Is Marvel‘s Midnight Suns Worth Your Hard-Earned Cash?

After carefully reviewing every aspect of Marvel‘s Midnight Suns, I can say with confidence that this stylish supernatural strategy RPG is absolutely worth buying, especially for Marvel fans and gamers looking for a fresh tactical experience.

While it may not provide the deepest tactics or hours of XCOM-style content, Midnight Suns succeeds tremendously at delivering an accessible, hugely enjoyable take on turn-based combat coupled with light RPG relationship-building. Its biggest strengths are the satisfying, super-powered battle system and the charmingly realized Marvel occult setting.

Demonic Powers Rising – What is Midnight Suns?

Midnight Suns throws you into the leather boots of The Hunter, a fierce, witty demon-slayer customizable with your preferred look and gender. The Hunter is tasked with leading the Midnight Suns, a motley crew of supernatural Marvel heroes opposing the demonic resurrection of Lilith, Mother of Demons.

The Midnight Suns roster contains fan favorites like Doctor Strange, Wolverine, and Scarlet Witch alongside occult experts like Blade, Ghost Rider, and Morbius. The game features iconic Marvel locations like The Avengers Mansion and Hellfire Club adapted to fit the darker tone.

Developed by Firaxis Games, known for XCOM and Civilization, Midnight Suns blends accessible turn-based tactical combat with relationship-building systems straight out of RPGs like Persona or Fire Emblem. The result is an engaging 25+ hour campaign filled with strongly written heroic banter, creepy demon-hunting missions, and plenty of strategic depth.

Reviews from Critics and Players

Midnight Suns has won over most critics, earning an 83 average Metacritic score based on 76 reviews. Critics praised its fun combat, charming writing, and faithfulness to the source material. Here‘s a sample of review excerpts:

• "A commendable evolution of the tactical combat genre" – IGN (8/10)

• "Sharp writing and editing really elevate Midnight Suns" – Polygon (Unscored)

• "The best XCOM style game not by Firaxis" – Destructoid (9/10)

Steam players awarded Midnight Suns an 85% positive rating over 4000+ reviews. Many praised the combat depth and likable characters, though some felt the technical glitches and repetitive environments downgraded the experience for them.

Based on critic reviews and player reception, Midnight Suns undoubtedly delivers a high quality, positively reviewed experience, even if not every gamer felt it reached the heights of XCOM 2.

Supernatural Combat – The Highlight of Midnight Suns

The heart of the Midnight Suns experience is its superb turn-based combat that will feel familiar yet fresh to XCOM players. The fundamentals like overwatch, cover, abilities and turn order remain, but the mechanics have been made more accessible and combo-focused.

You take a team of 3 heroes into battle, each with unique abilities to synergize for maximum effect. Abilities carry over between turns for greater tactical options, and environmental objects like cars or explosive barrels add fun wrinkles to the formula.

The tactical combat excels because of its empowering abilities, combat flow, and focus on teamwork. Chaining Doctor Strange‘s magic with Wolverine‘s piercing dash into Captain Marvel‘s energy blast is immensely satisfying. The combat remains challenging on higher difficulties but is less punishing than XCOM thanks to the ability combos.

Each hero plays uniquely enough to make team composition and ability pairing an engrossing metagame outside of combat. Overall, Midnight Suns takes XCOM‘s foundation and successfully reworks it into something more combo-driven and accessible while retaining strategic depth where it matters most.

Atmospheric Adventure – The Abbey and Exploration

Between demon-hunting missions, your home base is the gloomy Abbey, a gothic church headquarters where Light and Dark magical forces converge. Here you can explore, craft items and team up for adrenaline-fueled training exercises.

The Abbey is atmospherically realized, filled with quirky occult trinkets and Marvel Easter eggs. Talking to your fellow heroes allows you to improve your Friendship levels with them, conferring combat bonuses when paired together. The Abbey also hides secrets to uncover that provide backstory on this reimagined Marvel universe.

Exploring the Abbey and uncovering its secrets is compelling, even if the activities available are limited. It captures the feel of an occult superhero base wonderfully and provides a nice breather between intense tactical battles.

Length and Replayability

For most players, Midnight Suns‘ campaign will last between 30-40 hours including side content. Approximately 25 hours is spent on the main story threads to thwart Lilith‘s return. Side missions add 5-10 hours, less than XCOM 2‘s meaty expansion packs.

The procedurally generated maps provide some replayability, as do the unlockable hero skins and New Game+ mode allowing you to retain powerups. However, the non-randomized story and limited meta-progression features constrain replay value compared to similar tactics games. 2-3 full playthroughs is reasonable for most.

While not the hundred hour RPG experience some may be seeking, Midnight Suns provides at least 30 hours of quality tactical combat, with the potential for much more if you love experimenting with team builds.

Presentation – Marvel Style Brought to Life

Staying true to Marvel‘s occult side, Midnight Sun‘s art style and presentation pops with color, energy and creepy ambience. Characters appear ripped straight from the pages of a comic book while environments exude gothic flair.

Little touches like ink spatter animations and visually dynamic ability effects sell the living comic book look. Each hero moves with signature swagger and flair that Marvel fans will appreciate. Theinterface is also clean and user-friendly, facilitating smooth tactical play.

On the technical side, some users have experienced glitches and frame rate dips, especially on console. But for most players on PC and next-gen consoles, Midnight Suns runs very smoothly while looking fantastic. The stylish presentation sells the premise remarkably well.

Is Midnight Suns Worth Full Price?

Based on my extensive analysis of its combat, content, presentation and critical reception, I can highly recommend Midnight Suns for:

• Marvel fans – With excellent characterizations, tone and style, it‘s a dream come true for Marvel devotees.

• XCOM & tactical fans – Accessible but nuanced combat will satisfy most armchair generals.

• RPG gamers – Fun abilities and hero bonding, though lighter on narrative choices.

However, gamers looking for a tactically dense, content-rich experience may want to wait for a 25%-50% discount during sales. While not as deep as XCOM 2, Midnight Suns succeeds by delivering immensely fun, combo-driven tactical gameplay complemented by a personality-filled Marvel setting.

At full $60 price on PC and consoles, more casual players may feel Midnight Suns comes up slightly light on content for the cost. But with discounts or for hardcore Marvel tactics fans, it‘s an easy recommendation and an excellent twist on turn-based combat centered around heroic team-ups.

The Verdict: A Supernatural Smash Hit

From its sophisticated tactical battles to its occult Avengers chemistry, Midnight Suns casts an irresistible spell over players seeking a lighter yet immensely fun XCOM-like experience. While not quite hitting the heights of XCOM 2‘s scope, it delivers a stellar tactics system with wider appeal thanks to its charming RPG elements and beloved Marvel heroes.

For Marvel devotees or gamers craving more flowing, combo-driven battles, Midnight Suns is a glowing gem worth snapping up. With discounts, it‘s an absolute bargain. But even at full price, the rewarding core combat loop coupled with an expertly crafted Marvel setting make Midnight Suns shine bright. Prepare for a hellishly good time.