The last couple of months in video gaming have been a real treat for players – if not very expensive. In terms of headline releases, game of the year shoo-in God of War: Ragnarök hit the shelves in early November, quickly being followed by the top-selling Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Now, even with The Callisto Protocol on the way, we have Marvel’s Midnight Suns.
A very different take on Marvel gaming with a niche core game mechanic and not exactly MCU-powered central cast, Midnight Suns wasn’t a guaranteed hit for 2K. Throw in the possibilities for monetization within the game, and it’s easy to see why some fans would have been hesitant before launch. Then, the game launched with a new trailer, along with waves of praise from critics across the board.
While the Spider-Man games on PlayStation are highly-praised with good reason, Midnight Suns was a gamble for its emphasis on card-based combat and strategy, but most agree that developers Firaxis Games have nailed it. Midnight Suns could prove to both set a new benchmark for Marvel games not made by Sony as well as reignite the use of card game mechanics within big-hit video games, as has proven popular in the past.
Dazzling reviews for Marvel’s Midnight Suns set the stage for success
Launching in such a crowded window with a niche-at-best central gameplay theme, the team at 2K knew that they had to go all-in on the promotion. That’s why we’ve seen so much gameplay, so many character reveals, and a whole host of additional videos for prequels and story beats. Being based on a comic series that put the likes of Morbius, Blade, and Ghost Rider as the core heroes in an “only monsters can beat monsters” story, the game couldn’t intrinsically rely on the big-screen association with the happenings of the MCU.
Regardless, Marvel’s Midnight Suns got off to the best possible start before launch, earning praise from critics across the board. At the time of writing, 57 critic reviews tallied up to an 83-rated Metascore on PC. One of the more sparkling reviews came from Empire Online, with the outlet giving the game five stars. The reviewer, Matt Kamen, rightfully notes that a gamble on a game like this wouldn’t be possible even a few years ago, describing it as a strong step up even as a turn-based strategy game from the all-action, star-studded but band Avengers game.
Of course, the game is made by the creators of the superb, critically-acclaimed studio behind the XCOM remakes, which have clearly lent the foundations of Marvel’s Midnight Suns. The Guardian describes Firaxis’ new venture into the genre as taking as many cues from fantasy RPGs like Fire Emblem as it does XCOM, enjoying how expansive the stories go beyond the core combat situations that much of Marvel media lives in. While the many different editions available are a bit jarring, reviewers are saying that Marvel’s Midnight Suns is one of the best games of the year and well worth the triple-A price for strategy and superhero fans.
Bringing strategic card games back to the gaming masses
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is centered around deep and strategic card-based gameplay. For each combat situation, you get to pick three characters whose abilities are available through cards. Each comes with their own deck of cards for you to customize to alter their style of play and role in your setup. It’s certainly not the kind of gameplay that you see in its contemporaries, with such turn-based card strategy play being niche at best, but it’s certainly gone down well with the critics.
Card games as a part of major releases aren’t anything new, and neither is the fandom that gets generated around such features. Perhaps the prime example comes in the form of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, which had players of the fantasy action RPG spend hours not fighting monsters but deck building and battling other in-game card collectors in the mini-game of Gwent. So popular and well-realized was the card game in the 2015 release that there’s now a thriving standalone version of Gwent that continues to add new content and run competitions.
Video games don’t have to come up with whole new concepts, though, as is proven by Red Dead Redemption and the series’ offering of blackjack demonstrates. It certainly differs from what modern players expect of blackjack, what with the live tech, celebrity dealers, and many variants being available online. The blackjack of today is about the real immersive experience with professional croupiers available at a tap of the screen. Perhaps this is why blackjack stands out so much as a great side game within the video game since in casino entertainment, it’s so advanced, while in RDR, it’s very rudimentary.
Across the history of card games, blackjack has long been the epitome of strategic play, but almost all other card games that rise to prominence – especially beyond casinos and in video games – are intensely strategic. Hearthstone currently reigns as the centerpiece card game of the eSports world, with the 2016, 2017, and 2019 World Championships having a prize pool of $1 million. Still, even this well-crafted video card game isn’t the biggest name on the scene, as card gaming in video games is relatively niche.
Perhaps with the massive brand of Marvel and a tsunami of very positive reviews out of the gate, Midnight Suns might just put more faith in future developments to feature core card-based mechanics.
