Marvel's Midnight Suns - Design Choices

[HiddenX]

Midnight Suns' game director explains some design choices:

Midnight Suns devs 'absolutely' knew cards would be a controversial choice, but they were also 'absolutely the right fit for this game and our design goals'

Midnight Suns' game director explains how XCOM's combat evolved into the strategic card system that emphasized "feeling heroic."

In a talk at last week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Firaxis game director Joe Weinhoffer broke down the evolution of Marvel's Midnight Suns' tactical combat and explained the thinking behind the game's most polarizing element: using cards to represent superhero powers.

"Is it odd that we have cards in a tactical superhero game? Yes, absolutely," Weinhoffer said early in the talk. "We knew this would be a controversial choice, and that reception and first impressions would be mixed. We certainly had plenty of people see the game and say 'oh, it has cards in it? Eh, nevermind, not for me.' But was it the right fit for this game and our design goals? Yes, absolutely."

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Thanks Couchpotato!



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[Couchpotato]

Well good for the team but in the end it didn't pay off. The game was ultimately a failure sale wise, even with all the DLC. They should have made XCOM 3 instead.

 

[Carnifex]

Having played the game just recently I think it was a huge mistake to feature card elements as the only combat option. After a few fights it really started to feel more repetitive than even usual in these types of games.

 

[forgottenlor]

I loved the game having just finished it, but to each his own.

 

[wolfgrimdark]

I have finished the game twice now and it is one of my favorite top games, I really enjoyed it even if I hated the ending. The other 99% was top notch for me though. I wasn't sure about it, especially with the cards and the style of combat, but it won me over pretty quick. I liked the whole set up - with the exploring of the base, team building, and the combat missions.

 

[Couchpotato]

Well hate it or love it like I said it was a huge flop. Team was disbanded and he was fired. Just use Google to find out what happened after it was released.

 

[mbpopolano24]

I enjoyed - moderately - MMS, but XCOM 2 is one of my top games ever, and it was successful. They should have done XCOM 3, it's very simple. I hope they will work on it eventually.

 

[Carnifex]

Yeah, exploring the Abbey and the singular progression fights contained within are the highlights of this game for me. I'm pretty sure I spent far more time on the Abbey grounds than I did running missions.

 

[Vaelith]

Unfortunately Tactical Combat games need to run on a low budget to be profittable these days, because they're far too common. Midnight Suns was a good game, but they spent way too much cash making it.

This thread reminded me that one of my most favorite cRPGs of all time, Pillars of Eternity II, was considered to be a commercial failure too. A shame for Midnight Suns too, I thought it was a good game, and I would have bought sequel, but I guess there weren't enough people feeling that way.

 

[JFarrell71]

Having played the game just recently I think it was a huge mistake to feature card elements as the only combat option. After a few fights it really started to feel more repetitive than even usual in these types of games.

Using cards has absolutely nothing to do with the combat feeling repetitive. All you need to make combat less repetitive is more cards, i.e. more abilities/options. There are innumerable games that don't have cards wherein as a player you end up doing the same few things every turn, including X-Com. The bigger issue in Midnight Suns was the lack of enemy variety. More mission types would also have helped, though imo that wasn't as big of a problem as fighting the same dudes for 50 hours.

 

[Zloth]

Yeah, money-wise, fewer heroes and more enemy variety would have helped a lot. With fewer heroes, maybe they could have worked out interesting combos for all the hero combinations - or at least a good portion of them. Discovering all of them would have been pretty fun.

 

[Darkheart]

The game has high production values and if you are really into Marvel I can see why people like it. For me ultimately, the social simulator part of the game was too much and made me lose interest.

 

[Carnifex]

True, some fewer characters and more depth would have likely helped a lot. I mean, look at how late you get Banner/Hulk in the game, and parts of his faction you cannot even improve.