MARVEL'S MIDNIGHT SUNS

Superheroes supernatural and the isn't the only unusual crossover to be found here

FORMAT PS5, PS4/ETA 7 OCT/PUB 2K GAMES/DEV FIRAXIS GAMES/PLAYERS 1

Delaying Marvel's Midnight Suns from its original spring release to October was the right call. Not only has it given developer Firaxis Games more time to make its game the best it can be, but a launch during spooky season is perfectly fitting for a title that leans on the dark and supernatural side of the Marvel universe. On top of that, as the Fates would have it, Phase Four of the MCU - namely WandaVision and Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness - has helped prime us for the deepest cut in Marvel's back catalogue to date to get the triple-A treatment.

It's a crossover that sees some of the most iconic Avengers team up with a group of lesser-known heroes with ties to the occult, while Doctor Strange's sorcery makes him the perfect bridge between these two worlds. Don't expect your typical Sperhero game; here combat fours tactics over action, and brains over brawn.

Conversely, new mechanics also mean this is a more action-packed game than you might expect from the team behind XCOM. And when the battle is over, the sun's gone down, and we're back at the Abbey (our gothic base of operations), kicking back with our dressed-down companions, it's apparent that Midnight Suns is unlike any superhero game we've ever played.

STARS ALIGNED

To find out how what everyone presumed would be an XCOM-style strategy game with Marvel superheroes became an ambitious tactical RPG based on obscure comic book run from the early '90s, we go hands-on with Midnight Suns at Firaxis Games' Baltimore studio, where the game's key developers also explain how this crossover came about. As creative director Jake Solomon tells us in a presentation, it was actually the execs from Marvel who approached the studio first.