For many, a digitized superhero experience is rooted in the genres of beat-em-up and open-world presentations. But as the years progressed alongside the rise of mobile gaming so did the viable avenues of putting characters from the Marvel and DC universes into games more varied in nature and accessible to gamers looking to do more than the expected and, at times, mundane.
Marvel attached itself to Firaxis Games – a development team that mastered the art of creating tactical, strategy-based games including “XCOM” and “Civilization”. Mixing fresh faces and long-established heroes and villains, Firaxis Games wanted to create another memorable experience for players who enjoy such brain-testing games. I was definitely intrigued to see how the usually epic comic book battles could be portrayed using cards while, potentially, providing an interesting story featuring some characters not getting as much spotlight as their more famous and infamous counterparts.
Did I Complete “Marvel’s Midnight Suns”?
With the resurrection of Lilith – a sorceress known as “The Mother of All Demons” – by the hands of the terrorist group HYDRA, the player is tasked with stopping this catastrophic event by taking control of several Marvel characters including Blade, Iron Man, the Robbie Reyes version of Ghost Rider, and a player-created avatar known as “The Hunter” – Lilith’s offspring and the person responsible for defeating her initially. Housing the famed, though believed inexperienced Midnight Suns (Blade, Ghost Rider, Magik, Nico Minoru initially) is “The Abbey” – an old church-like building sporting an expansive exterior to explore and discover new traversal powers alongside mysteries & collectibles.
The Abbey is the game’s HUB alongside the typical menu pulled up using the “Start” button with the latter allowing players to customize each heroes’ card deck for battle and even purchase and/or equip clothing items and color swatches for said attires. Inside The Abbey is the option of taking part in daily missions, interacting with fellow Suns, and completing automated tasks including one-on-one training for temporary character boosts, upgrading card abilities, sending a hero into operations to attain a new maneuver, and “Research” in The Abbey’s “Forge” section that usually yields some impressive additions to both The Abbey’s general facilities as well as improving certain combat tactics like making knock-back attacks in battle do more damage; not to mention crafting and dismantling card-based abilities via the Forge’s anvil.
Completing “Midnight Suns” is actually a grind no matter how good the player is at strategic, turn-based games as it demands the player to take part in a mixture of unique story missions that usually introduces what becomes the norm for “General Missions” needed to be completed between those story battles. Most of these missions – story or general – have rather simplistic goals for victory like “Defend the Device”, “Defeat the Heavy Enemies”, and simply survive three waves of copious foes.
Beyond the story and its missions that will take players around twenty hours to complete without grinding for more abilities is the down-time between missions. Outside of the previously-mentioned automated actions and exploring the rather diverse Abbey’s grounds is interacting with the growing Midnight Suns as a family. Through a menu-based group chat, simply talking to available characters (as indicated by a glowing blue light over their heads), or as dictated by the game itself, players will have The Hunter building a friendship with each playable hero that, when maxed at level five, unlocks a character-specific, “Legendary” challenge that acts more as a puzzle than the typical battle scenario used during regular missions.
It is through this randomized grind of talking, sitting around, and goofing off with every hero in hopes of upgrading The Hunter’s personal relationship with them that the created character improves his alignment with his “Light” and “Dark” sides. It is necessary for players to reach the maximum level of 200 “Light” and “Dark” points by using dialogue choices and performing certain attacks based in the two sides if someone is looking for full trophy or achievement completion – an accomplishment I’ve yet to attain in regards to the “Dark” side and will most likely need to spend another ten or so hours via “New Game Plus” to achieve. As a complete package as of this time (a Season Pass is already available with DLC featuring new characters coming in the near future), “Midnight Suns” is a beefy experience that will demand the player sink in anywhere between fifty to seventy hours before fully completing the game.
What Makes “Marvel’s Midnight Suns” Unique?
“Marvel’s Midnight Suns” walks a fine between giving a player the feeling of being overwhelmingly powerful and shockingly susceptible to death at any given moment during a battle no matter the difficulty (which sports a ridiculous amount of options in terms of heightening the challenge). With a customizable card deck attached to each hero, players enter every battle with three card usages per turn, one move option which can be turned into a knock-back scenario against an enemy instead of just making a simple dash across the battlefield, use an item that can range from curing an ally of an ailments like “Bleed” or “Corruption” that does significant damage to a Sun per round to giving each attack by a hero “leech” so enemies’ health is drained to heal the hero, and redraw up to two cards in the player’s current deck.
