Midnight Suns: Everything we know about its tactical Marvel hero battles

Midnight Suns isn't your usual superhero game. Hungry for Marvel heroes in action, but exhausted by the relentless psychic onslaught of the Marvel cinematic universe? Are you wondering what Wolverine would look like if his costume was imbued with potent magicks? You’re in luck, true believer: Firaxis unveiled Marvel’s Midnight Suns at GamesCom 2021, promising some demon-hunting quality time with your favorite heroes as you enter the “darker side of the Marvel universe.” Spooky!

As you’d expect from the XCOM developers, Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a turn-based tactical RPG. But here, you’ll find superheroic cards in place of aliens and hit-chance percentages. It’s drawing from team-up comic stories dating back to the '90s that pit Marvel heroes against demonic forces. Aesthetically, it’s a little Marvel-meets-Diablo. Expect sorcery and evil tomes. And vampires, probably, because Blade is there.

Here’s everything we know about Marvel’s Midnight Suns.

What’s the Marvel’s Midnight Suns release date? 

We don’t have a firm release date for Marvel’s Midnight Suns, but it should be coming this year. Release was initially set for March 2022, but a delay pushed the launch window back to the second half of 2022. According to the statement released on Twitter, the delay was necessary to “make this the best game possible,” with the additional months going towards adding “more story, cinematics, and overall polish.”

When its launch day hits, Marvel’s Midnight Suns will be available on both Steam and the Epic Games Store. (It’ll be playable on current and last-gen consoles, too.) 

 Here are the Midnight Suns trailers we've seen

Marvel’s Midnight Suns was revealed with a cinematic announcement trailer. It sets the deliberately spookier vibe of the game, and introduces its cast of Marvel headliners—we’ve got Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Ghost Rider, and others—as well as the player-controlled and customizable Hunter hero. We’re shown Lilith, Mother of Demons, the game’s primary antagonist (and enemy number one in the comic storyline that serves as one of the game’s inspirational touchpoints). It also joins the trend of trailers using moody covers of popular songs, because we’ve all wondered what a more introspective and angsty Enter Sandman would sound like. But it closes with a shot of Doctor Strange in his best Assassin’s Creed cosplay, so at least there’s that.

This gameplay reveal trailer was met with mixed feelings. Fans who were hoping for something closer to the XCOM model found instead that Midnight Suns will blend turn-based tactics with card-based mechanics. An official gameplay overview shows how the game will play both in and out of combat.

This VOD of a gameplay showcase livestream shows a brief mission playthrough against the X-Men villain Sabretooth, giving a more in-depth sense of the card-based tactics and how they reflect the flavor of the Marvel heroes you’ll be assembling. We’re given a look at the Abbey as well—your headquarters where you’ll be hanging out with your growing roster of superheroes between missions.

So who is the Hunter? 

Midnight Suns will feature 13 playable heroes. First and foremost is the Hunter, an original hero created for the game and your player character. You’ll be able to choose between a male and female Hunter and customize their appearance. As the Hunter, you’re the child of the game’s main villain: Lilith, Mother of Demons. It’s apparently not a warm relationship. You’re the only person who’s ever defeated Lilith in the past, having sealed her away ages ago before entering your own centuries-long slumber. She’s been resurrected by Hydra (surprise), so you’ve been thawed out to stop Mom from summoning an Elder God and doing an apocalypse.

Which other heroes are confirmed for Midnight Suns?

As the Hunter, you’ll be fighting alongside 12 established heroes from Marvel canon. In the comics, the Midnight Sons roster (the original set was more dude-heavy) trends towards more obscure occult-themed heroes, with a few recognizable names like Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, and Blade. For Midnight Suns, Firaxis is bringing Avengers and X-Men aplenty. These 9 heroes have been confirmed so far:

• Captain America
• Blade
• Magik
• Iron Man
• Wolverine (voiced, as always, by Steve Blum)
• Doctor Strange
• Captain Marvel
• Nico Minoru
• Ghost Rider (the Robbie Reyes incarnation (he has a car))

We can only speculate for the last three spots. Morbius the Living Vampire was one of the original Midnight Sons in the first comic storyline, and cashing in on the name recognition from the upcoming Jared Leto interpretation wouldn’t be the worst idea business-wise. Meanwhile, Moon Knight also has history with both supernatural weirdness and the Midnight Sons, and is about to get his own live-action miniseries starring Oscar Isaac. 

