Marvel's Midnight Suns

Great story. Great music and great mechanics. 10/10

All in all it is a good game. I enjoyed. You have your MCU banter here which is fine. All the characters are fleshed out and their stories are amazing. I like the card game mechanics and synergy between them. The abbey roaming is meh, i can skip that. I just wish that we can speed run the hangouts or gift them when we want. I will suggest this game to others who are Hardcore Marvel Comics fans cos the easter eggs and references are top tier!

100% yes I would recommend.
Bought on release week, at full price, 260+ hours.
I have just finished both the main storyline (with ALL side content/exploration) and the season-pass storyline as well.

If you like turn-based tactics, and base/team management, like in xcom, you'll likely love this.
And as a Marvel game/story it's also solid !

With an asterisk though...
The main issue most people have is the "writing style" of some characters.
The whole thing is written with a Saturday morning cartoon style for 6 year olds.
With which the biggest issue is the contradiction in some of these characters being veteran super heroes, yet they complain about everyday social interactions that only 10 year old school children find challenging, when they are yet to learn basic social skills (like how they have a crush on a girl and they are not sure what to do, but pls keep it a secret, or how someone took their yogurt from the fridge).

As long as you can look past that, or you happen to like such cartoons, then no worries, you'll love it!
Because especially by the third act you'll start to realize that the story itself is not that lazy and simple as it might seem at first. It's actually really well thought through from the start (things are foreshadowed for a reason! solid world-building and lore, all good!) and there are some solid twists by the end.
By the last 3 or 4 main missions I legit had no idea how it's gonna end.. so it was exciting and I was surprised. I loved it.

And yes, there are post credits scenes. 1 mid credits and 1 actual post credits.
And they set up a sequel which makes tooootal sense when you think about some of the major themes throughout this first one (the relationship between magic and technology, etc).

I can't believe we'll never get that sequel...
People on reddit are spot-on when they compare this game to TV shows which only ever got 1 season, yet they turned into big cult-hits / cult-classics over time...

I have dreamed of a game like this ever since I was young. A super hero based game with turn based strategy mechanics, a custom protagonist, where you use dialogue trees between missions to cultivate a better relationship with your party members. Alas, this game kind of falters on ever aspect that makes me want to love it.

I'm a mid level Marvel fan. Watched the movies growing up and also read a good amount of comics and some of the older animated series. I am primed to love something like this, but the aesthetics and writing are so amateur its ridiculous. These character models and designs are so bland and have no dynamism to them. These characters do not pop out from their backdrop in any significant way. They heavy lifting aesthetically just comes from the recognizability, but it is not enough for me to not just think of the entire game as an eye sore.

My favorite videogame franchise might be the Mass Effect series and so having a party of super heros to socialize with is a dream of mine. The quieter dialogue moments of ME are some of my favorite moments in all of video games. Have a game where Blade starts a book club with Captain Marvel and America? Holy hell. Sounds like a dream. But the stilted expressionless character models and the pretty weak writing just do so little for me. And you cant have sex with any of them. Boring.

And 16 hours in the strategy layer seems lacking. I hear it gets better, but having to go through 2 rounds of in game socializing before going out to a mission is a high price to pay. I feel like I am just trying to string as long of a turn as possible. XCom is similarly one of my favorite games and the role that positioning plays is so crucial and creates a level of interactivity with the game world and enemies that is such an interesting puzzle to work out. Here positioning matters in so much that you should avoid hazards and AoEs. But each of your characters can literally attack any of the enemies from any position on the player field and given you have enough resources can interact with any part of the environment. There are some interesting card interplay and knocking characters into other characters, but its not enough to scratch and itch and the 1 free move mechanic just feels oddly limiting when all my cards will allow me to reposition just fine.

All in all a very dissapointing game. My solace is that I only paid >$10 for it.

I truly enjoyed this game and am looking forward to another playthrough with the DLC and choosing different options for the main character. It's a clever mix of turn-based strategy, card game, character dialogue RPG, and semi-open-world exploration that captures the feel of the best Marvel has to offer in various media formats. Players who are particular fans of only one or two of these genres may be disappointed that it doesn't go into more depth on those aspects, but I enjoyed the 'all-you-can-eat' buffet mix of elements that, for me, were interweaved so skilfully that no single aspect ever grew dull. However, it seems the devs were rushed to release, because there's a sizeable list of small bugs that could have benefited from another round or two of testing.

I'm a semi-casual gamer who prefers character and variety to min/maxing, so I played on standard difficulty and found it to be just challenging enough. For players who crunch the numbers and use only the so-called 'best' characters and cards, there are several higher difficulty levels.

