Firaxis Games’ Marvel’s Midnight Suns was released late last year to mixed success. Critics (including ourselves) seemed to love it, with the game getting more than favourable scores, and players too seemed pleasantly surprised by the game’s card-based battlin’ game-play and original story. However, it seems the chances of a sequel are very slim, with the game being considered a commercial flop by publisher 2K, and with no new news regarding future DLC content, it seems like this season pass and its four story DLC characters in Deadpool, Venom, Morbius and Storm, may be the last time we enter this creative and memorable universe of Marvel’s Midnight Suns.
Related: Marvel’s Midnight Suns Review: Card Battlin’ Superhero Soap Opera (PS5)
Marvel’s Midnight Suns – A New Cast of Characters
The four characters released month-on-month since Deadpool arrived in January. With the four characters sharing a story centered around Dracula and his ‘Grand Endeavour’, the shortness of each of the add-ons is easily ignored to a degree, as long as you’re playing them one after the other.
During the main story in Marvel’s Midnight Suns you’ll find yourself as The Hunter (or is it just Hunter?) fighting your mother Lilith as she attempts to bring on the ruination of the world and universe by helping Cthon return. In the season pass the main enemy is Dracula, as already mentioned, but the protagonist is more-so Blade than it is The Hunter.
Related: Marvel’s Midnight Suns: All You Need to Know
Each of the four story DLC’s features another piece of the story’s puzzle; Deadpool meets the team when he’s caught trying to steal an artifact for Sin (Red Skull’s daughter), who in turn is working for the Greatest Vampire himself, Dracula. Venom ends up free from Lilith’s control, but now during his DLC he’s under threat from Mephisto, forced to help fight the vampyre (with a y!) scourge and help the Midnight Suns. Morbius, whilst easily fitting into the themes and context of the story seems ill-placed and wasted during portion of the story, and Storm rounds out the new cast of characters in the ending of the story.
With each of the new characters comes unique abilities. Deadpool has En Fuego which makes him stronger as he kills enemies – all the while commentating and talking to the player -, Venom has Ravenous, linked to eating his enemies, Morbius has Bloodlust and Storm has a set of cards that grow in strength the longer the player leaves them in hand.
As well as these new abilities, each of the new characters bring their own side-stories with them. Deadpool is surprisingly well-written and more than just comic levity, although his trademark fourth-wall breaking is in fine form here; Venom and Eddie Brock seem genuinely remorseful for their actions during the main campaign, although their journalistic skills are shown to be… lacking; Morbius, whilst wasted as part of this story, is still far better written and showcased than that God awful movie, and Storm brings a motherly angle to proceedings, chasing after a lost would-be-student of Professor X’s. The story won’t be winning any awards, but it was still more effort than many would have been expecting, especially as many developers would have released the characters as stand-alone, with no additional story or campaign content.
Unfortunately though, for all the promise the story has during the four DLC’s, the commercial failure of the game means that we won’t be seeing any resolution to the main game’s story cliffhanger, or the DLC’s cliffhanger either. Featuring Sin in a much more comic accurate portrayal, the comic nerd in me was briefly excited then massively deflated at the thought of not seeing more of her.
As a whole the experience is a good one, with four individual stories, albeit really short ones, combining into a larger over-arching story that is as much about the characters involved as it is the gameplay and end goals. You’ll find yourself eager for more Deadpool and Blade interactions, or more character-specific research to fill the grounds with. The characters specific special Abbey abilities also bring a different spin to the game, and with them affecting the main game it’ll make New Game + a completely different beast now. Deadpool’s in-character taco truck, Venom’s Whisper Web allowing for mission modifiers and Morbius stat-altering laboratory will have player’s altering their playstyle on each playthrough.
One massive downside is for each of the four DLC’s of Marvel’s Midnight Sun’s the achievements/trophies are broken. They will not unlock when they should or in many cases they don’t unlock whatsoever. Fans had found ways around this with awkward resetting and saves, and Firaxis had released TWO updates in an attempt to fix it themselves, the latest of which seems to have fixed most of the issues, but still some persist to be broken.
For fans of the main game, the season pass will undoubtedly be worth it. New characters, lots of new content, the ability to use them in the main story as well as dialogue throughout the game relating to what is going on. New research and abilities, and lets not forget, during the last mission, if you talk to Morbius, The Hunter actually asks “What is your catchphrase? It is time to Morb?” referencing the infamous meme that originated during Jared Leto’s horrendous take on the same character. Any game that can be so meta deserves awards, in my opinion.
Whether or not we get a sequel to Marvel’s Midnight Suns, a second season of content or nothing at all, Firaxis Game’s can be content with their attempt as a whole, and it’s just a shame more fans didn’t purchase the game to experience it.
7/10
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