[Midnight Suns] Final DLC May 11th with Xbox One and PS4 versions, Switch Cancelled

Aegeri

The new game from Firaxis is, surprise, not Civilization or XCOM but is a new turn based tactics game called Midnight Suns! Midnight Suns is a turn based tactics game where you control various Marvel heroes to oppose the return of Lilith, who seems to be supported by weird creatures and high-tech hydra agents. Here are some early gameplay videos so you can get a rough idea if you're going to be into this or not:

https://youtu.be/_CiOR0Z5AoU

https://youtu.be/VRieHP1b7Gs

Personally I think it looks fun and could be a good time, but it's not going to be for everyone from the look of it. Also as an important PSA, there will be no microtransactions on getting the actual cards and such forth, but there will be microtransactions for various cosmetic costumes to play dress up with the actual characters in the game. If this changes or similar, I'll update the OP ASAP. At the moment, it has been announced for PC and all current consoles.

Reviews are coming out now and the general consensus is that the game is good, but it won't be what many were expecting from Firaxis. It's got a heavy focus on exploration and RPG elements in a between missions Abbey that functions as a primary hub for the heroes. The turn based card based combat also works pretty well, but isn't actually the main focus of the game - which is in roleplaying and building relationships with the team of marvel heroes at the base. It's also apparently a pretty lengthy game, akin very akin to an RPG in a lot of that is spent making decisions and shoring up relationships with your crew.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-IXFW6W3F8

Noggin

I think it’s also on consoles.

And I have to get this based on every time I said they should combine super heroes and tactics.

Dragkonias

Hmm game is looking more like Baten Kaitos mixed this Three Houses than XCOM.

Which might not be a bad thing. It'll depend on how interesting the card system is.

Aegeri

One of the reasons I made a new thread for this game was because it isn't just a "Marvel, but XCOM" game that people leaked. It's definitively its own game and I like the card based aspect personally, but I recognize straight away that's going to be a big divisive issue for people.

ED!

Easy day one purchase. That looks fantastic.

Morninglord

I have never played a card based game before but if all the abilities are basically superhero broke that is probably a way to make things actually interesting instead of ho hum time to wipe out everyone with that aoe i like fifty million times.

Aegeri

You can use powers to knock enemies into one another, off buildings and so forth. It actually seems like it could have a lot of depth.

ED!

I'm worried that with the card system we're going to get a ridiculous number of "Oh it's Slay the Spire meets Marvel meets XCOM. . ." malarkey. Also looks like coming to all consoles so I know where I'll be picking this up.

Ringo

Those card designs are... okay

But Marvel Cards have a long and storied history of crazy art and crazier gimmicks and I hope they play into that

Morninglord

Tbh the art hasn't been super inspired but Xcom art (specifically the character models) is also fairly utilitarian.

Dragkonias

Yeah my biggest issue is there is a lot of standing stationary in open fields which is kind of dull aesthetically.

It wasn't as noticeable in XCOM cause of the heavy use of cover and smart camera angles.

plufim

Any word on if the additional characters will be paid DLC?

Lucascraft

I don't like the idea of not having control over my abilities. A randomized ability "hand" sounds like a terrible idea.

The game probably will not be tuned as difficult as XCOM since this is a much more mainstream IP, but if it was XCOM levels of hard, that would almost certainly lead to a lot of party wipes and ragequits.

Aegeri

plufim wrote: »

Any word on if the additional characters will be paid DLC?

None so far, but I will update the OP if I find out.

Edit: just to be clear though, there are dress up dolly costumes which WILL be paid DLC it looks like.

Dragkonias

TBH the hardest part about XCOM for me wasn't the threat of a party wipe but trying to make sure no one died.

And they already said no permadeath so that takes a lot of stress off for me.

-Loki-

Dragkonias wrote: »

Yeah my biggest issue is there is a lot of standing stationary in open fields which is kind of dull aesthetically.

It wasn't as noticeable in XCOM cause of the heavy use of cover and smart camera angles.

There's a lot of tabletop comparisons coming with this, but that's apt because the same things came up there. This looks like it's drawing from two games primarily - Marvel Crisis Protocol, and Warhammer Underworlds.

Crisis Protocol entered the skirmish tabletop arena with games like Malifaux and Infinity, where cover is pretty important (critically so in Infinity) and boards have a lot of terrain. But this isn't a game about regular folks trying not to get shot, it's a game about super heroes that can regenerate, swing around and bunch people through walls. So like Crisis Protocol, it appears scenery objects aren't about cover, but what you can do with them. We saw in the gameplay trailers enemies being thrown into explosives, walls, boulders, etc. So it appears to be taking that from Crisis Protocol - why take cover when you're Dr Strange and the guy in front of you is a random mook? Throw him off the building.

Warhammer Underworlds comes into it as mentioned in the XCOM thread, where they take that kind of skirmish game, and layer an abilities deck on top of it.

Inquisitor77

Morninglord wrote: »

I have never played a card based game before but if all the abilities are basically superhero broke that is probably a way to make things actually interesting instead of ho hum time to wipe out everyone with that aoe i like fifty million times.