Graphics are a mix: sometimes the characters look really good, and sometimes like the worst knock-off cartoon. Even on max settings on a high-end PC. However, environmental objects and power effects are outstanding.

For X-COM players: you will recognise elements of that game here, but reimagined. Missions are much quicker, starting with the characters in the midst of the action. This combined with the random card draw element means that there's less tactical planning, but it still pays to use powers and battlefield positioning wisely.

For Marvel fans: dialogue reveals that this clearly doesn't take place in the MCU universe (though the voice actor for Stark does a decent RDJ impression throughout), but they do a good job of staying true to the nature of all the characters from the comics. In fact, I'd say character interaction is one of the great strengths of this game (something demonstrated so well in the recent Thunderbolts* movie).

-- THE GOOD --

- The mix of game genres keeps any part of the game from getting boring
- While it doesn't take place in the same universe, it feels very MCU-like in music, dialogue, and pacing
- Great heroic moments for all characters
- Good voice acting, capturing the essence of the characters without being direct MCU impressions (other than Tony)
- Some outstanding character interactions scenes w enough emotional weight to stand with some of the best MCU character moments
- Nice mix of characters from the Marvel lexicon. Wish there had been a sequel to include more!
- Combat is a refreshing mix of turn-based and card game randomness, with excellent animated attacks
- Excellent Silvestri-like music, including a clever subtle effect when you go from room to room in the abbey
- Outstanding (and loud) sound effects, especially for powers
- Interesting options for environmental interaction in combat
- Semi-open-world map is wonderfully atmospheric, with a vibe similar to that of the Witches' Road from Agatha All Along (appropriately enough)
- Option to have characters automatically change their outfits each day
- Tons to do, many upgrade paths
- When chests respawn they light up on the map, so you don't have to keep checking them all
- Female character model is refreshingly realistic for a warrior, in both physique and wardrobe
- Nice implementation of staged reveal of the semi-open-world map
- Pickups (reagents etc) that spawn on the map don't disappear, meaning you don't have to perform a daily search if you don't want to
- Generous save/autosave scheme
- Warning before the final battle, in case you want to spend some time levelling up
- Difficulty options to accommodate both the casual player and the min/maxers

-- THE BAD --

- Some characters have weird posture in cutscenes
- Middle mouse button prompt appears in multiple instances when you actually need to use LMB or Enter
- A few moments of cringe dialogue
- Not always clear when a dialogue choice is a list of topics to explore in full or a menu where only one selection can be made
- They could have used a good editor on the text. Numerous common (its/it's) errors. Also problems with vocabulary, usually when reaching for more sophisticated words (e.g. protectorate when they meant protector, cerulean when they wanted a shade of green, etc)
- Would have been nice to be able to make notes on the map
- A small number of collectibles stuck in the terrain
- The pet that's supposed to follow you on the map to help you find things gets stuck on the terrain frequently
- Once you reach max arcane knowledge level (which is quite quickly) you keep gaining arcane knowledge points for no reason
- Some persistent flickering graphics glitches (e.g. Johnny Blaze's neck, Wanda's boots)
- Slightly disappointed that combo attacks are just alternating animations of the two heroes doing their individual thing in turn, rather than an actual cooperative attack like the fastball special
- Later in the game, when the number of refreshed chests that require keys increases, the rewards from those high-level chests diminish. So the rarity of keys increases but their value goes down, making the late-game keyed chests not worth the effort.
- Summoning powers sound nice, but with limited actions per combat round they are not worth the cost
- Not a huge fan of having more cool powers than slots to place them in, nor of the puzzle missions to unlock each character's ultimate power that have only one solution
- A number of dialogue disconnects, where responses make no sense or refer to things that were not said. Understandable, given the vast tree of dialogue options in the game, but could have been tested better. Also, on at least one occasion in the Abbey a character who was on the last story mission complained about missing out on that story mission.
- Late game can get very grindy if you're trying to enhance every character's legendary power, but I should stress this is not a requirement to finish the story missions. Once the final story mission is complete, legendary rewards for random missions become much more common

-- THE UGLY --

- Can't pause cutscenes
- The perpetual dev obsession with forcing characters to run everywhere means that, although there's a walk button for the open-world segments, (a) it can't be remapped and (b) it zooms in on the main character such that a third of the view is blocked.
- Some microtransactions, mostly cosmetics

Hidden gem.

I remember this game doing extremely poor initially, but picking it up and trying it has been a treat. Really fun tactical gameplay, a loop that makes upgrading characters feel rewarding and a pretty engaging story.

I do think friendship is really slow as I hadn't fully unlocked anyones ultimate before beating the game, but some personal stories are really interesting to follow. And the Hunter is so much more then a blank protagonist, I really enjoyed their character.

