The Tragedy of Marvel’s Midnight Suns

Not so super sales

Hey everyone, and welcome back to another issue of One More Turn. This week, I’m introducing a new segment, and talking about a superhero strategy game you may have missed.

The Tragedy of Marvel’s Midnight Suns

As you can probably imagine given the focus of this newsletter, I’m a big fan of XCOM. Firaxis' other strategy title has been a favourite since 2012’s Enemy Unknown, and XCOM 2 is probably one of the best examples of a turn-based tactics game you’ll find anywhere, even 8 years on from launch.

And, while initial leaks that suggested the team’s next game would involve Marvel superheroes had me more than a little skeptical, I had faith the team would deliver. And you know what? Marvel’s Midnight Suns is right up there with XCOM 2. In fact, as I revealed in an interview back in 2022, Marvel’s team had a lot of fun playing XCOM, which led to Firaxis working on Midnight Suns.

While XCOM’s whole deal was making you cling to each of your expendable soldiers, knowing they could be killed at any time, Midnight Suns is the antithesis of that. Pitting superpowered heroes up against Hydra’s conveniently lethal enemies allowed for each turn to feel unpredictable yet empowering, backed up by a deckbuilder side that allows for plenty of depth and customisation.

Why am I waxing lyrical about this 2022 video game? Because seemingly no other bugger played it. While I acknowledge strategy games have a smaller market appeal than, say, an open-world Spider-Man or Wolverine game, and Midnight Suns' spookier Marvel story won’t have been for everyone, but it sounds like its December release date could have been the issue.

It’s heartbreaking that we’ll likely never get another mashup of Marvel and Firaxis as a result, but if this has got you interested it’s pretty much the perfect Steam Deck game thanks to its turn-based nature, how well it runs, and the fact that some of the side-missions are more bite-sized. I’m currently on my third playthrough and am really appreciating being able to play it in bed or while traveling.

Welcome to Card Corner

Aside from video games, I’ve become a big fan of multiple card games. Along with pretty much everyone my age growing up, I collected Pokemon cards, and then Yu-Gi-Oh!, and while those have persisted I’m also working to get my partner into Disney Lorcana.

My biggest card game obsession, however, is Magic The Gathering, which I’ve taken to playing regularly with friends (and will likely be doing next weekend as I’m off for my stag do).

Going forward, Card Corner will be a section of the newsletter dedicated to something to do with either card games or digital card games, but for now, be sure to check out my rundown of the best card games you can play on your PC, console or phone right now.

Recommended Reading

This won’t always be something from me, I promise, but if you have 10 minutes I’d really appreciate it if you’d read and share my piece on Medium about how Google needs to reckon with the effect it’s had on the publishing industry.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch you next week!