4/5 ★ – dandylionbritt's review of Marvel's Midnight Suns.

At times, Midnight Suns feels like it’s trying to be three different games at once. Luckily, I enjoy all three of them…from the dialogue heavy relationship sim to light puzzles and exploration around the haunted grounds. I was even pleasantly surprised by the card based combat that first turned me off when the game was announced. The story is memorable, if a little flawed and full of contradictions. The combat missions never get stale. After 72 hours with the game I still want more. Unfortunately, there are some negatives sides to the game. There are way too many types of currencies and resources and it felt like a long time before I mastered how to use them all effectively. There are some weird dialogue choices too. What’s supposed to come off as sweet actually becomes extremely selfish. When Transia is being overrun by Hydra and Lilith’s forces and everyone is scrambling trying to evacuate civilians there… Peter Parker says, “I hope Fury is moving MJ and Aunt May to a safe location.” Like wth??? They’re in NYC and in way less danger than the millions of Eastern Europeans near Chthon’s Temple. Fury has his hands full with refugees and Parker is worried about his girlfriend half a world away?! There are inconsistencies as well. Before the final mission Sara asks why I kept the crack in my collar a secret, but I chose to tell her earlier in the game. They also act like Lilith selling her soul to Chthon to save the Hunter is a big reveal at the end of the game, but it’s well known and mentioned multiple times throughout the story, including in the early hours and multimedia prequel content. It makes no sense that Hunter acts surprised at the end of the game. So extremely bizarre. It’s also very easy to accidentally miss dialogue moments with certain characters. Subtitles can’t be turned off and sometimes they don’t match the dialogue. Other times the voice lines are completely missing. And believe it or not, I even witnessed one of Hunter’s lines delivered by an AI voice. Tony is often an obnoxious jerk and I rarely find him likable, but the worst character here was undoubtedly Nico. Nico was an insufferable, entitled selfish brat and it pained me to be nice to her in order to max our friendship. If you want to be taken seriously and treated like an adult, don’t act like a spoiled child. Any valid points she had were squandered by her terrible attitude, whiny voice, and frequent hypocrisy. Of course, Caretaker was also wrong 90% of the time. Magik was funny sometimes, but the boomer jokes way outstayed their welcome. She’s also a huge jerk to her so called friends. Even Peter Parker became too annoying at times. And we know Yuri is a talented voice actor, but his lines here seem overacted and come off as insincere. They made him so stupid and annoying. It felt like the writers were trying too hard. Blade and Carol being a thing was also a weird decision, even though it resulted in some amusing moments. She’s in a long term relationship with Iron Man’s best friend, War Machine, so I was very surprised by this choice. I don’t see Blade being into Carol in the mainline comics, but I haven’t read a lot of him. I’ve read loads of Carol though. She and Blade were actually on the Avengers at the same time with Robbie Reyes. Also, Carol should be immune to knock back and daze. She’s as powerful as a freaking sun. And if Cap’s shield can withstand a direct hit from Mjolnir, no Hydra goon should be able to get the better of him. Strange’s Midnight Sun suit is a major disappointment. It needs to ditch the hood and add a cape. The man himself protested the lack of of a cloak so it’s a weird design choice. And I’m bummed there’s no customization options besides colors. Speaking of, the Hunter customization is not as in depth as I would like and there are far too few curly hair options. In general it’s pretty disappointing the game doesn’t feature loads more skins. These are mostly characters with long histories of iconic looks, but you won’t get to explore that for the most part. Despite my nitpicks, I loved this game and it was always hard to end a play session. Even now I want to get on and do more missions. And boy do I hope there’s a sequel after that ending and post credits tease…!