Marvel's XCOM Suns

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Woah boy, talk about a surprise gift out of nowhere! I full expected we'd rush by this Gamescon event with nothing but a reveal and limp speculation as to what Marvel's Midnight Suns would hold for us, but instead we've been gifted pretty much a total blowout topped with the sweet desert of a release date. Who could ask for more than that? It's really put some force behind the vague words that this is 'not like any Firaxis tactical game before it' whilst still leaving me utterly perplexed as to how this will actually play when push comes to shove. But come on, it's Firaxis. I literally preordered Chimera Squad and I never do that. I'm going to buy this game one way or another, getting to know my purchase before the fact is just a bonus. So I guess now I have a chance to totally disseminate the project standing between me and XCOM 3: Terror from the Deep. (It better be good!)

First I'd like to touch upon an expansion of something we already knew was coming to the game; the Character customisation. By the very nature of the story, the Marvel heroes will be digging up and reviving the wayward child of this game's big bad; Lilith. But if you got worried about that default-npc looking character who was leading the trailer, don't be; she's totally customisable. Option wise things seem mostly the same as any XCOM game, with four basic faces, but I'll imagine the slack will be made up through all the hair, helmet, armour and accessories that make these games typically shine in the imaginative character department. (As well as prove a hotbed for modding potential) Unfortunately we're only looking at one customisable character. (heroes will get outfits too, but I'm expecting that'll be more similar to 'Ultimate alliance' unlockable costumes rather than a modular affair.) Everyone else in the game will be another Iconic hero. Which means yes, we're getting yet another Firaxis tactical game without permadeath. (Should we begin interpreting this as a bad sign?) 

But what about the core gameplay? You know, the stuff that matters. Much ado was made about the fact that this would play nothing like XCOM before it, but considering they'd made slight variations to that formula over their three game tenure, that didn't really mean all that much. That being said, there does appear to be some vast new additions to the formula to change things up, with the biggest one to me being; randomness. Or, should that be more randomness? (Wait, what?) You see, combat isn't going to be throwing us into arenas with nothing but our strict toolset and our wits to out-chess the enemy and there doesn't even seem to be hit percentages at all. (What blasphemy is this?) Rather, players will be granted random cards to be chosen from that then dictate their actions, presumably picked from a pre-assigned deck that the player builds throughout the game, meaning that you'll never quite know what's in your handbag of tricks today. It's- different, that's for sure.

Something like this makes the game look much more like Slay the Spire or Guild of Dungeoneering; as they both utilised random card based deck-building strategy to great effect in their own ways. However both of those titles are rougelites, wherein having a terrible fight due to the random hand of luck isn't the greatest feeling in the world, but it's the nature of the game to fail and start from scratch the next time around. I'm not sure how that'll feel in a tactical campaign similar to XCOM, and this is what I mean about us being told a great deal about the system, but knowing nothing about how it'll play out until we get our hands on the thing. A huge positive I won't forget to commend, however, is that the level design appears to be leaning much more into environmental interactions. (such as explode-able barrels and precarious ledges) That's something I've literally begged out of all turn based tactical games, and I'm giddy to see it getting a due here.

Outside of combat, the way we wind down has also been fundamentally changed through the addition of the Abbey, a real-time break spot for the player and the various Marvel heroes of the team to partake in good-old-fashioned simulated social gameplay. (Start playing "Persona 4 'Specialist'") Yes, that means hanging out, building relationships and getting stronger with the likes of Wolverine, Magik, Doctor Strange, Tony Stark, Blade and others I've forgotten about already. But no romances! There's no way in hell Marvel would ever entertain a character in their licence being part of a romance sub-plot; so don't get your hopes up! These will be entirely platonic super-powered training sessions where you and Tony Stark spend all morning working out in the Gym right next to each other, becoming so humid and sweaty that his gym wear seems to stick to his strapping, pounding chest. That is, until he slowly peels the material off... That'll be the extent of it, you perverts! No Smooches for you!

Of course, the relationships you build will grant benefits in battle and I somewhat suspect it might be linked to those cool dual-moves we've seen advertised in the gameplay. Let's hope that these moves come in handy for the missions; speaking of which, why didn't we hear about the missions? XCom have always gone back and forth on whether or not they want to get creative with mission objectives (2) or simplify things down to very basic 'kill everyone' jobs. (1) I think that a company self-styling themselves as "Gaming's greatest strategy and tactics experts" should definitely branch into more styles of mission for this new venture of theirs. Wait sorry, what was that they called themselves again? I couldn't make it out through all the smacking-slurping sounds of the autofellatio. (I just watched 'Helluva Boss' and 'Hazbin Hotel' through for the first time, if you're wondering why I'm so crude through this blog)

If I can make one sleight plea, which at this point in development it's more like a hopeful prediction, it's that the actions of the player will have some bearing on the narrative. Just a little! We already know that the Hunter (that's the player character) will have access to Dark and Light powers, the former of which is said to 'take a toll' on the team, whatever that means. It's just that, Firaxis games of the past have always been about supplying the tools for players to craft their own storylines for themselves, and this game seems to be moving away from that; so just a little bit of narrative interaction like a good and evil meter would go a little way towards putting that control back in the player's hands. I'd still prefer telling my own journey fraught with the potential for superheroes to perish on the journey to stop the mother of demons, but I'll take that prototypical 'your actions will have consequences' tag at this point. Just feed me a bone!

So what are my thoughts on the game I'm going to own? I'll still buy it, although I'm not so blindly in love to preorder it, and I think we'll need an actual livestreamed playthrough of a level to show us how the moving parts fit together sometime between now and launch. (Which isn't actually out of the realms of possibility for Firaxis, so I hope they do) Pretty much none of the choices made for this game, save the social simulation elements, match what I would have chosen, and that's left me puzzled but not utterly repulsed too yet. I'm familiar with this team's work. They're talented. And if they tell me this game has every bit the care and love which is usually in a Firaxis game, I'll stick around long enough to hear them justify it. Consider my expectations firmly tempered, and the hype train slowed, but still moving. (I still kinda hope they knock it out the park again) Oh, the game comes March by-the-way. Which sucks.