I followed the making of Midnight Suns very closely. To say that it was highly anticipated by me would be a vast understatement. In fact, it was one of those rare games that seemed entirely tailored just to my tastes. Let's walk through the boxes it checked off, shall we? First of all, it was made by the developer of XCOM, and featured a similar gameplay. But it also added a collectable card mechanic. It used the Marvel license, but instead of cashing in on the new hotness in the MCU, it focused on a darker lore and featured vampires and witches. Oh, and it takes place mainly in Salem, Massachusetts. I mean.
I was a tech-kid since I can remember. I had a Commodore 64 at the age of six. I'm pretty sure we got America Online in our house around 1993. The following year, I bought a 286 computer off of a friend just so I could have my own computer in my room. I tried to get it to run Doom and Wolfenstein 3D to no avail. I finally got my own Pentium II PC around 1996, and it came bundled with a bunch of random games. One of them was X-COM: Terror From The Deep and I was hooked. I've been intrigued by turn based strategy games ever since. When XCOM: Enemy Unknown was released years later it was an instant buy for me. And I became deeply enamored. I played through that game so many times that when XCOM 2 was released, my wife said half-jokingly, "see you in a few months." Digital card games are also a pretty big deal to me. Admittedly, I didn't get into them until Hearthstone turned me on to the genre. But over the years, I've gotten pretty deep into so many ranging from classics like Pokemon TCG and SNK Vs Capcom: Card Fighters Clash to modern oddities like Lightseekers and Marvel Snap. That said, I'll say with total conviction that Slay The Spire is one of the greatest games of the current generation and at this point I can't even fathom how many hundreds of hours I've put into that game. Marvel is a longer story. I was a comic book geek as a kid. It pretty much started with the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles run, but as I branched out it was Marvel that grabbed me. DC stuff was okay. But Marvel was next level. I was a total X-Men fanboy back then. Then of course, I denounced comic books in high school because I wanted girls to think I was cool. But when the pre-MCU Marvel began cranking out movies in the early 2000s (namely, the X-Men movies and the Spider-Man trilogy), I was down. Then there was another lull when the MCU first launched because it was really popular and I was kind of a hipster. But eventually my wife and I fell into the trap and followed the MCU all the way until our daughter was born. That pretty much coincided with the release of Avengers Endgame, which seemed like a fitting time to dip out of such a vast story when our time was so limited. And of course I have an affinity for any games that take place in New England. Not that the whole game does. The main base is in Salem, but much of the battles takes place elsewhere. But still, by going down the path of witchery and vampires, Salem is a perfect little hub for the mansion. And I like that. Not to mention that I like horror stuff, so focusing on the more horror side of Marvel comics lore is a win in my book. Speaking of the hub, that's where you'll spend a lot of time upgrading cards and making friends. That latter point is like the sort of relationship bonding conversations you'd see in a game like Fire Emblem or whatever. It's fine enough, but can be a little tedious when you're itching to get back to a mission. Really, the same could be said for the mansion itself. I'm sure some gamers like running around between missions and going room to room to do all of this stuff. Maybe it builds a certain immersion. I don't know. Personally, I wish it was all just menu based like in the XCOM games. But you can't win them all. My other complaint is about the insanely long cut scenes. Between all the running around the mansion you'll do and all the talking to other characters, the cut scenes just feel like they go on forever. Don't get me wrong, they're well done. They feel like a comic book. There's even some fun little jokes like Captain Marvel's "XCOM" computer system, or the little club with a long name that's an acronym for "emo kids." But honestly, it feels like there is so much downtime between each mission and that can really slow down the momentum of the game loop. The battle system is pretty great, though. All attacks and skills are played via cards. You can play three cards per turn. And obviously, everything is turn based. But this is also added to the usual XCOM style game maps. The big difference is that there's no grid movement. Instead, things feel more open and real. Positioning does throw me off when I'm so used to the classic grid based movement of such games. But Firaxis pulls off this system really nicely. And honestly, combining a turn based tactics game with a deck building card game is really the exact sort of niche game that is right up my alley. One of the more interesting things here is that the main character is not a Marvel superhero at all. Instead, it's a random user made character called The Hunter. There's a small character creator, but ultimately this is along the lines of Shepard in Mass Effect. Which is to say, mostly generic male or female. The crazy thing is that among a huge cast of Marvel favorites, I've stuck with The Hunter even in non-required missions. My Hunter has been of great use as I've leveled up her cards. She's pretty badass, really. Leveling up is indeed the main draw here. Drafting duplicate cards allows you to level them up into stronger versions of those cards. In that sense, it's not unlike Marvel Snap, the free to play card game that came out the same year. As a side note, I feel like Marvel Snap could really work on consoles, but alas it's been mobile and PC only thus far. Ugh. At any rate, the one thing that this game really has going for it is that it's weird. I personally love when Marvel games get weird. I mean, there's been recent hits with Spider-Man and The Avengers and all, and that's great. But I've always been a fan of oddball stuff like Telltale's take on The Guardians Of The Galaxy. This one's weird like that. It doesn't follow any MCU storyline. Instead, it's a big pastiche of comic book lore. I like seeing characters like Magik and Wolverine and Blade all rubbing elbows. I like them talking about witchcraft and stuff. It's strangely dark and also silly with its use of social media and young folk slang. But sometimes I can't help but think that the story and base stuff is all just a lot of padding. There's way too much talking. Way too many waypoints pointing me to plan a birthday party or to bond with another hero over a movie. Ultimately, this game is solid as far as its bones go, but my god, it's just so long and dragged out. I can't help but think there's a solid 30 hour game here that's just stretched way beyond that because of a whole lot of fat. I commend what Firaxis attempted here. It's a lofty license to take a crack at. But part of me thinks it would have been more successful had they just crammed Marvel into the XCOM engine and called it a day after reskinning. Instead, they attempted a whole lot more and the end result is somewhat bloated. Don't get me wrong, Midnight Suns is a very good game. It's an addictive game. But as I play it I can't help but think that it's just not XCOM 3. And for everything I like about Midnight Suns, I'd much rather have XCOM 3.
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