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When it announced tactical Marvel RPG Midnight Suns last week, Firaxis told us that its turn-based combat would be “completely different” from XCOM’s. I really should have known what was coming, here in 2021, the year in which everything is a card game. As the Midnight Suns gameplay trailer above reveals, cards are a key part of the RPG’s tactical superhero combat.
It still looks XCOM-like at a glance, with somewhat bland-looking arenas and characters holding poses. But the camera is at a steeper angle, and rather than action buttons, there’s a row of cards at the bottom of the screen. These abilities will be dealt from a deck at the start of combat, and performing basic-sounding attacks like “Slash” and “Whip” along with dramatic attacks with big JRPG-style animations.
So, yeah, it seems pretty different from XCOM, although it is still about moving little characters around on a grid and choosing targets and actions. It doesn’t seem like positioning and cover is as serious a consideration here as it is in XCOM, although environmental kills, such as pushing a guy off a skyscraper, come into play.
The trailer also covers the other half of the game, which takes place in The Abbey, your superhero crew’s hangout spot, where you can craft and upgrade cards, and chat with the likes of Iron Man, Wolverine, Captain America, Nico Minoru, and Captain Marvel. There’s no ‘romancing,’ but as a customizable new hero named The Hunter, you can become “very” good friends with the other Marvel heroes and let your imagination do the rest, Jake Solomon says. (I’m not sure Marvel would’ve gone for Mass Effect-style sex scenes, but clearly fans wanted to know.) Building these friendships is another way to unlock new cards.
My article from last week provides a more complete overall picture of what Marvel’s Midnight Suns is about. There’s another, shorter gameplay trailer embedded below. Midnight Suns is planned for a March 2022 release.
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