Marvel Avengers Rising Sun: Seems A Bit Like A Mobile Game
Marvel’s Avengers by Square Enix did not spark hope for the Avengers brand in the gaming sphere, but could Marvel’s Midnight Sun by Firaxis Games present a new dawn for the Avengers, or will it crash and burn like its predecessor.
Firaxis Games, known for their work on the X-COM series, are thus renowned for turn-based tactical gameplay. However, they have stated that none of the features that make X-COM distinct will be present in Midnight Sun. Instead, Midnight Sun features a card-based combat system.
You select a squad of 3 heroes at the beginning of a mission and a hand of cards will be generated at random with the abilities for you to use for each hero. You’ll need to adapt to overcome and survive each encounter. Your cards can be upgraded as a form of progression so you can tailor your own playstyle. My fears lie in how you can obtain and upgrade your ability cards as whenever these systems appear, my mind immediately flashes with the EA logo and mobile games. Thankfully, the official Twitter page of Midnight Suns has settled concerns by stating “there are no loot boxes in Marvels’ Midnight Suns or related microtransactions to get more cards”.
Of course, “it’s always that last line”, if you’ll excuse my Falcon quote, cosmetics will be attached to microtransactions. Let’s just hope that the extent to which these are monetised are minimal and there are still a plentiful amount of amazing outfits available for us to unlock through gameplay. However, I doubt this, as Midnight Suns is seemingly designed with Live-service mechanics in mind, so whilst microtransactions maybe minimal at launch, it will most likely grow with time.
There is an element of environment interactivity and hero co-operation involved in the game, as your abilities can knock enemies into hazards such as gas tanks or even off the arena. There are also ‘combo’ moves that can be made between heroes for big damage. It will be interesting to see if the player hero can be customised to have different combo attacks even when working with the same hero. For example, two different combo attacks available when teaming up with Doctor Strange.
Speaking of the player hero, Firaxis Games have worked closely with Marvel to create a custom hero for the game which the player can tailor to their liking. This hero is called “The Hunter” and is a daughter of the mother of Demons, Lilith, the main antagonist of the game. Hunter is supposed to be highly customisable with different abilities and outfits for you to make for her.
There are other heroes that you can play and interact with. Those that have been seen thus far in the trailers are:
Iron Man
Doctor Strange
Captain Marvel
Blade
Ghost Rider
Wolvering
Magik
Nico Minrou
Captain America
In the comic , Midnight Sons, there are other heroes at work such as Morbius, and considering how Lilith is supposed to be the daughter of Dracula in the comics, it could certainly be interesting if Morbius was introduced and there was a dynamic between the two.
You can have some downtime between missions in a location called ‘The Abbey’, wherein you can establish and build upon relations with other characters. There appears to be a choice based dialogue system reflecting personalities, and whilst I doubt this will have any story related impact, it will affect what abilities you can unlock because as you build relationships, it unlocks new abilities for you to use. These choices appear to be indicated by symbols, similar to Dragon Age 2’s dialogue system, with nice, sassy, and more dialogue choices.
Also within the abbey, you can do daily activities. Now it’s really sounding like a mobile/live service game. These activities include:
Opening ‘spoils of war’ after combat which is frighteningly reminescent of EA’s battlefront 2. Let’s hope Firaxis keep to their word and not engage in some indirect means of monetising this.
Upgrading cards with Blade
Engaging with other characters
Studying artifacts with Doctor Strange. These artifacts appear to yield crafting materials, possibly to craft outfits or abilities. Once again, please don’t monetise this.
and more
Concerning the narrative, the story will be taking a darker tone than most Marvel Media we are used to. Hydra has ressurected the mother of Demons, Lilith, and she is trying to fulfill a prophecy to bring about her master Chthon. To combat this new evil, another supernatural force has been ressurected, Lilith’s daughter, the Hunter, and the order of the Midnight Sons was restored to push back the forces of the underworld for good. Whilst I am certainly interested to see how this supernatural take on Marvel will go, I hope that Firaxis doesn’t forget the Marvel Identity of being quirky and fun as well.
Midnight Sun, with the Marvel Brand, has the chance to make turn-based game more popular than ever. However, if it’s not very careful along this live-service/mobile-like path that its treading down, then the sin of greed will condemn them to the internet’s very own hell, Twitter.