After a brand-new trailer, gameplay reveals, and other details, fans finally have a grasp on Marvel’s Midnight Suns — a tactical turn-based game that combines our favorite Marvel heroes (and anti-heroes) with the high-stakes gameplay of XCOM.

Apart from a sick Metallica track, the video also reacquaints us with Hulk, Spider-Man, and Venom, all of whom will tie into perhaps the most unique Marvel video game created so far.

What’s The Story?

Using magic and the power of shadows, Lilith has come back to life. The Mother of Demons has been resurrected by Hydra after spending several centuries in slumber.  (Yes Diablo fans, this does bear a striking resemblance to the plot of upcoming Diablo IV).

It does not seem that the years of sleep have diminished her evil intentions, because as soon as she wakes up, she begins to hatch a plan to resurrect her devious master, Chthon. Faced with this situation, the Avengers will have to take action.

Except that we won’t really be working with the Avengers this time around. Instead, we get introduced to Marvel’s edgiest superhero team — the Midnight Suns. Led by our main character ‘The Hunter,’ we get to customize and tactically overpower Lillith’s roster of enemies which seems to feature demonic versions of Marvel favorites such as Hulk, Venom, and even Scarlet Witch.

The Midnight Sons, as they were originally called in the comics, were introduced to Marvel fans in Ghost Rider Vol 3 #31, back in 1992:

The series at the time was busy exploring a plotline involving the aforementioned Lilith, who seeded humanity with many of her ‘Lilin’ offspring thousands of years ago, when she was banished for practicing evil necromancy. Doctor Strange seemed to understand the latent danger of Lilith’s resurrection, and worked on gathering a group of nine heroes to fight against the demonic hordes.

The original Midnight Sons consisted of several heroes — you had Morbius, Iron Fist, Moon Knight, and more. The video game roster is considerably different however. Here’s all the playable characters confirmed to appear in Midnight Suns:

• Spider-Man
• Captain America
• Captain Marvel
• Iron Man
• Doctor Strange
• Wolverine
• Ghost Rider
• Magik
• Blade
• Nico Minoru

How About The Gameplay?

As seen in the preview above, Midnight Suns follows a card-based gameplay loop that also allows you to deeply customize each character’s loadout to counter enemy strategies. Each hero also comes with their own strengths and weaknesses — Spider-Man, for instance, comes with plenty of cards that deal combo-damage to multiple clustered enemies, while Magik can cast portals that send enemies flying into each other — or even help allies get around a battlefield.

With plenty of comic book quips and dialogue to spice things up, boss battles also add depth to the challenge of the game. These demand quick adaptation to unforeseen problems and keen awareness of how to use your surroundings to your advantage.

The game, while definitely inspired heavily by XCOM, also seems a bit less punishing, and follows an open 3D movement system rather than the classic grid-based one.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns is in development for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch, PC and Google Stadia. Although it was initially scheduled for March 2022, the studio has finally confirmed an October 7th release date, with pre-orders now open.

(Featured Image Credits: Firaxis Games, 2K, Marvel)