All in all, this is 100% worth a shot, doubly so if you enjoy Marvel

Love this game, cant wait to unlock more characters. So many options.
I am very positive.

Bought this a while ago, but I finally decided to play it, and I must say, it's a lot of fun.

In the first cut scene I thought the dialogue was a little silly, but I soon realized that it's because it goes for a more comic book-like story and I love it. I personally am really enjoying the story, but the game really shines in the character and combat aspects of the game.

A lot of people were initially disappointed when they found out that it had turn-based card combat and I was honestly the same way, but when I played the game, it was way more fun than what it sound like on paper.

Midnight Suns has so many characters to offer. Aside from the Lego games, you will never get this range of characters in a video game. Seeing them all interact and the range of abilities they all display is a great experience, especially sense many are characters that normally don't get exposure. Nico Minoru, Robbie Reyes, etc.

Now, there are a few gripes I have, especially in between missions, where the majority of your playtime will be in dialogue with the characters. There's also a bug where my screen will constantly flicker whenever when I'm in any menu.

That being said, the game unfortunately seems like it has been abandoned due to the sales not meeting expectations. For me this is tragic, because I see an alternate future where more characters and stories could've been added and it would've been great. I hope I'm wrong, I hope they add more or make a sequel, but I doubt it. Please, support this game, it's a lot of fun and exactly the kind of Marvel game I've been looking for.

This game is absolutely amazing! I was no expecting the level of detail and lore this game provides!

Can be tedious running around the Abbey. Combat becomes repetitive after the first act. Card based mechanism might not be for everyone.

Yet I personally love the line up of Superheroes - Iron Man, Spider-man, Venom, Wolverine, Deadpool, Blade, Scarlett Witch, Storm, etc

Recommend mainly for MCU fans

Midnight Suns combines a really solid tactical combat system with good animations, an intractable environment, and a wide variety of characters, abilities, deckbuilding and customization with a dogwater, tedious, boring mandatory series of downtime missions that make the game suck.

I just wanted more of the good tactical gameplay, but the missions are short and are constantly interrupted by long periods of downtime in this mansion full of characters who you are expected to develop relationships with. They each have twitter feeds you can read, you are expected to sit down and watch movies with them and ask questions about them, and a ton of this isn't optional, it's all a mandatory function.

It feels as if they took inspiration from Fire Emblem's recent Three Houses downtime, where in Midnight Suns you also run around collecting random bits of loot spread all over this property. Honestly, it feels awful. They leaned into it way too hard and it takes up way too much time. I wanted to like the game a lot more, and would have if I could have just played more missions more often.

To make matters worse, the difficulty is locked to easy until you beat the game once. There are like 8 difficulties above this, and I want to play the hardest one. How many times would I need to beat the game on lower difficulties to do that? Removing player agency in this way is a really brainless decision. What you're left with is an incredibly easy game that wants to force a story centered around bonding with marvel characters and making relationships with them. If you're not into this, then this isn't the game for you.

Game is fun, would rec grabbing on sale with the DLC. The DLC characters are meh. story also whatever but the gameplay loop hits like crack once it gets going. bonding with your teammates outside of missions was a fun and cool addition but near the end of the game it turns into another loading screen. Would have been nice to be able to do more than one mission before returning and hanging out, pacing would've felt better if hangouts were always available. you also get a couple characters really late into the game with one character right before the last mission.

A generation ago, CRPGs had a golden age by combining risky gameplay innovations with the allure of solo-playing beloved fantasy worlds like D&D. 'Midnight Suns' harkens back to that era, and while it has its flaws, that is still enough to land in my top 20 all-time RPG-ish games.

That was a surprise to me, because I was among the many skeptics who stayed away after hearing this was a card game. The card-based part is quite fun on its own, sustaining interest over 150-plus hours. But the RPG aspect blew me away. For fans of Marvel's previous golden age as comic books, an attraction was superheroes with engaging and somewhat believable personal lives, and a dream was living within that soap opera. This game makes it possible at an insane level of detail and friendship. I love RPGs and there is no such thing as one that is too long, too big, and too detailed. Even I sometimes skipped through the mind-boggling amount of dialogue and text messages in this one. I'm thrilled to have the chance to have too much for a change. Talk about immersion.

Where this game has challenges, such as repetitive feedback-loop quests and weirdly sexless relationships, blame the modern world of corporate gaming. Where this game succeeds -- as it mostly does -- credit the weird, eccentric, quirky ambition that invented such cliches and is the underlying reason we love games to begin with.

It's a shame this is a one-off. But maybe -- just like fans of the previous golden age have made happen before -- someone will eventually pick up the mantel and make a worthy sequel. For now, I don't mourn -- I celebrate (and I've probably got another year's worth of dialogue to enjoy).

