Marvel's Midnight Suns

Marvel's Midnight Suns has great combat. The rest...I'm not so sure (Hands-On Impressions)

 
So has anyone actually tried this? Not that I have much hope. It is probably woke trash.
 
Have read that the writing is bad and there are some perplexing game mechanic choices for a turn-based tactical strategy game. There is a lot of downtime between battles, for instance. Critics rate it well, but players not so much. Plus, microtransactions galore.
 
Armenius said:
Have read that the writing is bad and there are some perplexing game mechanic choices for a turn-based tactical strategy game. There is a lot of downtime between battles, for instance. Critics rate it well, but players not so much. Plus, microtransactions galore.
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Gross.
 
I might pick it up later this month. I have an entire week off at the end of the year and this seems like something decent to play during that time. I’m not expecting something amazing, but from what I’ve watched on YouTube the combat seems fun and the missions look short enough that each encounter won’t overstay it’s welcome.
 
I've been enjoying it since day 1, only complaint is ray tracing kills the FPS and not much reason to enable it.
 
Meh, I have decided to become the sacrificial lamb, there is nothing interesting to play anyway in the holiday season, and my last review was over 6 months ago.
 
M76 said:
Meh, I have decided to become the sacrificial lamb, there is nothing interesting to play anyway in the holiday season, and my last review was over 6 months ago.
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Hooray! Let us know, I'm interested in the game myself if the story is any good.
 
From what I've seen of gameplay online, the combat looks fun if not perfect with the card mechanics and battlegrounds. I thought the spell effects were good. The social base/team building side though drags on with some hilariously bad dialog, even for a comic book story/world. Most are making jokes about it being a Marvel dating sim.

Have you wanted to have conversations about Sun Tzu with Cap America, Marvel and Blade? Join the book club! Then hang out with Magik at the pool. Buy gifts to give to your friends with in game currency. Then buy skins with real money via in game currency. Yay.
 
First impressions: The combat encounters seem fun for now, but I fear it will get old fast if there is nothing to change it up. So far the combat areas were tiny, no more than 50feet diameter circles. It is similar to Chimera Squad except even more simplistic, you don't even have to think about movement now, there are no covers to speak of. The point of the whole game is how you use up your attacks.

Then there is the part in-between encounters, which frankly seems more like an obstacle, unnecessary, uninteresting, cringe. Actually it is cringe at its best, it is worse than that most of the time. I just skip over all cutscenes and conversations and run to the next objective unmindful of everything the writing is so bad.

Then the million dollar question: Is it woke? Depends on your definition of woke, I guess. Thus far (90 minutes in) there was no direct activism, but the female heroes look buffer than the male ones. And the writers must really hate tony stark. He looks like someone who just walked out of the blue oyster and the constant the butt of jokes, the clumsy soy boy of the team. And the leader of the good guys is a trans Edward Mulhare, well not really, but that's how I'd imagine Edward Mulhare would look after transitioning.

The hero is a mary sue, regardless of what "body type" you choose, since genders are social constructs as we all know. You are just born awesome. Or rather resurrected awesome here.

The main villain is as cliched as can be, I have zero investment in the story or care for the outcome, or for any of the characters. Doctor Strange is the least annoying character, and that's still bellow neutral.
 
Nobody:
Firaxis devs: Let's make the friend simulator part of GTAIV a main and unskippable part of our game.

This freaking game even has a built in twitter, and you must "hang out" with these writer self inserts.
 
M76 said:
First impressions: The combat encounters seem fun for now, but I fear it will get old fast if there is nothing to change it up. So far the combat areas were tiny, no more than 50feet diameter circles. It is similar to Chimera Squad except even more simplistic, you don't even have to think about movement now, there are no covers to speak of. The point of the whole game is how you use up your attacks.

Then there is the part in-between encounters, which frankly seems more like an obstacle, unnecessary, uninteresting, cringe. Actually it is cringe at its best, it is worse than that most of the time. I just skip over all cutscenes and conversations and run to the next objective unmindful of everything the writing is so bad.

Then the million dollar question: Is it woke? Depends on your definition of woke, I guess. Thus far (90 minutes in) there was no direct activism, but the female heroes look buffer than the male ones. And the writers must really hate tony stark. He looks like someone who just walked out of the blue oyster and the constant the butt of jokes, the clumsy soy boy of the team. And the leader of the good guys is a trans Edward Mulhare, well not really, but that's how I'd imagine Edward Mulhare would look after transitioning.

The hero is a mary sue, regardless of what "body type" you choose, since genders are social constructs as we all know. You are just born awesome. Or rather resurrected awesome here.

The main villain is as cliched as can be, I have zero investment in the story or care for the outcome, or for any of the characters. Doctor Strange is the least annoying character, and that's still bellow neutral.
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Is this a real single player game, or a live/service type of game that you can play offline?

I didn't even know this game was coming until a few weeks ago and can't seem to figure out what it is.
 
