We tried the new tactical RPG from Firaxis, creators of Marvel’s Midnight Suns: XCOM

After waiting and dreaming for so long, we finally got our hands on Marvel’s long-awaited new project, Midnight Suns. Gamesis none other than the development studio behind Civilization and XCOM. And with precisely the latter, the new Marvel design game shares a lot, starting with Creative Director or Jake Solomon, who first helped reinvent the nearly synonymous series created by Julian Gollop in 1994 and then beautifully revolutionized his own creation. its sequel and expansion War of the Chosen.

Dissatisfied with the success achieved, which can affect the entire genre of turn-based strategy, just consider Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, the 2K Games team decided to further develop the game formula to best adapt it. possible path to the driver’s license that fell into their hands.

According to Solomon, it was actually Marvel who, after the success of XCOM 2, approached the Baltimore County-based studio to see if there was room to work together. And if they offer you the chance to use the Avengers, Spider-Man and every other character from the Idea House in your own game, you can’t refuse the offer.

Here’s Marvel’s emerging Midnight Suns project, a game that builds on the solid foundations of XCOM but tries to do something neither Firaxis nor Marvel has done before: a tactical RPG with a fully customizable superhero.

we have Tried Marvel’s Midnight Suns in the PC version a few days after its release and we are ready to tell you a few more details of this interesting project.

Marvel Midnight Sons? No, Suns!

Initial confirmation comes from the game’s inspiration or Rise of the Midnight Suns which gave birth to the superhero group of the same name in a series of Marvel comics. Also in the video game will be Blade, Ghost Rider and their partners, the all-powerful Lilith, but the Firaxis team decided to rewrite the story to make it more suitable for new media and also allow it. for a wider and more diverse list of characters than the original.

In fact, there will be not only Midnight Suns, but also parts from the Avengers and the X-Men. quite different characters. It is true that there are 90 pieces such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel reflected in the Olympus of pop culture in recent films, but the presence and charisma of various Blades, Ghost Riders should not be. underestimated, but also certainly the protagonists of less successful film adaptations and other Suns.

Also, because the Avengers’ strength is matched to that of other “little” heroes, not to mention they’re not exactly the same characters we know (the multiverse overrides many possible inconsistencies). A narrative tool that gives everyone the opportunity to shine in their own light and play an active role in the team.

In addition to the lesser known characters, we will become the hero, a creature who awakens from a sleep that was thought to be eternal, just in order to defeat Lilith.

As we said, Hunter will be fully customizable editor It’s pretty simple, giving you the ability to choose different details from a variety of suggested presets. There are more flexible tools than Firaxis offers, yet the possibilities for influencing one’s alter ego are very diverse. Especially in terms of both combat and casual wear.

Explore the monastery

The structure of Marvel’s Midnight Suns is similar to that of XCOM. The game is divided into two three stages, preparation, war and those in the Abbey. Despite their notorious and notable differences from other games, the first two are easy to understand. The less urgent stagemonasteryis a novelty for Firaxis as it is where the game’s RPG spirit is consumed. Between one mission and the next, Hunter and his crew will spend their time at Marvel’s Midnight Suns base, the Abbey. But this is not a “simple”, consecrated church, but where all who face Lilith move to better face the new threat.

So inside are both Tony Stark’s scientific lab and Strange’s Sancta Sactorum, as well as Blade’s gym and Captain Marvel’s operations center. Behind these names are Marvel versions of structures known to XCOM lovers as well as strategic players in general, such as the arsenal, where to send operatives on missions or hone the skills of their warriors.

However, what is interesting is how Firaxis decided to organize everything, i.e. not through static screens, but very clear and instant, but not very immersive, but a freely discoverable three-dimensional center.

If the base is located inside the Abbey, with social areas where one can develop one’s relationship with other Suns, then there is a vast area outside, full of secrets to discover and environmental puzzles to solve. There are even collectible items that can be found to improve combat skills or create magic potions to simplify certain missions.

in war

The other aspect where Marvel’s Midnight Suns differs drastically from XCOM is, Gameplay. Although both games are turn-based strategies, Firaxis had to rethink its gameplay mechanics to be consistent with context: Marvel superheroes never miss a beat, don’t hide (or at least rarely do), and trust. They use their powers both to defend themselves and to attack.

This means that the square grid (similar to what Ubisoft Milano did with Mario + Rabbids: Spark of Hope) as well as the hatches disappear. Unsatisfied, Firaxis also eliminated the classic organization of the spin: it’s no longer one move and one action per character, deck of cards to manage as needed. Initially, you will only have the ability to play three cards in turn, free move and replace two cards with random ones, but gradually, you will have more options, such as combo cards, others that do not consume actions. If you knock out an enemy, throw, blocks, area moves and much more.

With an apparent simplicity and some depth, Marvel’s Midnight Suns gradually adds gameplay new options, capabilities and variants, to make each team different from the previous one. Strange can increase the group’s attacks, Blade is a powerful self-healing attacker, and Ghost Rider has several area-of-effect attacks.

Hunter is the classic wildcard that will be shaped according to preferences and decisions. It can be both an effective healer and a crystal ball – strong but fragile. This depends on both how to build his own eight-card deck (which mixes with that of the other warriors on the field) and how the relationship that binds the hero to his teammatescan unlock more bonuses.

Only a few hours later we began to understand the potential of this system, and although we felt the lack of shrouds many times over, a freer system of movement and more defensive approachAs we go on, we believe there will be more space in this regard, perhaps with the arrival of characters who are more prone to this kind of thing.

intergenerational

We played Marvel’s Midnight Suns on PC thanks to a pre-release provided by 2K and Firaxis. Although it’s still a few weeks until December 2, the day the game will arrive on PC, Xbox One, PS4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch, we were able to appreciate the value of the game. cleaning experience. In fact, during testing, we rarely encountered glitches and issues, such as camera issues or nested leaks, similar to those that the XCOM series has had for years. Also, without the verticality of environments, developers are freed from the problems of managing different levels.

Due to mobility, we almost always played on a laptop equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750U and 32 GB of RAM, and thanks to the AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution, we managed to achieve acceptable performance in FullHD. The game is designed to run on older generation consoles and Nintendo Switch, just like XCOM 2, so it shouldn’t be too surprising. This can be seen in somewhat rigid animations during dialogues, or in environments that are not very polygonally rich. Art direction tries to hide this.intergenerational skeletonhowever, the game will not be taken as a technical criterion.

Obviously Firaxis has also looked at the latest news and thanks to the collaboration with Nvidia, besides RayTracing functionality DLSS at game. We still don’t know if these will also be exploited in the Xbox Series X|S and PS5 versions.

The musical accompaniment is excellent, as is the English dubbing. Trustworthy Italian translationdespite the fact that some of the most ironic nuances of the game have been lost in the transition to our language.