Thankfully, battles are in no way static when it comes to strategy beyond attack animations and how anything from the faceless goons to prominent super bosses like “Fallen Venom” act from round to round. One of the main reasons for any battle’s unpredictability is the randomized nature cards are administered at the battle’s start dependent on the card deck organized by the player beforehand and what heroes are being used at that time. These cards don’t just act as ways to perform offensive maneuvers as some can increase the amount of redraws a player can perform per round, reset the deck completely, and, most helpfully depending on when used, can decrease the amount of “Heroism Points” needed to use certain cards.
On the screen’s right-hand side during a fight is the “Heroism Meter”. Certain cards like The Hunter’s “Heal” ability adds to the “Heroism Meter” while Spider-Man’s “Web Throw” costs two “Heroism Points”. By upgrading certain abilities and even modifying their actions via The Abbey’s training facility & collecting currency both by moving around & picking up glowing orbs, completing specific missions, and selling off/breaking down particular items, players will be stacking and exhausting up to ten “Heroism Points” during a battle especially later in the game. Things like using environmental attacks also cost “Heroism Points”, as well as playing the random “Hero Card” that, usually, costs four “Heroism Points” and is increased in damage output alongside the “Teamwork” stat that increases the more The Hunter befriends his allies.
While the amount of options in regards to building a card deck (though it is somewhat restricted due to certain card types like the aforementioned “Heroism” cards being limited to two slots in an eight-slot deck), the enemy variation leaves something to be desired. There are smaller, less threatening grunts complemented by “Heavy” foes that, of course, hit harder, have more abilities like armor, and/or can buff their allies. Sadly, the bosses are lacking in number, and, to a certain extent, presentation.
There are only six bosses not counting the final one with four of those six being spread across at least three missions a piece. To top it off, during these boss battles the bosses need to be downed at least two times while sporting significant health pools, defensive & offensive stats, and the ability to attack twice per round. As expected, RNG does come into play at times with enemies large and small landing critical hits early in a round, ganging up on a particular hero even if the icon above their head beside their health bar dictates they will attack another Sun, the enemy waves varying in numbers unexpectedly, and those previously defeated bosses showing up during “General Missions” with one health bar, but can change a simple mission into an unnecessary long-winded encounter.
On the opposite end is the hero presentation in terms of combat variety. The Hunter can be a forceful jack of all trades depending on how the player sets up their deck including making the avatar a supportive ally, a hard-hitting tank, or environmental expert thanks to how The Hunter has more card options than any other character. Nico is a fantastic support character to buff allies and weaken enemies, while Magik will use her portals to create knock-back opportunities into other foes or even off the ledge of a building. The tank-like nature of Captain Marvel can have her taunt enemies for counter attacks at the end of a round, while Ghost Rider will actually sacrifice health to do hefty damage. Blade’s sword & guns can have enemies bleeding all over the place, as will Wolverine’s claws.
Each character levels up manually and automatically with certain missions dictating particular characters needing to be a part of said battle. If the player hasn’t been using that character, the hero will be under-leveled and potentially an easy down even when the game attempts to do an average leveling across the heroes. The experience cap alleviates this problem slightly as it doesn’t take much grinding to get everyone around the same level through both types of missions. Even with those cons in regards to the battle scenarios, the general flow of combat alongside the planning stages leading up to each mission makes for an enthralling experience from beginning to end (and post-game with players given the option of continuously playing through the same non-story missions).
Beyond the progress of battle is the structure of each day. “Midnight Suns” has a day-night cycle with the day time used to prepare & perform those automated tasks, explore The Abbey, and take part in missions. Night time, however, is mostly rooted in hero interactivity. While The Hunter can spend quality time with each available hero during the day – say, go bird watching or lounging by the pool – it is during these night-based meetings that things get a little wacky in terms of characterization like Blade creating a book club with Captain Marvel & Captain America.
