Overview
Marvel's Midnight Suns is a tactical RPG developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K Games, released in December 2022. Players control the Hunter, a fully customizable original character resurrected to lead the Midnight Suns against Lilith, the Mother of Demons, who has been revived by Hydra through a combination of dark magic and science. The game blends turn-based strategy with card-based combat and a surprisingly deep social layer set in and around the Abbey, the team's supernatural headquarters.
The roster pulls from across the Marvel Universe, mixing supernatural heavy-hitters like Blade, Ghost Rider, and Magik with mainstream Avengers like Iron Man, Captain Marvel, and Doctor Strange. That combination gives the game a tonal range that few superhero games manage, shifting between cosmic action and genuine occult horror within the same mission. Wolverine shows up. Spider-Man shows up. Doctor Doom has a scene-stealing moment near the end that sets up threads the story leaves deliberately unresolved.
Gameplay and mechanics
The core combat loop runs on ability cards drawn from a custom deck. Each hero brings their own card set, and players build a mixed deck before each mission, choosing which three heroes to deploy alongside the Hunter. During combat, a hand of eight cards is drawn, and players spend action points to attack, buff allies, or trigger environmental interactions.
Key mechanics include:
- Card combo chains that build Heroism for powerful moves
- Environmental knockback attacks that deal bonus damage
- Redraw system for managing bad hands
- Hero-specific passive abilities that persist regardless of cards played
- The Hunter's unique Light and Dark power paths
The system rewards players who think about card synergies rather than brute-forcing every encounter. A well-timed knockback chain can clear a group of enemies without spending a single attack card, which feels genuinely clever when it clicks.
What is the Abbey, and why does it matter?
The Abbey functions as the game's social hub between missions, and it does more work than most games give their hub areas credit for. The Hunter can wander the grounds, chat with heroes, attend hangouts, give gifts, and gradually build friendship levels that unlock new cards and passive bonuses in combat. Spending a night watching a movie with Spider-Man or going on a morning run with Captain Marvel feeds directly into how those characters perform in the field.
This social system is where Midnight Suns separates itself most clearly from other tactical RPGs. Relationships are not a side feature bolted onto the strategy layer; they are the strategy layer. Maxing out a hero's friendship unlocks their most powerful abilities, so the conversations matter.
World and setting
The story leans hard into Marvel's supernatural mythology. Chthon, the Darkhold, and the demonic side of the universe take center stage rather than the usual Avengers-scale threats. The plot moves through several genuine surprises, including Lilith's actual motivation and the Hunter's origin, and the final act does not play out the way the opening hours suggest it will.
Doctor Doom's brief appearance at the end is one of the game's best moments, arriving with zero fanfare and immediately recontextualizing the entire conflict. It is the kind of mid-credits energy that most Marvel games fail to land.
Impact and legacy
At launch, Midnight Suns earned strong critical scores, with outlets landing between 88 and 95 out of 100 for the PC version. The card-based tactical combat drew comparisons to Slay the Spire in structure but plays nothing like it in practice; the spatial, grid-adjacent positioning and environmental physics make it feel closer to XCOM with a deck attached. For players who bounced off pure card-battlers but love turn-based strategy, Midnight Suns occupies a genuinely distinct space in the genre.
Content and replayability
The base game runs between 40 and 60 hours depending on how much time is spent on Abbey activities and side missions. Four DLC packs added Deadpool, Venom, Morbius, and Storm as playable heroes post-launch, each with their own card sets and story missions. The Enhanced Edition on PS5 and Xbox Series X includes performance improvements and all released content. Multiple difficulty settings and the Light/Dark ability path for the Hunter give repeat playthroughs a different mechanical feel, though the story remains fixed across runs.