Marvel’s Midnight Suns
(Image credit: Firaxis Games and Marvel Comics)
Seemingly out of nowhere at the Gamescom 2021 opening night live stream, Marvel’s Midnight Sun dropped its first appearance. The combination of 2K Games and Firaxis Games conjured up the latest twist to XCOM action by adding the superhuman strength of the Marvel Universe. The Load Screen briefly covers this surprise as it gets new gameplay reveal before its expected release sometime in March 2022 for PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch.
Ten Marvel characters band together in 2K’s new title to battle against Lilith, Mother of Demons, before summoning her master. They are called the Midnight Suns and are Earth’s last defense against the underworld. The Suns consist of well-known favorites like Blade, Captain Marvel, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Iron Man, and Wolverine. If they fail their mission and Lilith awakens Chthon, the modern world will end.
The game plays like other XCOM titles but replaces the sci-fi alien themes with mutants and the occult. Midnight Suns takes the player into Marvel’s darker aspects and leans heavily into the supernatural. However, it maintains the turn-based strategy and stealth mechanics Firaxis is known for utilizing. It balances tons of Marvel villains, including HYDRA, with a unique story and rich RPG aspects. The developers added a card system for upgrading that depends on player choices made with Midnight Sun member interactions.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns gameplay trailer showed off only a few of the characters and enemies but gave fans enough action that demonstrates what Marvel can do with XCOM mechanics. The short cutscenes feature an impressive level of detailing for every hero, including the supernaturally infused gear they wear. The individual abilities of each character have been converted well into turn-based combat. Also, for the first time in any Marvel game, the player can completely customize a hero. See the entire Midnight Suns gameplay reveal stream for more details, including Firaxis developer comments and explanations.
The new trailer shows how the unique abilities of the Marvel superheroes fit well within the turn-based strategy RPG established in XCOM gameplay. Players will have plenty of options for enjoying Marvel’s Midnight Suns when it arrives on Epic Games, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Steam, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Until March 2022, fans will have to wait for more updates and videos from 2K Games by checking out the Midnight Suns official website.