WOW...I've been playing PC games for a long time. I don't finish most of them, just move on to the next. Finished this one and am so glad I did. (Also you can keep playing after you finish it!!!) Really want to see more games like this.

For XCOM-2 fans...this game gets you right into the strategy and tactics...you don't have to move your soldiers all over the map for 45 minutes just hop on and fight...XCOM-2 feels repetitive...they fixed that here...fights never feel repetitive and from the first fight to the last you can't just phone it in, you have to play smart and plan ahead, learn your enemies and adjust what you do based on who you have with you and who you are facing. Attack animations and artwork are really great, so cool.

For Baldur's Gate 3 fans...The story here is more relatable because we know alot about these Marvel characters already. Voice acting is good and your character actually talks. The interactions with these heroes are actually pulled off better here than Baldur's gate 3 in many cases. I don't want to spoil anything but just how the heroes are posed when they are interacting with you they could be sitting on a chair, standing in a hallway, lying by a pool or sitting on a couch with you...in BG3 its the same every time just talking in the same window, you feel closer to people here somehow...There is "loot" here but you don't have to go poking through 30,000 urns, boxes, sacks to find it, the inventory system is far superior here and you can craft new abilities, upgrade and modify them...this is just a slick slick slick game...I feel like BG3 wasted tons of my time with camera rotation, inventory management and creepy cringy unnecessary sex scenes...Marvel's Midnight Suns didn't waste my time.

If you play better you unlock higher difficulties which are optional so if you are new to tactical games it will just take you a little longer before you are able to unlock the higher difficulties...and playing higher is optional...they really did a fantastic job with this game.

i havent played many card SRPGs but this one has Carol in it, so i played it... and its fun.

I think this is an original story (probably a story spun off from the comics) where u play as some ancient hunter named... Hunter, who is tasked with dispatching her Diablo-looking demon mother.

U get to create how u want your mc to look before the bulk of the game opens up.

The combat is fun with various ways to dispatch ur enemies. Anything from standard attack cards, skill modifier cards, and powerful heroic ability cards. U can also use the environment, like rubble, street lights, and electric boxes to your advantage, as well as them be used against u by the enemy.

Aside from the combat, there is a large castle sandbox area to explore that opens up more to u as your play. As the type that tends to get caught up in exploring, I was pleasantly surprised with how much exploration was in the game. There is also a romance(?) system, where u can increase ur camaraderie with other characters and it will increase their effectiveness with u in battle. Like for me, i basically gave my undivided attention to Carol.

I will say sometimes i wanna just get to the next battle but you can only do one per in-game day. The gameplay loop basically goes like this: Prep/Explore, Battle. Team Build/Explore. Sleep. Repeat. It can feel a bit superfluous after awhile.

It is fun to try and figure out a team that works well together, though unfortunately there are certain characters that literally wont work well together because of their kits, to the point where u can basically cripple your yourself in combat if u only play who u like rather who actually works well together.

For example, i wanna use both Carol and Ghost Rider, but they are both stingy attackers and would be fighting for turns for their individual buffs and attacks. So instead, I may switch one of them for Nico (i keep Carol) who can debuff enemies and buff Carol, further helping her to become a super saiyan tank w/a cannon arm.

Review after 100% Completion

A tactics game from Firaxis featuring Marvel, mixed with a social sim and deck-building, is a pretty niche game. But this and Guardians of the Galaxy (2021) deserved some attention! I was initially waiting for this to be released on Switch, but due to poor sales, they canceled it.

A sequel is surely not happening. I would have loved to wipe the floor against a Darkhold-powered Doctor Doom.

This is my first Turn Based RPG and i'm honestly surprised by how well it teaches you the mechanics. The combat itself is very fun and rewarding even on the lower difficulty. Looks to be very replayable.

An ok tactics game with tons of boring rubbish to skip through between fights

20% gameplay 80% filler

If you buy this game, talk to everyone in the Abbey before doing anything at the Forge.

There is an easily reproducible save breaking bug (Faithbreaker bug) that stops Story Missions from spawning that happens near the end of Act 1 that has existed since release that Firaxis could/would not fix after being reported and confirmed existing since Day 1. Even after the release of four paid DLCs over several months.

Lost 2 saves to this bug. First near release when I didn't know about it. Second after I decided to try a new run and forgot about it and triggered it again.

