Marvel's Midnight Suns: My early thoughts.

Video Games are constantly setting and breaking new milestones of what games can be. In the last decade, think of how vastly the graphics, scope and mechanics of the games we play currently have evolved. This culture of gaming development favours open world practices over the linearity of single player games prior. Along with this change, we can notice that games themselves are getting longer and longer with more content off the story path and tasks to complete in the endgame. One could argue that for some games this extra content is nothing more but padding to increase the game length (I'm looking at you FF7 Remake) but that's beside the point. In a roundabout way, I'm trying to say that with games growing in length, our time as gamers becomes even more valuable, and we must make even more decisions on what to dedicate our time to. If you're at all like me, you're missing the hay days of university when you could spend countless hours grinding in Persona 5 without a care in the world. But a 9-5 working job leaves very little room for gaming. So, what you're asking now, is Marvel's Midnight Suns worth your previous time ? Let's find out.

Story:

As the story goes, I want this to be as spoiler free as possible. As mentioned in the trailers and promotional materials for the game, the main antagonist of the game is Lilith, a long dead ancient sorceress type being. You play as the 'Hunter', an equally ancient being who was responsible for felling Lilith the first time round. You are revived by the Avengers, and fight Lilith alongside various different X-Men and Marvel characters. The story doesn't break any new ground in terms of originality, but it gets the job done in keeping the game moving forward. The juggernaut of Marvel is the sticking point for myself, and fighting alongside and interacting with beloved heroes overshines the story. As for the graphics of the game, they are exemplary. The character models are very glossy, and the game runs very smoothly on the PS5.

Gameplay:

Now we get onto the real ‘meat and bones’ of the game. The gameplay of Midnight Suns is very reminiscent of their previous work, the X-Com series. For those unfamiliar, X-Com is a strategy shooter with player controlled soldiers taking turns to outwit and outgun the enemy aliens. Midnight Suns follows suit in terms of the engaging turn based combat, but mixes up the formula to improve it. For instance, in X-Com your soldiers were nobodies and could be killed forever and not brought back, and therefore once one of your men died in your mission you were placed at an escalating disadvantage. The difference here is that in Midnight Suns you are playing as one of a kind superhero. Instead of a death when your character's health hits zero, they are simply knocked out, and can be revived for a cost next turn. This makes the game infinitely easier, yes, but still keeps combat challenging. There are also almost 7 different increments of difficulty for those seeking a more challenging experience. The game employs a card based combat system, with each other having a host of unique attacks, abilities and environmental skills to vanquish the forces of evil.

A facet of the game I was unfortunately less fond of was the relationship building segment of it. The game employs two areas of gameplay, combat in the morning, and social interaction in the evening. This involves you deepening your relationship with the avengers by inviting them to 'hangouts' to enjoy a host of activities together. There are club side missions as well to get involved in, that often contextualise events in the main story. If I had to liken it to another gaming experience, the closest would be Dragon Age inquisition. A mighty hero out of time, surrounded by a group of heroes fawning over him, defeating an evil back from the dead. The only difference is you can't romance anyone !

Things I didn't like:

There's not much I can really say negatively about this game. The only criticism I can think of is the lack of a customisable player character. When considering other older games I can think of a fairly more customisation option. In Midnight Suns the only features of your character that can be changed is their hair, eye colour and gender. It just feels very backwards to me, and a missed opportunity to create a character that realistically replicates the player. Another small gripe I had with the game was the exemption of certain iconic heroes from the game. Such as Daredevil and other members of the defenders, the Fantastic Four, and other X-Men! I believe this issue will be addressed with time with the inevitable DLC, but I can't say I wasn't disappointed.

The Early Verdict:

It's important to make clear this is not a final verdict, not even close. I'm a trophy hunter at heart, so a game isn't complete for me until all the trophies and the platinum are earned. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game so far, and the positives far outweigh the negatives. The game is a love letter to the marvel aficionados of the world, with all of your favourite characters waiting to befriend you. The combat is snappy, punchy and encourages you to experiment with new abilities and new heroes to keep things fresh and exciting. I enjoy combat far more than the socialising, but this mode can be skipped and avoided if you are of similar ilk to myself.

The next question to ask is, assuming you are interested in the game's material, when should you buy the game? Personally, unless you are fanatical about the Marvel franchise or Firaxis' games, I would suggest waiting for a sale. If nothing else, the price of PS5 and Xbox Series X exclusives are overpriced and difficult to justify. Perhaps when it is finally on sale, the new DLC characters will be released and the game will be that much more fulfilling.