Deck-building games generally work with you managing probabilities and building synergies across your cards. Slay the Spire is perhaps the best example of this. Much of the strategy involved in that game is in actively culling the cards you don't want, along with only picking the specific cards that you do, along with the actual tactical gameplay of choosing which cards to play against which targets in what order to maximize your value per turn.

In mulling it over, I really like this approach. It trades the RNG of landing abilities for the RNG of which abilities you have at a given moment. This will likely lead to more dynamic gameplay than the plodding meticulousness of games like X-COM, where you are more focused on minimizing risk than taking advantage of opportunities. In a deck-building mechanic you can only do the things in your hand, so you are oriented more towards maximizing what you have rather than just taking the safest play every time.

Dragkonias

-Loki- wrote: »

Dragkonias wrote: »

Yeah my biggest issue is there is a lot of standing stationary in open fields which is kind of dull aesthetically.

It wasn't as noticeable in XCOM cause of the heavy use of cover and smart camera angles.

There's a lot of tabletop comparisons coming with this, but that's apt because the same things came up there. This looks like it's drawing from two games primarily - Marvel Crisis Protocol, and Warhammer Underworlds.

Crisis Protocol entered the skirmish tabletop arena with games like Malifaux and Infinity, where cover is pretty important (critically so in Infinity) and boards have a lot of terrain. But this isn't a game about regular folks trying not to get shot, it's a game about super heroes that can regenerate, swing around and bunch people through walls. So like Crisis Protocol, it appears scenery objects aren't about cover, but what you can do with them. We saw in the gameplay trailers enemies being thrown into explosives, walls, boulders, etc. So it appears to be taking that from Crisis Protocol - why take cover when you're Dr Strange and the guy in front of you is a random mook? Throw him off the building.

Warhammer Underworlds comes into it as mentioned in the XCOM thread, where they take that kind of skirmish game, and layer an abilities deck on top of it.

That's interesting but not the point I was making. I was saying it visually looks dull.

Lucascraft

Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed that this isn't just Marvel XCOM. I'd rather have that than Marvel Mixed Genre Card Game Strategy Hybrid Nonsense. Or MMGCGSHN for short.

Inquisitor77

Have you actually played deck-building games? I feel like it's actually an interesting new spin on the genre, given the clear design space constraints that Firaxis have clearly run into with the X-COM series as of late.

Morninglord

I'm interested in it because I haven't played one like that and superheroes go pew pew kapow biff zaaaap so it'll keep my interest up while I learn how it works.

Lucascraft

I've played pure CCG games. Many of them. I'm familiar with deckbuilding insofar as pure card games are concerned. I have not played a game that tries to bastardize one genre by adding deckbuilding into it.

Morninglord

I mean. It's kinda like battlechess?

It looks really interesting. I wish more games did weird hybrid things.

Lucascraft

Lucascraft wrote: »

I've played pure CCG games. Many of them. I'm familiar with deckbuilding insofar as pure card games are concerned. I have not played a game that tries to bastardize one genre by adding deckbuilding into it.

Actually, that's not entirely true.

I did play that Kingdom Hearts game that was also a deckbuilder. It was the very worst thing, and maybe that's why I'm so adverse to the idea. I had completely blocked that game from memory until now.

rahkeesh2000

Lucascraft wrote: »

I don't like the idea of not having control over my abilities.

I mean isn't that just classic X-com.

Especially when you have 95% to hit.

Morninglord

ALSO

https://www.thegamer.com/gwent-witcher-3-mod/

Long-Awaited Witcher 3 Mod Replaces All Combat With A Game Of Gwent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPMVQiDv62c

Aegeri

Lucascraft wrote: »

I've played pure CCG games. Many of them. I'm familiar with deckbuilding insofar as pure card games are concerned. I have not played a game that tries to bastardize one genre by adding deckbuilding into it.

It would feel similar to games like Trials of Fire, where you need to move around the board as well as manage your deck. That game can be quite interesting, although I don't know if you need to use cards to move in Midnight Suns or not.

Dragkonias

TBH I don't mind it because of an issue that was brought up earlier.

I feel they want the heroes to feel powerful but also want the game to have some challenge so more randomness was added.

Well I'm not sure if its more or different randomness cause XCOM has gameplay RNG too.

WotanAnubis

Dragkonias wrote: »

Hmm game is looking more like Baten Kaitos mixed this Three Houses than XCOM.

Which might not be a bad thing. It'll depend on how interesting the card system is.

I have my issues with Baten Kaitos (fuck you, Kalas) but the card game aspect was never one of them.

So I'm suddenly a lot more interested in this game than I was before.

Fencingsax

WotanAnubis wrote: »

Dragkonias wrote: »

Hmm game is looking more like Baten Kaitos mixed this Three Houses than XCOM.

Which might not be a bad thing. It'll depend on how interesting the card system is.

I have my issues with Baten Kaitos (fuck you, Kalas) but the card game aspect was never one of them.

So I'm suddenly a lot more interested in this game than I was before.