Other than that, game is fun. Story is fine, though I don't know what happens after Act 2. Too many and too lengthy animations for my taste but it's fine.

story's kinda cheeks but gameplay is top 10 of all time for me and i thought i didnt like tactical turn based rpgs before this game

Great tactics game along the lines of X-com. Deck building component is pretty interesting and it's great to hang out with both big name marvel characters and less spotlighted ones like Blade and Magik. Some elements like the alchemy are a bit too grindy but not terrible, and most of the characters are closer to their comic versions than their MCU counterparts.

The writing was not perfect but there were good moments. The gameplay was really satisfying through start to end. It is a shame that this game was barely advertized. It deserved a bigger audience. And the fact it isn't likely to gain a sequel hurts. But I happily recoment it to anyone who thinks they can get through a bit of cringy dialogue.

Excellent! I've considered this game since its release and when it went on sale I got my money's worth. If you're a Marvel fan, especially avengers and some x-men, you will enjoy this story. I wouldn't think that the game play style is for everyone, but if you like turn-base with an emphasis on card collecting with upgrades and deck builds, this is the game for you. It kinda reminds me of Mass Effect with a marvel story setting.

Really good, just sad the branding was terrible enough to prevent a second game. :(

Good TBS Card game with superheroes funservice.

I like this game in total, but it's take too much time, if game will be shortly it will be better to this game.

Also - last fight with glichs, don't know why it's still not fixed :(

Overall, I would not recommend this game. My feelings are mixed on this decision because there are things that I like and many things I dislike which make playing this game frustrating and a slog. Let me first touch on some of the standard things before I get to my reasons of why I would not recommend this game.

Graphic Quality - The graphics of this game are good. I have no complaints about the graphics, I think they are pretty standard. They aren't too artistic as to date them, meaning if you pick this game up 10 years later, the game will still look good.

Story - I think the story might be pretty good, if I could actually make it through it. This leads into one of biggest complaints about the game mechanics.

Character Customization - The character customization is excellent. I can make my very own character to help immerse myself into the game because I have my very own hero/villain. I was very happy with the customization, even with some of the customization bits locked behind gameplay.

Difficulty of Game - The difficulty of the game is just right. It's not too difficult that I get frustrated and rage quit, and it's not too easy that I don't feel challenged. The difficulty is at a place that when I play I can enjoy the story without many difficulties to mess up the flow.

Voice Acting - The voice acting isn't anything special. I do appreciate it as it gave the characters some personality. I would rather that the game have voice acting than not.

What I do not like about this game - This game forces the player to go through a daily cycle of events. Meaning you can't do anything more or anything less than the game designer wants you to do. Every day of the game I must sleep, make friends, do training, go to the forge, collect crafting supplies, do character management, and run one mission. This is the part of the game that frustrates me to high heavens. What if today I want to run 2 or 3 missions, I can't. What if I don't want to train right now? What if I don't feel like doing the social stuff of the game? What if I don't feel like running around the map hunting for supplies to craft? The player really doesn't have a choice. You must do these things or get stuck, and not be able to progress any further.

The lack of freedom in this game is why I can't recommend it. I have had this game for over 6 months and I've only managed to play it for 39 hours. I sit down to play then I remember I have to do all of these things when I want to run 2 or 3 missions. But, I have to go through 2 or 3 day cycles just to run missions. Ultimately, I get frustrated and annoyed and might do 1 day cycle and I logout. I don't know why the developers decided this was a good idea but it wasn't.

Cool strategy card playing rpg wiith a nice cast of marvel characters, the story is nice, high replayability

This is probably the most underrated trpg ever. It’s crazy that this game didn’t become huge, as it’s such a great experience all the way through. They completely nailed the tactical combat, and the non-combat activities are also really enjoyable. I usually skip cutscenes and dialogues, but in this one I enjoyed them all and didn’t skip anything. They captured all the character personalities so well. I wasn’t huge into Marvel before, but this game made me have a much greater appreciation for the universe. I almost skipped this one because of some people saying it’s a dating sim, but that is just completely wrong and absurd.

Plays pretty well for me on steamdeck; slight audio and video glitches once in a while, but nothing gambreaking or too invasive with my quality of play.

As for the game itself, it is severely underrated and wish more people would give it a chance! The story is great as well as the heroes you can befriend in this game; imo, I think the card collecting turn-based mechanics work well with the game and it isnt too hard to understand.

Really hoping for a sequel with you know who (dont want to spoil it lol) as the main villain as I loved this game

The faithbreaker suit bug has been known about for over a year. It still hasn't been fixed. The story has stopped because of the bug. And load the version before the bug is not possible. Start the game from the beginning is not willing to. The game is abandoned

I LOVED everything about this game. It’s not deep or smart, but it combines two amazing things - turn-based combat and Marvel lore. The RPG elements are superficial, but work well enough to affect gameplay and the story. If you enjoy loot collecting and achievements, this is also a strong option.

