Who faces the supernatural threats of the Marvel Universe? (Marvel Midnight Suns impressions post)

     Hey friends, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I'm a pretty big fan of Superheroes in general, meaning that I'm very happy with the state of Marvel lately, especially their games. While not every game in the past few years has been a success, but there have been quite a few games that have come out from different studios based on different Intellectual Properties, and it's a shock just how different they all play. Marvel's Spider-Man by Insomniac Games is fantastic, as is the spin off, Spider-Man Miles Morales. These two games are very much open world action games where you play as Spider-Man and swing across New York City. Guardians of the Galaxy by Square Enix and Eidos-Montreal was more of a linear Action-Adventure game based around getting to meet these different versions of the characters from the movie, while also fleshing out the overall comic universe to have a pretty impressive and creative story. Marvel's Avengers, also published by Square Enix, but mainly made by Crystal Dynamics was a "Live service" game, but one with a pretty solid story mode that was fumbled with the tacked on post game and the microtransaction issues. Either way, they all played very differently, and Marvel Games has again made a very different type of game with Marvel Midnight Suns. Published by 2K and made by Firaxis, the company famous for XCOM and other strategy games, this plays different in a way that I'm much happier with than I thought I would be. I've never been huge on tactical RPGs, which I thought this was going to be, but I've really enjoyed it so far! I should say before we get into the meat of this post that I haven't beaten this game yet, so this isn't a full review, just a way to get some of my thoughts out about the experience so far! With that out of the way, let's dive into the more mystical side of the Marvel multiverse.

A threat too big for the Avengers!

    This game picks up with Hydra successfully resurrecting an ancient evil threat known as Lillith, who powers up all of the goons in their group and basically conscripts them to her evil purposes. This is obviously the villain of the game, and in the beginning of this game, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, and Captain Marvel try to defend the Sanctum Santorum against the Hydra baddies before quickly realizing they're outnumbered, Strange then transports them to a mystical abbey in a safer part of the country. Here, they bring "the Hunter," your custom character, back to life. This is just the beginning of this game, and it's definitely very different from how I thought this game would go, pretty much right off the bat. First of all, I had no idea what the combat was going to be like, other than knowing that it looked like it was a turn based affair, which it is, but I didn't know that it plays essentially like a card game. Each turn consists of three card plays (unless a card is played that allows for more plays), one move (meaning that you can arrange your heroes into a different spot so they'll get out of any potential danger), and you can redraw two cards as well per turn. Some complicated cards require "Heroism points," while some more simple attacks will give you one Heroism and some will give you two without attacking, but it may buff your units for the next turn. It's a clever system of having to decide whether you need more heroism to do a big attack, or if it's better to do a few small attacks if there aren't any huge enemies on screen. Each hero has a different kind of deck, Magik can create portals and push people back into obstacles more easily, Iron Man can attack a few enemies at once depending on how many of his cards are in your deck, etc. They all have interesting little quirks like this to make all of the characters feel different to play with. Speaking of making them all feel different, I think it's important to talk about the cast of characters that we're playing with here.

With Great Power Comes Great... Personality?

    There are a lot of more obscure characters in the line-up this time around. Of course, we have some better known heroes such as Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Spider-Man, Captain America, and Wolverine, but the Midnight Suns are made up of much more obscure picks. Blade, Nico Minoru (from the Runaways), Magik (little sister of Colossus), and Ghost Rider, along with your custom character, The Hunter, make up the roster of the more "supernatural" side of the team. Honestly some of my favorite parts of the game come from just sitting around the abbey and interacting with all of the characters around. There was a really endearing interaction with Blade about how Spider-Man was really annoying to be around, but it's good that he is around, since he's the hero with the most heart and courage of all of them. There's been a whole side thing where Blade has a crush on Captain Marvel and the Hunter constantly is trying to help him talk to her (or at least that's how I'm playing it). There was a whole storyline where Nico wanted to throw Magik a surprise party which ended up in a pretty major scene that I don't want to give away, but it was surprising to say the least. I suppose it's important to give some mention of the villainous forces. Lillith is by far the biggest threat because she has the power to mind control people, including some who would otherwise be friends. The ones on the box include Venom, Scarlet Witch, and Hulk, just to name a few, so it's clear that she really means business. I can't really get into those interactions, but it's a fascinating "What if" scenario when these characters are facing a threat way outside the norm.