Or maybe it’ll just be Spider-Man. Everyone likes Spider-Man.

What will Marvel’s Midnight Suns gameplay be like? 

While creative director Jake Solomon claimed that Midnight Suns would be “completely different” from XCOM, it’s still a Firaxis tactics RPG. You’ll still be managing the abilities and upgrades of a team of characters, and selecting which ones to bring along when you deploy for a mission of turn-based combat.

But there are some big departures from the XCOM model—namely, that Midnight Suns is kind of a card game. Instead of having an action bar with your characters’ actions laid out to use on cooldown, each turn you’ll have a hand of cards drawn from a deck you’ll be assembling for each hero. These are how your heroes will attack, or use their powers for utility options like defense boosts and stealth buffs.

The cards use keyword mechanics like you’d find in Slay the Spire, Hearthstone, or Magic: The Gathering. Wolverine’s ability cards, for example, feature a lot of Taunt keywords, which draw enemy attention when played. It’s hard to pay attention to anything else when you’re suffering a small whirlwind of clawed, Canadian violence.

A Heroism counter builds as you play abilities, letting some cards cash in specified amounts of Heroism to gain additional effects. One Wolverine card gained a Lifesteal keyword when above a certain Heroism threshold, healing him for whatever damage he dealt with it.

Unlike XCOM’s grid-based gameplay, characters in Midnight Suns can freely move and target any point within a radius on their turn. There are no hit percentages to worry about. As the devs said in the livestream above, these are literal superheroes—they’re not going to give Captain America the opportunity to miss on a 95% attack roll. You won’t be dealing with permadeath, either. For better or worse, Marvel isn’t letting a basic enemy kill off Iron Man for good because you fumbled a turn.

Between missions, you’ll retire to the Abbey, the Midnight Suns headquarters. You’ll be able to interact with your teammates, building friendships with them in dialogue tree conversations and hangout sequences. It’s also where you’ll manage and upgrade your selection of ability cards for your heroes. There’s mention of crafting, too, and some discoverable lore. It’s somewhere between the base management layer from XCOM and hanging out with your Normandy companions in Mass Effect, with some light exploration thrown in.

Because it’s a superhero game, there’ll be different costumes to choose from for both the Hunter and the existing Heroes. It’s unclear whether these are just unlockable cosmetics or if they’ll be tied to crafted upgrades. I’m hoping it’s the latter. I’d love for the arcane embellishments on the trailer costumes to be the product of whatever enchanted alloy I’ve fortified Iron Man’s armor with. No news on whether more will be available for purchase. Hopefully, there’ll be enough aesthetic options without having to spend more cash.

What else do we know?

• According to the devs, the game will be pretty long. To give an idea, in the gameplay showcase livestream it was mentioned that you’ll still be recruiting heroes to the cause—Wolverine, in this case—even after a dozen or so hours of play.
• In addition to customizing the Hunter’s appearance, you’ll be able to customize their living space in the Abbey.
• You have a pet hellhound named Charlie. She can help you find treasure. Yes, you can pet her.
• The comic crossover storyline Rise of the Midnight Sons is a major inspiration for the game. Running in the early 90s, it gathered together a bunch of Marvels’ goths to save the world from Lilith and her demonic children. The original team lineup included—no joke—three discrete Ghost Riders. The Midnight Sons have gone through a few iterations in the years since. It’s safe to assume any Marvel hero who’s some kind of night creature or occult practitioner has been involved at one point or another.
• You can secure an “Exclusive Nightstalker skin” for Blade by signing up for the Midnight Suns newsletter on the game’s website, if you’re so inclined.