It’s not without its faults. There are certain glitches that may prevent you from recovering certain rewards. This game has been mostly abandoned by support so those bugs are now features.

Good strategy game good marvel game. Bad thing about the game your character progress doesn't Cary over trough new game plus

This game is quite entertaining, the game play is quite simple but pretty effective and having different heroes from all around joining the fight while optimising your decks and abilities is great fun

However, it is sometimes poorly optimised performance wise in the abbey (main area of the game or home base) where there is significant drops when you go from zone to zone or interact with one of the stations and the there is sometimes a lot of fluff before getting into the actual combat of the game which is the most entertaining part which can be sometimes of a chore. Especially if you don't have that much time on your hands.

It is not a masterpiece but a entertaining game with a bunch of content for sure, especially if you want to spent a lot of time completing and min maxing your hero.

What an absolute slog. The card/combat bits are great fun, but everything in between is a boring, poorly-written, "a to b to c back to a" slog of yawn-inducing dialogue. This game could have cut 80% of the "story building" and been 100% better.

Underrated gem.

I'm sure this game will be a huge cult classic hit for many years to come. There is a *ton* of dialogue and voice acting in here, and yes - like much Marvel content the depth only goes so far - but you can feel the love oozing out of this game from the developers even if not every system they implemented hit the mark. There is a lot to do. You will spend a lot of time here. The card-based combat is extremely engaging, innovative and, on the higher difficulties, punishing.

There's a lot to lament, as well. It seems obvious this game was geared towards a potential romance simulator that got quashed by Marvel (which makes sense, I guess) and so it's a turbo friendship-sim. It's a bit bloated. You will spend a lot of time in between missions if you want to optimize. Good vibes, good times, somewhat bland villains and a *lot* of team-building time and getting to know your dorm-mates in the Abbey from Captain Marvel to Blade to Doctor Strange.

If you can get down with all that, and you enjoy good turn-based strategy? You'll love it. Everyone has a different tier-list for the top heroes to put on the squad which is the hallmark of a well-balanced game. Every character feels unique, and very *very* powerful under the right circumstances. I hated Nico early on but by the end of the game her combined support and damage abilities were just an absolute terror on the battlefield and I went back and forth with all the decks like this - and that is great!

Having completed the game, I could easily have given a positive vote, so consider this to be a mixed rating.

Slant: This game had a lot of witchcraft in it, more than I like in a video game. It was not what I was expecting from a super hero game. So, if you are a Harry Potter fan, you may give this a higher rating than I would.

The Good:
There is a lot to like in this game. I remember starting the game and hearing the music and thinking this is pretty cool. It makes me feel like I am a super hero. The combat system is unique and fun. Instead of some grid based system for a strategy game, it was instead gridless with precise placement of units playing a role in combat. I also enjoyed learning about some super heroes that I haven't watched before, giving me an introduction to more of the rich lore that exists in the Marvel universe.

The Bad:
While the combat system was good and fun. Most of your time in the game was spent doing tasks that weren't enjoyable. There was also a first person perspective where you run around a 3D world (ok, it is third person since you see your character). In it you grab ingredients, and solve puzzles. And you spend a LOT of time talking to the various super heroes. You are basically the psychologist to super heroes. Trying to make friendships (which has bonuses) with each, and encouraging the super heroes that seem to have a ton of doubts. It is too much. The ingredient collection side of things was also super onerous. For a while I tried to run around the entire map each night collecting ingredients, and it just burned me out. I eventually stopped and only collected the rarest of the ingredients that only spawned on a new moon, and even then didn't stress too much on whether I got all of them. Besides this there were the various daily tasks that you did running around the chapel. Looking for essences that randomly spawned in certain areas and putting the next item in "the oven" so that it completes the next day. Overall, I found myself spending most of my time doing tasks that I wasn't enjoying, instead of the combat system which I did enjoy.

The bugs:
This game had more bugs/poor design choices than I think should exist in a game. I had one game crash after I opened a chest that gave me a speed boost (I think the speed boost is also a bug). So, each time, after that I got the speed boost bug I was afraid the game would crash again. I ran one "easy" mission that was impossible to win because I had to kill 12 enemies to win, and there weren't 12 enemies to kill. There were ingredients on the map that weren't lootable. You couldn't interact with a character unless you were standing in front of them (not the back). There were missions that awarded essences for successful completion, but it wouldn't give you heroic essence even though that was listed as a reward. So, as a result, you were always short of heroic essence. You would max friendship with a super hero and it would then reset it back to 1. That was intentional, but it would have been better if they used the system that was introduced for the level cap. For the level cap, you would stay at level 25 (the cap), but could still "level" for more bonuses even though your displayed level remained at 25.