Flogger23m said:
Is this a real single player game, or a live/service type of game that you can play offline?

I didn't even know this game was coming until a few weeks ago and can't seem to figure out what it is.
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It is a single player game otherwise I wouldn't even touch it.
 
Flogger23m said:
I'm asking because the Steam page sells in game currency, which confuses me. Looks like it is for skins or something.
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I don't know what's it for beyond skins. The game is super-easy so far and it doesn't even allow to set difficulty above normal before you complete it. This game was certainly made for journos, not gamers.

TBF it has mobile game vibes all over it. The combat is so basic and simplistic that it could be easily played on a phone.
 
Guess it is canon now: Captain Marvel's ass is still flat.

20221210212050_1.jpg

Also this is your "crew" meet,diverse self insert 1, diverse self insert 2, and diverse self insert 3:
20221210135751_1.jpg

And this is the stellar quest and dialogue quality you can expect:
20221210205814_1.jpg
And trans Edward Mulhare:
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Hero walk:
20221210210815_1.jpg
 
GoldenTiger said:
Lulz, yep. Also, what are all these non magic characters doing in a game whose plot is about magic users and threats? Spider-Man, captain marvel, iron man, etc.?
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The one on the left is supposed to be Ghostrider :p, and the other two are also super-duper powerful mages, they are more powerful than ironman, doctor strange combined. The only legacy marvel characters not nerfed in the game are Blade and Captain Marvel. I'm sure Blade would be nerfed too if the writers saw the super toxic 1998 version :D But they probably weren't even born back then.

Most of the dialogue is gibberish, as you can see on the Edward Mulhare screenshot, probably because the writers think all comics are gibberish and just thought if they write gibberish nobody would notice.

The actual encounters however are not that bad, if you skip all the dialogue.

About the graphics: It is obvious that this is just a re-purposed XCOM2 engine, but what's acceptable in an isometric game with huge maps, is not nearly so within a game where the play area is 50feet across.
 
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M76 said:
The one on the left is supposed to be Ghostrider :p, and the other two are also super-duper powerful mages, they are more powerful than ironman, doctor strange combined. The only legacy marvel characters not nerfed in the game are Blade and Captain Marvel. I'm sure Blade would be nerfed too if the writers saw the super toxic 1998 version :D But they probably weren't even born back then.

Most of the dialogue is gibberish, as you can see on the Edward Mulhare screenshot, probably because the writers think all comics are gibberish and just thought if they write gibberish nobody would notice.

The actual encounters however are not that bad, if you skip all the dialogue.

About the graphics: It is obvious that this is just a re-purposed XCOM2 engine, but what's acceptable in an isometric game with huge maps, is not nearly so within a game where the play area is 50feet across.
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Robbie Rayes has been Ghost Rider since 2014 (Or somewhere around there). There are, in fact, several characters in the comics that have been possessed by the spirit of Vengeance, Robbie isn't even the most recent one. Agents of Shield used that version of the Rider for a few episodes and did a pretty good job.

Illayana Rasputin has been around since like the 60s or 70s and was turned in Magick in the 80s, she definitely qualifies as a legacy character. She's powerful because she is (at various points) the ruler of the entire Limbo dimension, she's also a mutant (that'd be her teleporting powers). She was taken as a little girl and raised in Limbo, eventually becoming it's ruler.

Nico is a character from the Runaways comic from the early-2000s I'd argue a character that's been around for close to 20 years doesn't really count as new. I don't really know a ton about Nico or her powers but from what little I do know, it seems like the game utilizes her gifts well.

Stark is a douchebag in a fancy suit, it really doesn't take much for one to be stronger than him. Remember, this isn't the MCU where they actually gave Stark some character growth and made him more of a lovable asshole, not to mention made him basically untouchable. As for Strange, he's not always most powerful mage in the room, at least in terms of raw power, his strength comes from his intelligence and knowledge of spell craft. The, sometimes, ruler of Limbo and whatever Nico's staff is being stronger, magically, than Strange isn't exactly out of the question. Depending on how he's written, I'd argue that Doom is stronger than Strange sometimes.
 
Yeah, I meant the last picture in your post, M76, not the first one :). Derangel covered the first one well.
 
Derangel said:
Robbie Rayes has been Ghost Rider since 2014 (Or somewhere around there). There are, in fact, several characters in the comics that have been possessed by the spirit of Vengeance, Robbie isn't even the most recent one. Agents of Shield used that version of the Rider for a few episodes and did a pretty good job.

Illayana Rasputin has been around since like the 60s or 70s and was turned in Magick in the 80s, she definitely qualifies as a legacy character. She's powerful because she is (at various points) the ruler of the entire Limbo dimension, she's also a mutant (that'd be her teleporting powers). She was taken as a little girl and raised in Limbo, eventually becoming it's ruler.

