I remember thinking Midnight Suns looked like a really odd Marvel game when it first came out. The whole strategy card game just didn’t seem like something you’d expect for a superhero game. It was also known as a super long game so I figured I ought to wait until I had some time. Well, that time was now and this definitely ended up being a really fun game. I’ve been loving this kind of strategy gameplay and it is really satisfying to play through. Mix it in with a really detailed story and this is a winner all the way.

The game starts off with an ancient evil awakening and so the Caretaker wakes up The Hunter. The Hunter is the son of the ancient witch who has returned to destroy the world. He’s not really much of a people person but he does get results. The Hunter will be working with the Midnight Suns as well as the Avengers to save the world. It won’t be easy but he will have to step up and work as the leader here. Can he bring all of these heroes together?

A big part of the game is about how nobody really gets along. Iron-Man is used to leading the Avengers after all and doesn’t want to be taking a backseat to the Midnight Suns. Additionally, the Midnight Suns are resentful for being put to the side when they are the experts on the supernatural side of things. Hunter isn’t used to working with others and so that ties into the relationship mechanics in the game. As the story goes on you will be trying to increase your friendship ranking with the various characters.

That said, you can also choose the meaner options to increase your dark energy. It’s not completely linear though where some dark options will increase your friendship depending on who you’re talking to. For that reason it can sometimes be difficult to tell which is the right option but I focused on increasing my dark energy because there was a trophy for getting 200 dark energy decisions. I ended up completing the game before I could get it fully maxed out but I was awful close.

A lot of times those awkward responses felt more in character for Hunter anyway. I didn’t really go out of my way to use a lot of the social aspects of the game but it is impressive just how much content is here. It’s like a whole other game within a game. The structure is formulaic. Each morning you get to start a research, send a hero on a research mission, and talk to your friends. You then select your story mission for the day. After the mission is complete it is the evening so you can hang out with your friends or attend a book club. Go to bed and you repeat the adventure again.

There are only 21 story missions in the game but each one usually requires you to do a filler day in the middle so the story will still take you a while. I believe my playtime was over 30 hours by the end which shows just how much there is to do here. I haven’t even touched upon the training dojo, collecting all of the cards, etc. There is also DLC that you can buy to continue the adventure and fight more battles.

So lets talk about the gameplay. It’s a strategy game where you have your playable characters and can move them across the board based on how many turn points you have. You can perform 3 card actions, move once, and use up to 3 items per battle. You can do free environmental attacks where you blow up objects to injure enemies but it costs you some action points. Action points are how you use the stronger cards in your disposal.

I appreciated that the game really explains these mechanics to you very gradually so you’re not scrambling from the start. If the game had launched all of the mechanics immediately then trust me you would end up lost very quickly. There are just so many mechanics that it would feel overwhelming otherwise. The final level is essentially a pop quiz on all of these mechanics at once as you launch into the longest mission yet where you end up using every character in the game.

The game is reasonably difficult without being overbearing. I died twice in the game but for the most part I was taking care of business. There are harder difficulty options available though and they increase the rewards you get when completing the level. That’s definitely a good incentive right there. This is also a game where you can level up your characters but the enemies scale up to them so it’s not immediately helpful. The level cap is 25 and after that you just increase stats which don’t scale to the enemies so that is when you will really see the benefits. I was only able to max out the Hunter in the game but level ups come pretty fast so it wouldn’t take long to do that with the rest of them.

The graphics are definitely pretty solid. The art style may not be my favorite but on the whole I thought they did a good job here. It does have a bit of a supernatural feel and you can tell that this isn’t the normal superhero adventure. I also enjoyed the different gameplay effects in terms of visuals. The soundtrack is a bit more on the boring side though. The tunes aren’t bad but none of them really stand out. As for the writing, as long as you like it when all of the characters are constantly being ironic and cracking jokes then you’re good. I had a fun time chuckling at most of the dialogue here. I’d say it works out well enough.

It’s rare to have so much dialogue in a Marvel game like this so I was really just enjoying getting to see all of the characters talking to each other. There is a lot of great opportunity for banter in this kind of setup. They should really make more Marvel RPGs, I would definitely be there ready to have fun with the tactical gameplay. Or if they just want to go with a classic Final Fantasy turn based kind of gameplay, I’d definitely be there for that as well.

Overall, Marvel Midnight Suns is a really great game. I’m super impressed by how much content is in this game. There is a whole lot to do and you’ve almost got 3 different games here between the story, the relationships, and the card collecting. You could easily spend 100 hours here just trying to complete everything. It does mean that I won’t be getting the Platinum trophy here any time soon but the game has a ton of bang for your buck which I appreciate. I’d recommend picking it up.

Overall 8/10