    I have to say that this game lends itself to cheese pretty easily. This is not a game that is taking itself too seriously, there are lots of goofy interactions and legitimately funny dialogue to go around. One of my favorites has to be when Tony Stark cracked that Venom ain't gonna know what hit him. I don't know for sure that this is a reference to Eminem's song from the Venom movie, but I would absolutely love that if it was, since it's a hilarious song. For folks that know me, you know that I'm a big fan of the character Ms. Marvel, and there are quite a few references to her being the writer of different superhero fanfictions, and not only that, but Spider-Man is actually a big fan of hers without even realizing that it was her writing the stories. They do a lot of this, where there might be some side quests involving other characters that don't show up in the game, but there will be a little write up of the adventure after a hero gets back from an assignment. It's a little touch that I think goes a long way. Speaking of little touches, each mission ends with a comic book cover based on whoever went on each mission. It's a super cool addition that almost makes you feel like you're directing your own comic story. I would be remiss to not say something about the other part of the game though, free roaming.

Wandering can actually be fun!

    While the emphasis of the gameplay focuses on the strategy battles, there are also lots of secrets and mysteries to uncover around the Abbey. These are additional little story tidbits that mostly focus on The Hunter and Lilith, as well as the Caretaker (who is Lilith's sister) and the late Agatha Harkness (who died before the game began). These mysteries do a good job of keeping you invested in uncovering the mysteries of the Hunter, as he/she has a hard time remembering a lot of things after being dead for several hundred years. I have to say that this area kind of reminds me of Krypt Mode in Mortal Kombat 11, since a lot of it is just for unlocking cosmetics, but it's really cool that you can just go for as long as you want, and you're constantly unlocking more and more secrets as you go through the game. In the hub area there are also different clubs that you can join such as Shop Class (which is made up of Spider Man and Ghost Rider, with an honorary membership by Tony Stark), a Book Club with Blade, Captain Marvel, and Captain America, and a more mystical club devoted to helping the hunter get her memories back, which is composed of Magik, Nico, and Doctor Strange. It would take me a long time to talk about all of the different activities and upgrades that you can get for not only the characters, but the grounds as a whole, so I'll leave those up to your imagination. What I can say here is that the upgrades definitely come in handy in the overall battles, and the resources that you get from the missions help to fund lots of other upgrades, so it's a nice way of the two parts of the game feeding back into each other.

    I really enjoyed this game, and it's clear that it comes from a studio with a long history of games in this type, though I think the card mechanic is something that was added specifically for this game, and to be honest, it just makes it for me. There's so much fun to be had in here that even though I didn't know who a lot of the characters were at the beginning of the game, I'm excited to learn more about Nico or Magik going forward, which is similar to how I felt about Kamala Khan in the Avengers game. Even though this game is much more silly in terms of tone, it gets serious sometimes, making it feel not overly schlocky, but definitely not afraid to ham it up from time to time. The character models are rough, but the dialogue I feel is much better and, in my opinion, makes up for some less-than-pleasant visuals. I've genuinely enjoyed my time spent with the Hunter so far, and I hope that the rest of the game will be as fun!

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends. It's not often that a Tactical RPG will catch my eye, but I just thought I would give this one a try, and I'm very glad that I did. Are you happy with Marvel's video game offerings recently? Have you even tried any out yet? I know reception of Avengers was mostly negative, but I thought it was still pretty fun, especially for the duration of the campaign. I hope you'll try one of these more recent games sometime soon, especially since Guardians of the Galaxy was liked almost across the board. I would suggest Midnight Suns especially to people who really enjoyed XCOM or tactical RPGs of that type, but I'm really very new to the genre and I have still really enjoyed it. Thanks so much for your support once again and I hope you have a great week! Until next time, I'm Jonathan, your friendly neighborhood Self-Proclaimed Dreamer, and I'll talk to you again soon!