Replayability:
Like many modern games, this game is too long. It took me 75 hours to complete. A game should be something more like 20-40 hours to complete, with reasons to replay it again. This is especially true for a strategy game. Since it was so long, less than 20% of those who purchase the game actually complete it. As for replayability, there really isn't that much. You have max friendships with most superheroes, and have mostly the decks that you want for each. If the game was shorter, and you only had max friendships with just a few, replaying again and focusing on other superheroes would have been a lot of fun.

If you play this game, be prepared to sit and watch hundreds of hours of animations... the same animations you have seen over and over again... with no way to skip them or speed them up. The devs are really proud of these animations. You will see them in your dreams and weep

I lie awake at night, whispering into the night the burning question in my heart: "why is this game rated so highly?"

In a regular playthrough, you spend 90+% of the time running around, "exploring", "solving puzzles" and "talking to people" (notice how these activities are in brackets because you are not REALLY doing them... More on that later.)

The Combat: The few % left are spent in combat. The combat system is actually decent and the combination of movement and environment attacks requires you to think about your actions and plan your next turn or even two. This is good. Sadly, most superheroes have extremely generic action cards that rarely synergize with one another (let alone with other heroes haha please) so you are mostly left just clicking the biggest possible damage.

Offense is also ALWAYS the best defense as even weak enemies deal MUCH more damage than you can shield and most strong attacks bypass shields anyways. Sadly they didnt utilize the solid system for anything meaningful.

The worst thing about the combat is the repetitive nature of your enemies. There are like, literally THREE enemy variants (gameplay wise, plus some reskins) and you RARELY RARELY fight actual characters.
The first superhero villain you fight feels exciting and fresh (and actually strong) until you fight him again. And again. And again.... I believe i had to fight him 4-5 times(????)
And it doesnt get any better from there...

The non-combat: oh boy. The combat already wasnt super exciting but the "rest of the game" (the actual GAME, 90% of it) is insulting. I dont know how i managed to stay in this for 40 hours...

The vast majority of the time you walk around in a church and sourrounding forest and "talk" to people. Again, this is in brackets because almost all conversations are shallow and mostly completely meaningless. I skipped over them after a while.
Also, you can only ever talk to the people whose turn it is to talk to you now, so you are basically just an NPC going where the game tells you and clicking buttons. Zero meaningful player agency.

The walking around in the forest part (aka "exploration") felt good the first couple of minutes. Then you realize you can go exactly only where the game wants you to go and no further unless you progressed far enough into the "Story." Then you go to new place and click same old Button. Repeat.
Aside from cosmetics, there is barely anything to find.

And im not getting into "The puzzles" part. Lol.

If you get off on watching your favorite superheroes drop the same generic lines over and over and customizing their outfits, youll love this game because that IS the game.

I got this on mega sale for like 10€ and it feels alright but if you buy this for full price, god bless your soul.

A game that's a lot of fun for the first 30 hours.... then gets very repetitive. So much so that I needed to give up on it. I didn't get through to the end. Still a good game and worth a positive review!

The mechanics are fun, the voices, setting, story are all enjoyable and very well done. It really just has a smooth play style. I wish I had started playing when it first came out.

I would definitely recommend this game, if only for the chance to play alongside so many iconic Marvel characters in their fantastic outfits. On a more serious note, the side stories were surprisingly engaging. They’re not incredibly deep, but they each have a bit of personality and purpose—they don’t feel like random filler.

The main story was compelling, and I appreciated the freedom to engage with as much or as little exploration and side content as I wanted. Gathering materials through exploration helped make combat more manageable thanks to useful upgrades.

I’ll admit I’m not the most experienced turn-based strategy player, but I really enjoyed the combat. It wasn’t too easy or too punishing. I played on Normal difficulty and found the challenge balanced—a few tough battles here and there mostly due to RNG, rather than poor design or overwhelming difficulty.

One feature I found especially fascinating was how your choices between light or dark affinities influenced the skills you gained. It’s a really cool concept that added a layer of depth to character building.

Overall, if you’re looking to get into turn-based, deck-building style games, this is an excellent beginner-friendly title with a strong story and an incredible lineup of Marvel characters. PS: Always remember to pet Charlie and get her a comfy dog bed.

This game is phenomenal. It sat in my library untouched for the longest time. The promotion material does not do it justice, unfortunately because of this, I fear that this game will not be getting a sequel which is a real shame. One of the best turn based strategy games out there in my opinion. You really have to think and plan out your moves to succeed, especially on higher difficulties.

