, it looks like they genuinely tried. Banters were nice and the gameplay is serviceable. I just think it really could be better. In the future, I wish more Marvel single-player games are like this.

A very underrated game.

First, yes, this is not XCOM 3 and I don't mind at all. The game is simpler in some ways, but that's part of its charm. It’s also endless—while you can complete the main story, you can continue playing and leveling up if you wish. You can even level up your friends (though not the Hulk). Yes, it's a turn-based game. Yes, you need to plan ahead. Yes, it's mostly scripted. And yes, there’s a 3D walkable map that you can explore for some bonuses. Also, yes, it’s Marvel, and I love Marvel.

Now that you know what it is, is it good? Oh yeah, it’s good. The story, the quests, and the interactions with the heroes are all fun. Every hero has their own problems, and you, on the other hand, can be the neutral, good, or bad guy—it's up to you. The story starts off slow, and you’ll have to do a lot of side missions at first, but you’ll get the hang of it and can clear them easily later on. The game picks up pace, especially near the end, but I won’t spoil that. Some heroes, like Nico or Doctor Strange, can be a bit confusing at first, but you’ll learn to use them effectively. Be aware, though, that this is a fun game where you can adjust the difficulty on the fly if it gets too hard.

Yes, I’ve played for 90 days and still haven’t finished it. There’s a lot to do, and I’ve completed most of it. The map is 100% done for me—no secrets left. All the items are unlocked so far. I also bought the Season 1 DLC, and I was pleasantly surprised—it was fun and added a lot of new heroes and legendary outfits.


Pros:

Fun interactions
Fun story (simple but fair)
Open map where you can walk around in a turn-based game, with lots of secrets
No unnecessary DEI or LGBTQ+ content in the game
The game offers plenty of challenges and combo setups between all the heroes


Cons:

It’s not XCOM, but it’s still good
Sometimes it feels repetitive, because it can be
There are too many loading screens between missions
You need to choose whether to go “dark” or “good” with certain heroes to get the best effects from them, so you’ll need to balance your decisions or play good at the start and bad at the end to maximize bonuses

I love the combat and the deck building aspects of this game, but I keep having to put it down because I can only struggle through one or two iterations of the combat -> explore -> socializing loop. It's extremely cringe and honestly boring. If they took the combat and deck building systems and streamlined the storytelling to cutscenes and xcom style base management this would be a million times better. Don't make me spend 20 to 30 minutes running around a mansion, hunting for resources and hot-tubbing with Tony Stark.

TLDR; Game would be much more tolerable without the inane "exploration" and team socialization aspects.

Combats are OK (even good if you like this type of tactic), but everything between them is boring, and the worst part is - combats take just half of game time.

I love this game. If you like turn-based and Marvel games, you will love this game. Graphics are awesome and the story is pretty good. Highly recommended.

One of my favorite games I've played, and finished and recent years.

Lets be clear, it is a super hero, campy writing, game. 7/10 for story.

Game play is incredible fun and well put together. Almost 20 characters to play and all written well to original designs.

Highly, Highly recommend picking up with DLC if you can.