Tuesday we will see how the combat works a bit better

eMoander

I'm excited! I like the idea of using cards to randomize the abilities you get. It avoids the problem of just repetitively using your most powerful ability and it either hits or misses, and hopefully with the interactions with the environment means you have a lot more 'on-the-fly' decision-making in each combat. A lot of endgame Xcom tended to get pretty boilerplate with cautious play and limited focus on certain abilities, so this feels like it could be great to keep things more interesting (as well as a way to balance superhero-level ultimates that rightly should be able to just clear the battlefield every time).

Dragkonias

I watched the extended trailer and it looked a bit better.

I really a lot of my problem with the first one was the poor lighting. Second trailer had way better shading.

Spaffy

Dragkonias wrote: »

-Loki- wrote: »

Dragkonias wrote: »

Yeah my biggest issue is there is a lot of standing stationary in open fields which is kind of dull aesthetically.

It wasn't as noticeable in XCOM cause of the heavy use of cover and smart camera angles.

There's a lot of tabletop comparisons coming with this, but that's apt because the same things came up there. This looks like it's drawing from two games primarily - Marvel Crisis Protocol, and Warhammer Underworlds.

Crisis Protocol entered the skirmish tabletop arena with games like Malifaux and Infinity, where cover is pretty important (critically so in Infinity) and boards have a lot of terrain. But this isn't a game about regular folks trying not to get shot, it's a game about super heroes that can regenerate, swing around and bunch people through walls. So like Crisis Protocol, it appears scenery objects aren't about cover, but what you can do with them. We saw in the gameplay trailers enemies being thrown into explosives, walls, boulders, etc. So it appears to be taking that from Crisis Protocol - why take cover when you're Dr Strange and the guy in front of you is a random mook? Throw him off the building.

Warhammer Underworlds comes into it as mentioned in the XCOM thread, where they take that kind of skirmish game, and layer an abilities deck on top of it.

That's interesting but not the point I was making. I was saying it visually looks dull.

I agree. Given there's only about 20 seconds of gameplay footage in here, showcasing the characters standing around doing nothing in bland looking open spaces seems like a super weird choice to make for the trailer. It makes the game look dull.

Fencingsax

One thing I do like is that you have an arc for aiming.

Lucascraft

Even with my fairly severe apprehension to the card based mechanics, I'm almost certainly still going to pick this up. First, because I'm a sucker for super hero games. Second, because while I don't necessarily like the idea of a card/draw based battle system, Firaxis has a good enough track record that I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

However, I'll probably also wait and read some reviews and try to garner some first hand experience from friends and such before I buy it. I've been burned too recently by Crystal Dynamics' Avengers game, and they also had a pretty good track record, prior to the release of that game.

Fencingsax

Lucascraft wrote: »

Even with my fairly severe apprehension to the card based mechanics, I'm almost certainly still going to pick this up. First, because I'm a sucker for super hero games. Second, because while I don't necessarily like the idea of a card/draw based battle system, Firaxis has a good enough track record that I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

However, I'll probably also wait and read some reviews and try to garner some first hand experience from friends and such before I buy it. I've been burned too recently by Crystal Dynamics' Avengers game, and they also had a pretty good track record, prior to the release of that game.

They are putting out a video of hiw it works in more detail Tuesday

kime

This looks cool!

MegaMan001

Looks like the gameplay trailer dropped early.

https://gizmodo.com/marvels-midnight-suns-game-looks-like-an-avengers-roomm-1847608056

I still feel like this would have been a lot more interesting as an original story instead of Firaxis diving into the Disney / Marvel content churn, but the upgrades and customization systems look very interesting.

Only three heroes per mission also feels like not enough and would steer you to just using tank / dps / support.

I am curious how injuries or whatever impacts the heroes from mission to mission. Wolverine seems like the clearest issue where he wouldn't be unavailable for a mission.

The trailer also mentions a bunch of stuff about conversations and relationships with the cast. I wonder if you can permanently lose access to some while improving others.

Overall, looks better than I originally thought and I sincerely hope most customizable options aren't paywalled, but I'll pick it up when it's on sale.

Evil Multifarious

I thought it was three heroes plus your custom character.

Fencingsax

MegaMan001 wrote: »

Looks like the gameplay trailer dropped early.

https://gizmodo.com/marvels-midnight-suns-game-looks-like-an-avengers-roomm-1847608056

I still feel like this would have been a lot more interesting as an original story instead of Firaxis diving into the Disney / Marvel content churn, but the upgrades and customization systems look very interesting.

Only three heroes per mission also feels like not enough and would steer you to just using tank / dps / support.

I am curious how injuries or whatever impacts the heroes from mission to mission. Wolverine seems like the clearest issue where he wouldn't be unavailable for a mission.

The trailer also mentions a bunch of stuff about conversations and relationships with the cast. I wonder if you can permanently lose access to some while improving others.

Overall, looks better than I originally thought and I sincerely hope most customizable options aren't paywalled, but I'll pick it up when it's on sale.

That's talking about the trailer from last week. Tuesday, they are releasing an actual map in play.

Also, I my assumption is that no one has only one role, amd you can upgrade them how you choose.

Fencingsax

One thing I find weird, btw, is that they are going very, very hard with the Hunter being the first customizable hero or whatever, and it seems very, very weird.