If you're a Marvel fan and a game that is like a cross between X-COM and Marvel Snap-esque deck builder with awesome 3-D graphics (besides some character models), and a light RPG aspect sounds intriguing (There is also a friendship simulator aspect of the game in a strange and unexpected way) - then this game is a hidden gem for you. The fact you can now get this game under $10, it is an instant buy. I paid much more and I am very happy with it. Don't be like me when the game launched and only do the tutorial and formulate an opinion, give it a fair shot, which you can do within the first 2 hours and still be eligible to refund.

9/10

It's a great game, but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. The target audience is small: fans of Marvel and open-minded XCOM fans who enjoy turn-based strategies and deck builders. In other words, Jake Solomon and team tried to appeal to a bunch of different groups without totally pleasing any of them.

The missions themselves are engaging and the story is sufficient, but the rest of the game can get to be quite tedious. It's a lot of running around the abbey, home base, and being pulled into super hero social clubs and side-plots that go nowhere. As an example, being wing-man to Blade as he considers courting Carol Danvers while never actually making the move. The game is cyclic: you wake up; you unlock/upgrade cards in various locations; you upgrade heroes levels in various locations; you complete the turn-based strategy missions; you hangout with heroes, go to clubs, or unlock more areas of the home-base; and finally you head to bed.

Regarding the heroes themselves, the Avengers and the later Midnight Suns crew are represented with Agatha Harkness thrown in and given a big spotlight. Given that Harkness raised Mr. Fanastic and Invisible Woman's kid, you'd expect some kind of Fantastic Four crossover. Sadly, that never came. There are some subtle nods in the form of hidden symbols, but that's it. With as much backstory they're giving about the Salem Witches, you'd expect elements inspired by those early comics. At least the Scarlet Witch is in the mix.

The turn-based strategy game-play itself is solid, and balancing is mostly on point, as each hero has their place, and missions require careful consideration of heroes and their cards (if playing at higher difficulties). Instead of randomness in the form of a probability that attacks will land, like in XCOM, the randomness comes from which cards are dealt to your hand. In other words, each attack lands 100% of the time but you never know what card's you'll be dealt.

The DLC content is limited but worth a few extra bucks if bought with the base game. In my opinion, the DLC missions are more difficult than the base game's (especially at higher difficulty levels), but having the DLC heroes for general missions and tackling the Vampyre stuff later on in the game can be rewarding.

All in all, Midnight Suns is not the XCOM but Marvel game that it was being marketed as when released, but that's not exactly a bad thing if one is open-minded. It's definitely worth picking up on sale for those who enjoy turn-based strategy games. Don't make the same drunken mistake I did, by buying the Digital+ edition instead of Legendary Edition during a sale. Buy the latter as it actually includes the DLC, the Digital+ is just the base game plus a few useless character skins.

* I should add, the game is great on a Steam Deck locked at 30 FPS, but I was forced to reset the resolution to 1280x800 each time I started the game.

If you like to make hero friends, this is the game for you. Never played a card battler before but enjoyed this game.

Fun game and fun character creator.

The combat is fun (no surprises there Firaxis) but what the hell is everything else.

More than the sum of its parts, this game is the simplified combat from XCOM with deckbuilding at its core and a pile of (if you read comics) pretty formulaic and predictable... but well-written story. The characters are voiced (both in tone and in linguistics) like they should be, some of the emotional moments hit, and the stakes have some heft despite aforementioned formulaic-ness. The core loop (wake, adjust decks + upgrade + maintain relationships, mission, evening meetings, start again) is satisfying and offers a good variety of intensity and chill.

The game is not spoiled by the introduction of the main villain or the fact that there is a family relationship between you and her. The all-powerful Lilith rises again after centuries with the help of Hydra, led by the maniacal Doctor Faustus, which the positives in our story have to balance by reviving you, Hunter, the descendant of Lilith herself.

Why would someone wake up a relative of their enemy, you ask? Let's say that your relationship with your mom is not exactly rosy, it's downright hateful and only you, as is often the case, can stop the threat that promises the destruction of the entire world. Although, you won't be able to do it yourself, which is why you will have the Midnight Suns at your disposal - a group of superheroes that you can (mostly) rely on.

Your awakening begins a painful and really long journey to save the world. Every day you wake up in the morning, walk through a refuge called simply the Abbey, which is torn from space (maybe not from time), and Lilith can't touch it, talk to some of your colleagues, then go on a mission into the world and spend the evening with your colleagues again.

It's a shame about the very outdated graphics. 15%

Addictive combat cycle, corny story and 'friends' system makes the whole thing a bit stilted but by gods the card combat is addictive.

super fun game that is basically "XCOM with super heroes that have high-school level interactions between missions"
Even with all the high-school relationship drama, the game is super fun.