Marvel Midnight Suns Ghost Rider

Midnight Suns: Everything nosotros know about the tactical Marvel RPG

Spider-Man poses alongside the assembled Midnight Suns

(Epitome credit: Firaxis Games)

Midnight Suns isn't your usual superhero game. Hungry for Curiosity heroes in action, but exhausted past the relentless psychic onslaught of the Marvel cinematic universe? Are you lot wondering what Wolverine would look similar if his costume was imbued with stiff magicks? You're in luck, true laic: Firaxis unveiled Marvel's Midnight Suns at GamesCom 2021, promising some demon-hunting quality fourth dimension with your favorite heroes every bit you enter the "darker side of the Marvel universe." Spooky!

As y'all'd expect from the XCOM developers, Curiosity's Midnight Suns is a turn-based tactical RPG. But here, you'll find superheroic cards in place of aliens and hitting-run a risk percentages. It'due south drawing from squad-upwards comic stories dating dorsum to the '90s that pit Marvel heroes confronting demonic forces. Aesthetically, it's a picayune Marvel-meets-Diablo. Expect sorcery and evil tomes. And vampires, probably, because Bract is at that place.

Here's everything nosotros know nigh Marvel's Midnight Suns.

What's the Marvel'due south Midnight Suns release engagement?

Marvel's Midnight Suns will release Oct 7, 2022.

The release was initially ready for March 2022, but the launch window was pushed back to the second half of 2022. According to a statement released on Twitter, the filibuster was necessary to make it "the all-time game possible," with the additional months going towards calculation "more story, cinematics, and overall smooth."

Hither are the Midnight Suns trailers we've seen

Curiosity'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 Foreign, Atomic number 26 Man, Ghost Rider, and others—equally well as the player-controlled and customizable Hunter hero. We're shown Lilith, Female parent of Demons, the game's primary antagonist (and enemy number one in the comic storyline that serves as one of the game'south inspirational touchpoints).

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

This VOD of a

gameplay showcase livestream

shows a brief mission playthrough confronting the X-Men villain Sabretooth, giving a more in-depth sense of the carte du jour-based tactics and how they reflect the flavour of the Curiosity heroes y'all'll exist assembling. We're given a wait at the Abbey besides—your headquarters where yous'll exist hanging out with your growing roster of superheroes between missions.

This cinematic trailer (opens in new tab) revealed at Summer Games Fest 2022 adds Spider-Human being to the roster of confirmed Midnight Suns heroes. Meanwhile, everyone'south favorite goopy antihero Venom gets corrupted by Lilith to stand alongside her collection of demon-possessed Marvel bruisers. A collection that includes Scarlet Witch and the Hulk. Seems bad.

Midnight Suns - Lilith Mother of Demons looking at the camera with glowing green eyes. — (Image credit: Firaxis)

Then who is the Hunter?

Midnight Suns will feature xiii playable heroes. Offset and foremost is the Hunter, an original hero created for the game and your player grapheme. Y'all'll be able to choose betwixt a male person and female Hunter and customize their appearance. As the Hunter, you're the kid of the game's main villain: Lilith, Female parent of Demons. It'southward apparently not a warm relationship. You're the only person who'southward e'er defeated Lilith in the by, having sealed her away ages agone before inbound your ain centuries-long sleep. She's been resurrected past Hydra (surprise), so you've been thawed out to finish Mom from summoning an Elder God and doing an apocalypse.

Which other heroes are confirmed for Midnight Suns?

Midnight Suns - Blade wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket while pulling a sword off his back. — (Image credit: Firaxis Games)

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 Bract. For Midnight Suns, Firaxis is bringing Avengers and Ten-Men aplenty. These 10 heroes accept been confirmed so far:

Captain America
Blade
Magik
Fe Man
Wolverine (voiced, as always, by Steve Blum)
Md Foreign
Helm Marvel
Nico Minoru
Ghost Passenger (the Robbie Reyes incarnation (he has a car))
Spider-Man

We tin only speculate for the last two spots, but according to a contempo leak, Cherry-red Witch volition be one of them. She's shown as existence corrupted by Lilith in the most contempo trailer, aslope Venom and the Hulk. If the Scarlet Witch can exist freed from Lilith's influence, it's a safe bet one of those other two will be potential teammates too.