While it’s interesting to see these characters letting their figurative hair down, the presentation is rather oft-putting compared to everything else including the seriousness of their current situation. Trying to turn every Sun, both mainstay and temporary, into The Hunter’s new best friend is the game’s most time-consuming aspect especially if the player is looking for full completion because the friendship simulator aspect is mostly random with certain characters being available one day and not for multiple subsequent hours. The dialogue between The Hunter and the Suns definitely ranges from emotionally gripping to embarrassingly child-like while the player usually gets the option of choosing “Light” and “Dark” choices.
In a lot of ways, these character interactions make up for the rather miniscule story where a majority of the narrative’s progression is just setting up scenarios to start the next main mission like figuring out how to expel Lilith’s corruption from Venom after he tore up downtown New York by, of course, luring him into a church with a bell tower. There are some nice twists to the story though including the inclusion of Johnny Blaze and Bruce Banner with certain playable characters, unfortunately, becoming available far too late in the narrative to fully enjoy their talents without post-game action. The ending definitely leaves something to be desired with a cliffhanger in regards to The Hunter and a significant tease for either a sequel or DLC-oriented story mission.
The game’s other time sink is exploring The Abbey – the maze-like experience that is moving through The Abbey’s outskirts and discovering new abilities strictly used for opening up more avenues to see what lurks beyond cracked walls and abandoned buildings usually housing some information about the times of a deceased Agatha Harkness, a young Scarlet Witch, The Caretaker who runs The Abbey, and The Hunter’s youthful exploits. Chests of varying quality are located mostly throughout The Abbey’s exterior with “Ancient Keys” being needed to unlock these containers usually sporting color palettes for clothes and currency (though upgrading the “Arcane” level by finding those lore writings will forgo the need for keys to unlock “Common” chests). If there’s one obvious drawback in regards to The Abbey’s mysteries is the lack of some optional boss battles or missions.
Though most of the customizable clothing options are either unlocked through in-game progress and spending the “Gloss” currency, there are some impressive costumes that can only be bought by using real money. Why these micro-transactions were implemented even on a small scale is a head scratcher considering this isn’t a “games-as-a-service” offering.
Technically, “Midnight Suns” is a mixed bag. A majority of the time the game runs rather smoothly both in and out of battle. But when “Suns” has issues they are overbearing including significant frame rate drops during certain maneuvers, enemies taking odd amounts of time to perform an action (giving the impression the game has frozen), and significant graphical glitches including heroes falling through the world during a fight, the environment exploding in blinding white light, and camera issues. Most of these problems, thankfully, fix themselves and won’t have the player restarting an entire encounter. It also must be noted how small the information text is on the cards during battle.
The voice acting must be commended with some very familiar talent adding a level of authenticity to each character like Michael Jai White as Blade, Steve Blum portraying Wolverine like it’s the 1990s, and Laura Bailey arguably stealing the figurative show as Magik. Graphically, however, this original cross-generational release looks like something stuck from mid-eighth generation. It’s hard to understand why PS4 and Xbox One owners couldn’t play this at the same time with PC and ninth-gen gamers as it doesn’t seem too overpowered for eighth generation consoles.
Though the extracurriculars do help forge bonds between the player’s custom character and Marvel’s heroes, they take away from the valuable time that could be used to fight more and more of HYDRA & Lilith’s forces via the incredibly entertaining combat system; a system that will have fans of the genre coming back time and time again to test out the limits of their deck-building prowess.
Should You Play “Marvel’s Midnight Suns”?
Card-based strategy games aren’t for everyone, but Firaxis Games does a mostly masterful job of creating a game easy enough to get into for both novices and experienced gamers alike. The friendship grind and general RNG moments definitely slows down what is mostly an exciting and fun experience even if the story doesn’t feel as fleshed out or impressive as its source material. Surprisingly, only a month after its release, “Midnight Suns” is getting discounts – making it an easy recommendation as it not only won’t break the bank, but also gives players a reason to buy the Season Pass with the money left over. Gamers who think there’s no better feeling than pulling off a successful plan in turn-based form that defeats a mass wave of enemies will be as happy as a group of buddies enjoying a cheesy 1980s action movie.
