Review: Marvel's Midnight Suns

Marvel's Midnight Suns is Firaxis' turn based card game set in the Marvel Universe. I usually enjoy Firaxis's strategy games, and when there was a steam 3 day trial I tried it and liked it, but not enough to pay list price ($40) for it. I figured I'd pick it up for $20 or so in relatively short order but the price never dropped that low. I noticed that the local library had the PS5 version on its shelves and put a hold on it. The game was long enough that I would play a bit, save, return it to the library after the 3 week loan period, place another hold on it, and then play it again. It would take 3 such periods to finish the game.

Unlike in XCOM or XCOM 2, movement doesn't matter very much. Or rather, you get one move per turn, but during your turn various attacks made by playing cards move the various characters as well, so you have to take that into account while making your plays and moves. You have 3 card plays per turn, and unlike XCOM, those attacks never miss and the damage that you achieve is always squarely provided on the card itself so you don't have to guess. Attacks can also have additional properties (some attacks require heroism to power, while others may grant you an additional card play if you knock out an opponent, while others may cause stun or cause the subject of the attack to be knocked back), and attacks that knock back an opponent into another object may trigger environmental effects. Overall, the game play is fun and since each character introduced into the game has different cards and different play styles each mission is unique and fresh.

The in-between mission/strategy part of the game, however, is annoying. You run around talking to various characters in order to increase friendship level between characters. There are also puzzles to unlock and chests to open, all of which grant you in game currency that you can use to upgrade each character's card decks, or single-use utility items. There's a research tree that's not well constructed, and various side stories. There are also combat side-quests where you can power up your character or unlock more puzzles and side-quests. This bit of the game outstays its welcome in short order, and I found myself short-cutting things by searching for the best gifts to give each character so I could get these side-quests over with.

The story is not bad, and of course, the Avengers characters are fun to play, as is Wolverine, Spider-Man, and the Midnight Suns characters are also fun to play though not well known. Much of the dialogue and voice acting is horrid, but I could overlook that.

I don't usually play a game to completion, having too little free time and too much to do, so for me to even finish a game is rare, which places this into the recommended category.