What will Curiosity'due south Midnight Suns gameplay be like?

While creative director Jake Solomon claimed that Midnight Suns would be "completely different" from XCOM, it's nevertheless a Firaxis tactics RPG. You'll even so exist 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 in that location 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' deportment laid out to employ on cooldown, each turn you'll take a hand of cards fatigued from a deck you'll be assembling for each hero. These are how your heroes will attack, or use their powers for utility options similar defense boosts and stealth buffs.

The cards use keyword mechanics similar you'd find in Slay the Spire, Hearthstone, or Magic: The Gathering. Wolverine's ability cards, for example, characteristic a lot of Taunt keywords, which draw enemy attention when played. It'due south difficult to pay attention to anything else when you're suffering a pocket-sized 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. I Wolverine card gained a Lifesteal keyword when above a sure Heroism threshold, healing him for whatever damage he dealt with information technology.

Unlike XCOM's grid-based gameplay, characters in Midnight Suns can freely move and target whatsoever indicate inside 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 requite Captain America the opportunity to miss on a 95% attack roll. Yous won't be dealing with permadeath, either. For amend or worse, Curiosity isn't letting a bones enemy impale off Atomic number 26 Man for proficient considering 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'southward also where you'll manage and upgrade your selection of ability cards for your heroes. In that location's mention of crafting, as well, and some discoverable lore. It'due south somewhere between the base direction layer from XCOM and hanging out with your Normandy companions in Mass Effect, with some low-cal exploration thrown in.

Because it'due south a superhero game, in that location'll be different costumes to cull from for both the Hunter and the existing Heroes. It'south unclear whether these are just unlockable cosmetics or if they'll exist tied to crafted upgrades. I'm hoping it's the latter. I'd honey for the arcane embellishments on the trailer costumes to be the product of whatever enchanted alloy I've fortified Atomic number 26 Man'south armor with. No news on whether more than will be bachelor for purchase. Hopefully, there'll be enough aesthetic options without having to spend more greenbacks.

What else do we know?

According to the devs, the game will exist pretty long. To requite an idea, in the gameplay showcase livestream it was mentioned that yous'll still be recruiting heroes to the crusade—Wolverine, in this case—even after a dozen or so hours of play.
In addition to customizing the Hunter'south advent, you'll be able to customize their living space in the Abbey.
You lot take a pet hellhound named Charlie. She can help yous find treasure. Yep, yous can pet her.
The comic crossover storyline Rise of the Midnight Sons (opens in new tab) is a major inspiration for the game. Running in the early on 90s, it gathered together a bunch of Marvels' goths to salve the world from Lilith and her demonic children. The original team lineup included—no joke—iii discrete Ghost Riders. The Midnight Sons (opens in new tab) have gone through a few iterations in the years since. It'southward safe to assume whatsoever Curiosity hero who'due south some kind of dark creature or occult practitioner has been involved at one indicate or another.
You tin can secure an "Sectional Nightstalker skin" for Blade by signing up for the Midnight Suns newsletter on the game's website (opens in new tab). At that place's a Doctor Strange skin bachelor every bit a pre-order bonus, too.

Lincoln spent his formative years in World of Warcraft, and hopes to someday recover from the experience. Having earned a Artistic Writing degree past convincing professors to accept his papers about Dwarf Fortress, he leverages that expertise in his most important work: judging a video game's lore purely on the quality of its proper nouns. With writing at Waypoint and Fanbyte, Lincoln started freelancing for PC Gamer in Fall of 2021, and will take any excuse to insist that games are storytelling toolkits—whether we're shaping those stories for ourselves, or sharing them with others. Or to gush nearly Monster Hunter.