As it turns out, Marvel's Midnight Suns is quite unlike anything else on the market right now. For sure, it has been inspired by certain games, but it's a far, far cry from the mere XCOM clone it might've looked like early on. In fact, we've come to learn that Midnight Suns is incredibly distinctive in style and content. Today, we'd like to go over these special features and tell you what makes them so neat in the first place.

None of that is to say, of course, that Firaxis' previous expertise doesn't play into Midnight Suns at some level. Because it certainly does! It's just that they've cleverly hand-picked which features from, say, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen make sense in a Marvel game, and which ones absolutely do not. A new kind of approach for a new kind of strategy game.

Fascinated yet? We sure were. So, here's the jig!

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What is Marvel's Midnight Suns, Really?

On a very basic, uninvested level, one might describe Midnight Suns as a turn-based strategy game with a Marvel-themed card layer plastered on top. On a very basic, uninvested level, that'd be true enough, and a valid technical description of the game. That is, at its core, what Midnight Suns is. Games, though, have a penchant for being more than just the sum of their parts, and it's almost hard to put Firaxis' latest offering into words in this regard.

Somewhat surprisingly, good writing and characterization are the backbones of this game. As PC Gamer's Fraser Brown explained after spending some time with Midnight Suns, "Midnight Suns is obsessed with the social lives of superheroes, and by putting friendship and camaraderie at the centre of everything, it ends up feeling a lot more like Fire Emblem—particularly the excellent Three Houses—instead of XCOM."

That's a heck of a twist right there, isn't it? Firaxis fans who had spent some time playing the rather phenomenal XCOM: Chimera Squad may find that this approach does indeed ring a bell for the developer. And that, we believe, will be Midnight Suns' most important selling point.

Get Marvel's Midnight Suns for PC via 2Game on November 2nd!

Social Features: The Crux of the Matter?

"I cannot stress enough how much I love this," said Brown when describing Midnight Suns' social features. In his gameplay session, he went on a long romp of... downtime, believe it or not. The heroes have a unique headquarters - The Abbey - where they get some much-needed R&R, but as it turns out, the Abbey goes far beyond anything we had seen before in a Firaxis game.

Since each new hero - aside from the protagonist themselves - is an established and well-regarded character, it's their interrelationship and behavior with one another that drives the point home that this is, indeed, a Marvel game. According to Brown's experience, players will partake in all manner of activities in the Abbey. From relaxing and talking with their favorite superheroes all the way to playing mini-games with them. And, crucially, these interactions play into the core combat loop too.

"When Robbie Reyes—a younger, less confident incarnation of Ghost Rider—asked if he could join the next mission because he was feeling left out, I made sure to put him in the roster, not because he was essential, but because I didn't want my bud to feel bad," said Brown. "We'd previously had a heart-to-heart about him feeling like a ghost, ignored by the powerhouses like Iron Man and Captain Marvel, so this request felt less random, making me more inclined to do him a solid."

An unexpected direction for an unexpected story

The situation outlined above is a bit funny, too, because all of Firaxis' previous (relatively recent) output appears to have been going in this direction, too. Consider XCOM 2 and some of the most beloved features that its DLC, War of the Chosen, added to the mix:

• soldier posters
• personal relationship
• joint abilities

Then, when Chimera Squad came out, gone were the random-gen soldiers of yesteryear's XCOM. Instead, we got a comprehensive selection of personable specialists. Now, with Midnight Suns, Firaxis is doubling down on these mechanics yet once more. Clearly, the team is sold on the idea of making characters way more important than they've ever been before in a strategy game.

Social features and all the goodies that surround them are the glue that holds Marvel's Midnight Suns together. Sure enough, this is a turn-based strategy game where superheroes get to beat up demons. These superheroes, though, have lives outside of the ongoing crisis, and players will get to explore them to a great extent!

Levity Makes the Darkness Pop

Midnight Suns is clearly marketed as a "darker" Marvel experience. The hero roster itself confirms as much:

• Iron Man
• Captain America
• Wolverine
• Spider-Man
• Venom
• Morbius
• Scarlet Witch
• Doctor Strange
• Captain Marvel
• Blade
• Ghost Rider
• Storm
• Magik
• Deadpool
• Nico Minoru

While many of these heroes are fairly known and established in this day and age, others - such as Blade - haven't been seen in popular media for a long while now. By pitting them against Lilith, the Mother of Demons, Firaxis sets the stage for a Marvel story that might end up being as close to a horror narrative as possible. Especially if it plays into the themes of corruption and betrayal, as some promotional materials certainly imply.

In fact, this is where the players' superhero friendships may be most important. If Lilith ends up having the ability to corrupt heroes and turn them to her side, all bets are off and players are in for a heck of a fight. Whether that ends up being the case or not, of course, remains to be seen.

One thing we're absolutely sure of, though, is that the presence of the Abbey and its social features will make the game that much more impactful.

A New Era for Firaxis, Perhaps

In broader terms, Marvel's Midnight Suns could signal a new era for Firaxis, too. While there's really no telling when the next XCOM game might be coming, it's all but certain that it is coming, and the lessons the team learns from Midnight Suns will absolutely apply. The game is launching on November 2nd, in just a few days' time now. Won't be a long wait to see just how deep the social rabbit hole goes.

If you're looking forward to Midnight Suns and would like to learn more about it ahead of launch - stay tuned! A more concrete and technical gameplay overview is already planned, and we've got heaps of other related content to consider, too.

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