The XCOM Team Presents Marvel’s Midnight Suns

It seems we’re getting a superhero version of XCOM with a specific superhero flavor in the form of Marvel’s Midnight Suns.

Let’s make this as simple as we can. So the team behind the XCOM games is making a superhero tactical turn-based game. But instead of fighting aliens, we’re taking on Lillith, the mother of demons. And the one leading the likes of Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Iron Man, Doctor Strange and the crew is the daughter of this incredibly powerful demonic entity. Check out the incredible announcement trailer that comes with a killer “Enter Sandman” cover down below:

Looks pretty awesome, doesn’t it? However, does Firaxis have a plan to make this stand out and be different from their XCOM series?

Midnight Suns is a faster, less brutal tactical turn-based experience

The people over at PC Gamer got their hands on some bonus info about this game. I’ll break it down for you and keep it short and simple:

• Players pick three heroes for their combat missions
• There’s a total of 12 Marvel heroes to pick from (Blade, Nico Minoru, Dr. Strange, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Iron Man, Magik, Captain America, and Captain Marvel.
• We don’t know who the last three heroes are
• Players assume the role of The Hunter, a customizable new Marvel hero that’s also the daughter of Lillith
• This is a singleplayer RPG with the player’s character at the center of the story
• Your characters won’t permanently die and each mission can be replayed until it’s completed
• The combat’s completely different as each hero is a beast on the battlefield
• It seems there won’t be any hit chance percentages
• Combat moves a lot faster than in XCOM games, which we’ll see in the gameplay trailer next week
• Players explore their base called The Abbey in third-person
• Hanging out with heroes and befriending them is another aspect of the game outside the combat
• Some missions require specific heroes

 

Can Firaxis pull off superheroes and turn-based tactical combat?

I’m most worried about the combat. The story, interaction with heroes, giving beer to Wolverine so he likes you is all fine and dandy. But superhero games usually have lighting-fast combat. Because you are playing as literal superhumans with insane powers and abilities.

Can that work in the slow and methodical turn-based format? I’m not sure, but I’m definitely excited to see a superhero game of this kind, as I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen anything like this. At least not recently.

What do you think, is Marvel’s Midnight Suns going to blow us away? Or are you waiting to see the gameplay trailer on September 1st at 11:30 AM Pacific Time on midnightsuns.com to see how it looks like in action?

Check out Firaxis’ XCOM franchise on HRK Game to see just how brilliant these people are at making tactical turn-based video games!