Marvel’s Midnight Suns: Everything We Know About Firaxis’ Tactical Superhero RPG

Marvel’s Midnight Suns is the next game from developer Firaxis Games, the studio behind Civilization and the past three XCOM games. Though it has tactical strategy elements, Marvel’s Midnight Suns is far from a superhero reskin of XCOM, possessing a card-based combat system and a more substantial focus on roleplay. Below, we go over everything we know about the upcoming game.

Firaxis Games is collaborating with Marvel Games on the project and pulling in talent from across Marvel properties to bring its cast of characters to life. Yuri Lowenthal will be voicing Spider-Man, reprising his role from Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Lyrica Okano will be voicing Nico Minoru, reprising her role from the MCU’s Runaways.

Platforms

Marvel’s Midnight Suns will be available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, PC, and Switch. For PC, the game will be available via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Release date

Marvel’s Midnight Suns will launch for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC on October 7. The game will release for Switch at a later date.

What we know

The story in Midnight Suns is based loosely on the ’90s comic book series Rise of the Midnight Suns, a crossover event that paired up the Avengers with more supernatural and magic-based characters to stop a demonic threat. Since the story revolves around supernatural threats, the roster includes characters who specialize in magical abilities like Dr. Strange, Ghost Rider, Magik, and Blade. Those characters are joined by Avenger mainstays like Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, and Wolverine.

There will be 13 playable characters in total, including your own player character. That character, called The Hunter, is customizable in everything from their appearance to their power set. Firaxis says it worked closely with Marvel to develop The Hunter, who is the child of Lilith, the main antagonist of the game.

Only 11 of the playable characters have been confirmed so far, but more Marvel characters have appeared in the cinematic trailers for the game. Notably, corrupted versions of Hulk, Venom, Sabertooth, and Scarlet Witch–all of whom have been mind-controlled by Lilith–have appeared in trailers. It’s possible that we save some of those characters at some point in the campaign, and they then become a part of the playable roster.

Every Confirmed Marvel’s Midnight Suns Playable Character

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

Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ combat will be turn-based, similar to XCOM 2 and XCOM: Chimera Squad, but with a fairly major twist. Instead of set abilities, your heroes will each have a deck of ability cards that get shuffled together when you bring three of them into combat together. Those cards range from basic attacks to special skills, allowing you to buff other players or toss enemies around the battlefield. The cards can also be customized with variations to suit your playstyle.

Performing these skills will build up a Heroism meter. That will then let you perform Heroic abilities, special superpowered moves that are unlocked by forging relationships with other characters while in your base of operations, the Abbey. Midnight Suns will also include destructible environments, which will add a new tactical wrinkle to combat.

PC system specs

Firaxis has not yet announced the PC system specs for Marvel’s Midnight Suns. The developer will likely release that information closer to the game’s release.

Multiplayer

Firaxis has announced no plans for multiplayer in Marvel’s Midnight Suns. The developer did include multiplayer in XCOM 2 though, so it is certainly possible Marvel’s Midnight Suns will also have a multiplayer mode.

DLC/microtransaction details

Firaxis has assured fans that it will not offer any microtransactions that impact the card-based battle system or gameplay in any way. It has said it will offer purchasable cosmetics character skins, however. The studio has not announced any plans for other DLC.

Preorder details

All four editions of Marvel’s Midnight Suns are available for preorder. If you preorder the game, you’ll automatically get the exclusive Doctor Stranger Defenders Skin. Choosing to sign up for publisher 2K to send you email announcements about the game will get you the exclusive Blade Nightstalker Skin as well.