In this episode of THE BURN, hosts Aviv Icel Manoach and Yehuda Halfon fight a demonic invasion with beloved Marvel heroes in Midnight Suns and discuss game announcements such as the Elden Ring expansion, Final Fantasy 16 previews and early access launch of Kerbal Space Program 2.
Original recording date - February 28, 2023.
Published by Firaxis Games, MSRP $60, Buy the game (Humble partner link).
Midnight Sun is a strange beast. It’s a roleplaying game, a tactical turn-based strategy game, and a deck-building game, all at once. And it works! The good people at Firaxis said to themselves “what if we made Dragon Age, but with Marvel characters and the combat uses cards!”.
In the game, the world is under attack by Lilith, the mother of demons, and we play her resurrected child, destined to lead humanity in the battle against her. The Hunter is an original character made for this game and can be customised by the player. The rest of the crew is made of various Marvel comic characters, from the Avengers to Blade, some X-Men and others.
The titular “Midnight Suns” are mostly those characters with something to do with magic or the occult, like Magik, Nico and Ghost Rider. The variety of characters is decent, although some of the adaptations are not to my liking - specifically Iron Man and Doctor Strange.
Its combat system is exciting and captures well the comic book feel. It’s a tactical combat which uses a deck of cards for attacks, similar to games like Slay the Spire or Monster Train. Using regular attacks fills up the heroic meter for the entire party, which in turn allows you to use heroic ability cards. The game’s characters specialise in different areas of combat, such as single enemy attacks, crowd control, generating hero points, or environmental damage. Team composition becomes important.
What the game is lacking compared to its predecessors is its limited combat arenas, which are always just as big as the screen and unlike XCOM have no element of exploration; and the lack of verticality which could have fit very well with the superhero genre.
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