Firaxis is best-known for Civilization and XCOM, but the development team has been working on something in secret not related to either of those franchises. That something is Marvel’s Midnight Suns, which is reportedly mechanically separate from XCOM, despite also being a tactical, turn-based RPG (thanks, Polygon).
Midnight Suns is set to release on every major platform in March 2022, including PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.
The game was recently revealed at Gamescom with a fantastic cinematic trailer (and an even more fantastic rendition of Enter Sandman by Metallica). The end of the trailer says that we can expect actual gameplay footage on September 1 at 11:30 a.m. PDT. Surely, it will be broadcasting the game’s YouTube channel, though it doesn’t specify.
Publisher 2K describes Midnight Suns as “a new tactical RPG set in the darker side of the Marvel Universe, putting you face-to-face against demonic forces of the underworld as you team up with and live among the Midnight Suns, Earth’s last line of defense.”
Several interviews with Creative Director Jake Solomon (including the one from Polygon linked above and this one from IGN), shed some greater light on what fans can expect, making it sound a lot like a mixture of XCOM and Marvel Ultimate Alliance, though that remains to be seen on September 1. However, there’s still not a lot of information about the game swirling around.
It’s also not clear if there will be a multiplayer facet to the game at all — there is head-to-head multiplayer in XCOM 2, for example — but IGN said that 2K mentioned “a single-player focused experience.”
The main character is new, called The Hunter, and is customizable. There will be 12 other characters, with nine so far revealed:
- Blade
- Captain America
- Captain Marvel
- Dr. Strange
- Ghost Rider
- Iron Man
- Magik
- Nico Minoru
- Wolverine
Stay tuned for more on Marvel’s Midnight Suns as we learn it, and be sure to tune in for the gameplay reveal on September 1.