Nico is a character from the Runaways comic from the early-2000s I'd argue a character that's been around for close to 20 years doesn't really count as new. I don't really know a ton about Nico or her powers but from what little I do know, it seems like the game utilizes her gifts well.

Stark is a douchebag in a fancy suit, it really doesn't take much for one to be stronger than him. Remember, this isn't the MCU where they actually gave Stark some character growth and made him more of a lovable asshole, not to mention made him basically untouchable. As for Strange, he's not always most powerful mage in the room, at least in terms of raw power, his strength comes from his intelligence and knowledge of spell craft. The, sometimes, ruler of Limbo and whatever Nico's staff is being stronger, magically, than Strange isn't exactly out of the question. Depending on how he's written, I'd argue that Doom is stronger than Strange sometimes.
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I never heard about Nico, the rest I knew existed, that doesn't make their apperance in the game any less college brat like. Of course the characters will be loosely based on existing marvel characters, that does not contradict that they are written as the writers self inserts in the game. Just as the characters of Chimera Squad were. The lid of wokism flew off at firaxis and nobody seems to care what their writers are actually doing. I just feel sorry for the actual game designers, artists and coders that their efforts are going to waste on this drivel.

Because this could be a 7/10 or 8/10 game if it was written by people whose life experience goes beyond being the bitter uncool kids at college, then straight to writing for firaxis.
 
Haha, just ran into a bug too. An enemy has fallen off the map. But it could still attack me, I just couldn't target it. What am I saying map, what map? The play area is as big as a stage, and you can't even move freely on it, and they still not managed to make it that NPCs not fall through it.

Balance also seems to be an issue. The game just randomly spawned a boss enemy on a mission that was already designated as hard.
 
M76 said:
Guess it is canon now: Captain Marvel's ass is still flat.

View attachment 533391

Also this is your "crew" meet,diverse self insert 1, diverse self insert 2, and diverse self insert 3:
View attachment 533392

And this is the stellar quest and dialogue quality you can expect:
View attachment 533394
And trans Edward Mulhare:
View attachment 533395
Hero walk:
View attachment 533396
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lol game is refund bound I knew you didn't care for XCOM Chimeria Squad which wasn't bad but the interface sucked.
 
I already played 10 hours. Some encounters can get very drawn out. And the daily chores are tedious, running the same circles after each mission whether story or side. But the writing seems to get better later in the game, or I just gotten used to it, but the cringe moments seem to be getting rare now.
 
M76 said:
I tried this, didn't seem to improve performance for me, but I'm glad to be rid of the completely unnecessary launcher anyway.
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Yeah, people are saying it's still running in the background with this game...
 
Man, I never thought I'll have a problem with a game being too long but here we are. I'm 60 hours into it with no end in sight still. I'm getting tired of babysitting the whiny entitled narcissists.
 
M76 said:
Man, I never thought I'll have a problem with a game being too long but here we are. I'm 60 hours into it with no end in sight still. I'm getting tired of babysitting the whiny entitled narcissists.
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:ROFLMAO: I love how you put that.
 
I'm sorry but quantity does not equal quality. I wouldn't say midnight suns is bad, but it has many flaws.
 
M76 said:
I'm sorry but quantity does not equal quality. I wouldn't say midnight suns is bad, but it has many flaws.
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I'd agree. Combat is excellent and with the missions being so short and each character feeling different it does take some time before everything starts to feel same-y. The outside of combat parts of the game are super hit and miss though. Exploring the Abby is an enjoyable diversion, building up decks is great, but maaan the writing for the characters. Sometimes it really hits and the characters feel like how they should, but then you get those moments where a joke fall flat or they're clearly just filling space (or, like, 90% of Captain Marvel's dialog) and it all comes tumbling down. I want to enjoy spending time with the characters and getting to know some of the ones I'm not super familiar with, but it all feels so surface-level like the writing team only had a basic understanding of each character and only took a deeper look at a few of them. Most of them feel so one-dimensional. The voice acting definitely does not help things either.

Seeing you and the article talking about 60-70+ hours is concerning. I really don't think the game can hold itself together that long. As fun as the combat is, eventually you're going to get everything upgraded and have good decks built for each character. After that, I feel like even the combat portions are going to lose their luster.

On another note: I think Midnight Suns "wins" the award for the worst looking Peter Parker face. It makes both faces from Insomniac's game look amazing in comparison.
 
M76 said:
I'm sorry but quantity does not equal quality. I wouldn't say midnight suns is bad, but it has many flaws.
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the article is not saying that the game is good because it's long...that makes no sense...they're saying it's a good game that also is a long game...
 
polonyc2 said:
the article is not saying that the game is good because it's long...that makes no sense...they're saying it's a good game that also is a long game...
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The part you quoted suggests that being 70+ hours is a good thing.
But beyond a certain length story driven games start to loose focus and fall apart, every story driven game I played that was over 40 hours was to its detriment. Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda, recent Assasin's Creed games all suffered greatly due to their bloat.
 
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