3.5/5 ★ – jkrgamer's review of Marvel's Midnight Suns.

Came for the card-based combat, stayed because I can do yoga with Blade. Huh. This really, truly is a life sim disguised as a tactics game. My self-inserted OC voiced by Matt Mercer does have a backstory, but most of the time he's too busy giving sushi to Spider-man and fishing with Wolverine. I was surprised there's no outright dating sim elements - I basically flirted through every encounter to max out my friendship levels. And like any good dating sim, the characters in this game cannot wait to tell me how great I am at every possible opportunity. Combat is good. Not as much deckbuilding mechanics as I would have liked, but still enough there to feel satisfied when pulling off a nice combo, or lining enemies up to destroy them using the environment. More variety in each hero's cards would have been appreciated, but there are still some synergies in there if you dig deep enough. Really though, this game is all about the life sim stuff, pure and simple. Some of the characters are really impressively written. I was surprised by which ones I ended up caring for the most by the end of the main story (Nico, Blade & Illyana, if you're curious to know). A lot of careful exploration of their backstories endeared them to me, just like the game wanted, even though I mostly skipped through all the heavy lore drops about the witches and Elder Gods. If you like tactical strategy you may like this game. If you like cozy life- and dating- sims you may REALLY like this game. All in all it is a flashy action and lore-heavy experience, quite long, and certainly the best Marvel game to come out this side of Spider-man PS4.