Thanks to the myriad gameplay showcases that have been aired for Marvel’s Midnight Suns, it seems as though players may already know a lot about how the card-battler tactics RPG works. This may be true in terms of its fundamentals with each character, but there is a lot of content that has yet to be portrayed publicly from Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ gameplay. The game meshes this tactical card-battler with a seemingly extensive social simulation, which fans only truly know will have interactions between characters where relationships can be created to upgrade cards.
Otherwise, the Abbey has been kept largely a secret. This is favorable since not everything needs to be fully divulged before Marvel’s Midnight Suns releases this holiday season, though there has been mention of a couple features players can indulge in while they explore the Abbey in an over-the-shoulder perspective. One feature deals with injuries that characters can sustain during combat missions, and provides a balm to cure them. It is unknown what else the Abbey may hold, but this feature is demonstrative of how gameplay and narrative may be cohesive in Marvel’s Midnight Suns.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ RPG Gameplay Impacts Social Elements
Marvel’s Midnight Suns has a fascinating mechanic involving characters who are downed or defeated in combat. If left that way at the successful end of a combat mission, they will still be playable afterward and not removed from the game or anything that drastically consequential. However, they will return to the next combat mission with considerable gameplay detriments. Such detriments have been reported to include negative status effects or other such impediments to that character, making the player’s choice to bring them back a difficult one.
That said, it has been hinted that a feature in the Abbey can be constructed to heal characters who have this injury mechanic debilitating them, which seems incredibly useful. Only so much has been shared about what features Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ Abbey holds, but this one in particular seems like an important one for fans to keep their eyes out for when they get a chance to explore the Abbey for themselves. Injuries may only be one mechanic that players need to be carefully considered, with other debilitations potentially appearing mid-combat as well. Still, to see the results of combat have an effect on characters afterward is a great way to make each encounter feel sequential and significant.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ Narrative Cohesion May Tie Events Together Fluidly
Gotham Knights is a recent example of a game that features multiple protagonists players can select at any time, but is still linear to a scripted experience. Some dialogue changes are evident between characters, but there is a core through-line the narrative follows regardless. This means that each character needs to know what had happened in previous sequences in case players had chosen them. Marvel’s Midnight Suns has an opportunity to blend its immersion more effectively than that, by only having characters in-the-know who were actually present for certain events. If Wolverine was not on assignment with the player’s team when Sabretooth showed up, for example, he may not have anything to say about such an occurrence when players see him next at the Abbey.
Either way, injuries being treatable at the Abbey gives players a good reason to invest in the Abbey’s many features. It will be interesting to see what other gameplay correlations are made to the narrative in this way, but it is fantastic that at least some occurrences in gameplay will affect the player in-and-out of Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ card-based combat.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns launches December 2 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S with PS4, Switch, and Xbox One versions coming later.