Marvel's Midnight Suns, preview
Marvel's Midnight Suns
During the Opening Night Live of Gamescom 2021, Marvel's Midnight Suns was finally shown, the much rumored "XCOM in Marvel sauce" on which Firaxis, the in-house developer of 2K famous for Civilization and, precisely, had been working for some time. , XCOM.Unfortunately, the trailer shown, although suggestive, does not show anything of the gameplay: it is more than anything else a montage that uses the game's engine to illustrate the cast, the antagonist and the atmospheres that will characterize this excursion of the kids from Maryland to the Marvel universe.
What we have seen, however, has certainly intrigued us, especially because Firaxis has put together a team of heroes and anti-heroes different from the usual, with enormous potential both at the narrative level and at the level of game design.
In the preview of Marvel's Midnight Sun we will try to understand everything we should expect from this very interesting project.
The dark side of the Avengers
Marvel's Midnight Suns, the protagonists Despite being an original story, Marvel's Midnight Sun is inspired by a cycle of comic stories dating back to the early 90s and in particular the Ghost Rider series: to face the supernatural threat of Lilith, the mother of all demons, the Spirit della Vendetta puts together a team by recruiting some more or less famous heroes and anti-heroes, from Doctor Strange to Hellstrom, passing through the vampires Morbius and Blade and many others. Midnight Sons, Midnight Sons in English.It is clear that the title Midnight Suns, which means midnight suns, is not the only reference to those stories, as in the trailer we were able to witness the resurrection of Lilith, a catastrophic threat that will push some of the most beloved characters of the Marvel universe to huddle around the Huntress, fully customizable in appearance and powers: a new character, designed in collaboration with Marvel, who will represent us in the game.
In a recent interview, the lead designer Jake Solomon, author of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2, revealed that the player will be able to count on at least thirteen Marvel heroes, choosing three at a time with which to participate in the missions. In addition to well-known faces such as those of the Avengers, among which we can see Iron Man, Captain America and Captain Marvel, the cast will include some X-Men such as the very famous Wolverine and the feisty Magik, as well as a member of the Runaways, the young witch Nico Minoru, but also Blade, Ghost Rider - Robby Reyes, the one who drives the owned car - and Doctor Strange. It will be a very diverse team, in short, which will include ambiguous and obscure characters, promising more adult interactions and a generally more serious and somber tone.
Marvel's Midnight Suns, Doctor Strange prepares a spell While adoring the cycle of comic stories that inspired him, Solomon also winked at the recent history of the Marvel multimedia universe: in his game, Lilith, to summon the fearsome Chthon, will try to reassemble the Darkhold, a cursed book that we have seen in the TV series Agents of SHIELD and WandaVision. If he were to succeed, hell would literally break out on Earth, and for this our anti-heroes will have to face the demons of Lilith in a series of turn-based missions.
Apparently it was the Marvel people who contacted Solomon after the release of XCOM 2, and not vice versa. The designer, in fact, said he ended up in a sort of ambush when, in the middle of a conference call, he discovered that his interlocutors were true fans of XCOM 2, so much so that he questioned some choices that Firaxis had made in the design of the final missions.
Gameplay is not XCOM
Marvel's Midnight Suns, the Slayer is the protagonist of the game Despite having all this support from Marvel, the guys from Firaxis had to throwing away every lesson learned from previous XCOMs because, once they sat around a table discussing their new game, they realized that Midnight Suns couldn't be another XCOM. Solomon explained that Marvel's fantasy is something entirely different, so much so that even permanent death seemed out of place in a title like this, and in fact it has been removed.Gradually the distances between the Marvel licensed game and the two XCOMs have become increasingly evident. The presence of superheroes instead of ordinary soldiers has imposed a completely different perspective, especially on the arsenal front: instead of firearms, the protagonists of Midnight Suns employ a plethora of distinctive and visually spectacular powers.
Marvel's Midnight Suns, the Ghost Rider who appears in the game is Robbie Reyes Customizing the Slayer will mean tapping into a pool of powers inspired by the most popular Marvel characters: Solomon talked about forty different abilities ranging from the powers of light, belonging to the more positive heroes like Captain America and Captain Marvel, to the dark ones, closer to the representatives of the occult like Ghost Rider or Doctor Strange. The most interesting thing would seem to be how the characters actually increase in power and improve their abilities. In fact, between one mission and another, we will be able to explore the Abbey, practically the headquarters of the team where every hero spends his free time. At this juncture we will be able to interact with our allies, give them gifts and follow real subplots that will serve to improve the relationships between the cast members and their performance on the battlefield.
Marvel's Midnight Suns, Nico Minoru and Doctor Strange resurrect the Huntress We must admit that this gameplay seems very similar to the one proposed by Intelligent Systems in its excellent Fire Emblem: Three Houses. In that game, which was also a turn-based strategy game, the protagonist Byleth could wander around the monastery of Garreg Mach to interact with his students, then soldiers on the battlefield, establishing a social relationship that could affect their skills in combat. Marvel's Midnight Suns would seem to work the same way, but to learn more about the combat system and other dynamics we will have to wait until next September 1st, when Firaxis Games and 2K will show the first images of the game which, hopefully, will be released later in the March 2022.
Waiting to see a real gameplay video on September 1st, we can say we are quite impressed by the cinematic trailer shown during Gamescom. Firaxis' curriculum is a guarantee as regards turn-based strategy, and the unusual niche of the Marvel universe which the developer has drawn on to characterize the atmospheres and the narrative could reserve many surprises. Stay tuned, in short, because we will be back soon to talk about Marvel's Midnight Suns.
