I recommend half of: Marvel's Midnight Suns (Review) [PC 4k]

[@SkillUp]

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[@JULR0W]

Ew

[@Jpcraque]

Have to love the "big bucks" from Steelseries am i right?!

[@MintBerryCrunch]

You can’t say the characters are not true to their comics then say captain marvel is the strongest and should be… she was weak in the comics and was only turned into a Mary Sue in the movie for political reasons…now I wonder if you only know the characters based on the movies or if you actually read a comic before and based your idea of the characters on that

[@Battleneter]

eeeeeew you run a PC on a TV, disgusting!

[@MintBerryCrunch]

You claim to have collected the comics then you would know captain marvel was one shot by thanos and even in binary mode has limits that leave her weaker than Thor or hulk or even Iran man… just can’t get over your comments about her that she should be powerful

[@ramseylandry1876]

Imagine if this game would have taken place at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters with NON-A-LIST superheros. That alone would have at least given context for the weird relationship situation and timid personalities.

[@SkillUp]

Actually had the exact same thought while playing. That would have totally worked imo

[@heromjh]

great idea for a game tbh

[@bradhaines3142]

deadpool a b list?

[@amunago080]

Should of used payer created characters, go with the tried and true xcom route with a marvel skin.

[@playahsan]

It doesn't even need to be about X-men, you can just have a game about the young heroes, period. So New Mutants, Young X-Men, Young Avengers, Runaways, Champions, Power Pack etc.The story could be something about an evil entity that corrupts adults, hence why the villains are actually core heroes and the theme of the game is "new generation has to step up and save the old gen from themselves". And all of a sudden all the friendship missions seem way more plausible.

[@godminnette2]

It's fascinating to me, because it really seems like they were trying to "humanize" the characters and make them seem more "down-to-earth" with the hang-out sessions. The thing is, it will always feel like high-school if they don't mix some genuinely adult experience into the mix as part of the humanization. I could imagine a version of Blade who is a hardened badass in every facet of life, but struggles with past grief (Blade commonly is a character consumed by grief for fallen allies/love interests). I could see a game where you slowly get Blade to open up about his grief and lost loved ones, and hints about how he might have caught feelings for another hero, but feeling like it may be betraying his lost loved one, whether it's someone who died or was turned (such as Glory), or having a hard time being vulnerable in that way you must be in a romantic relationship again after what has happened to him the last time he let himself love. It's tropey and not particularly ground-breaking or deep, but it's something; this high-school nonsense just sounds infuriating.

[@yordaman17]

how about killing monsters during missions, is that not adult enough? or are you talking about going to a strip bar or having an orgy?

[@iancruz6617]

Also blade in the first film after launching stab pin a vampire to the wall he does a weird smile fish bump.

[@nickblomgren]

_"I could see a game where you slowly get Blade to open up about his grief and lost loved ones, and hints about how he might have caught feelings for another hero-"_ *"YOU'LL GET SUPER HERO BOOK CLUB AND YOU WILL LIKE IT!"*

[@iomar90]

If it's the same writers they had for the nuXCOM games, the terrible writing isn't a surprise.

[@kylele23]

@@yordaman17Wow you really did not read anything in the comment.

[@FatControllerOfficial]

Man, it hurts to hear that basically half of the game was an enormous waste of development time. I'm looking forward to getting this for half price.

[@AlexClementTV]

Oh yes very much agreed with you there Fat. Half of it being good means it's only worth it at half price at the least.

[@bigelowjames]

Bingo

[@Army1601]

It would make Thanos happy

[@XProjectHunterX]

Ya the price tag is a big turn off for me. $70 for this isn't worth it and that's not even counting the fact that the last gen versions were delayed indefinitely so God knows what kind of state those are in.

[@razvanzamfir1545]

You mean you don't like to have a 60hrs game instead of a 30hrs game without any extra enjoyment?!

[@AquaticBagpipe]

Ralph's telling of the book club saga was absolute comedy gold.

[@tyger223]

I want shillup to do a whole breakdown of all of the relationships in the game. Especially with the same tone that he described Blade with.

[@lfemomo77]

Or have Internet Historian cover it all on his Storymode channel

[@soaringspoon]

@@lfemomo77 After the Blade bit it actually sounds like something for Storymode. The blade bit could absolutely see Zuck and friends explaining it to us lol. Fingers crossed!

[@tillist1]

100% it made me excited for the story some how lol.

[@Siao222]

Yes please. I was laughing so hard in the middle of the night my wife had to shut me up.

[@Thedownliner2015]

Shillup is becoming an apt name for him.

[@Matthimeo]

I’m a huge fan of fire emblem, but the slice of life relationship aspect of it is deceptively difficult, and I think part of why it works is that the characters are original to that story and developing them in those interactions is important, while here they can’t really change or develop much about characters everyone already knows.

[@ExtraordinaryFate]

Fire Emblem struggles with it too. It wasn’t exactly fun to play tea party with students in Three Houses unless you loved that character.

[@D_Abellus]

@@ExtraordinaryFate Also to be fair, you can easily earn enough support with students who you don't like just by playing normally and have more than enough time to make your favorite units as busted as possible.

[@0Gumpy0]

That book club high school drama was hilarious. It is almost so bad it's good territory. I imagine there will be some audience out there that is more than happy to go on a picnic with Wolverine, too. Reminds me a bit of Sonic Forces custom character for hardcore fans to insert their sonic fursona into the game and get told they are a badass by Sonic

[@Dionyzos]

It looks like it's heavily inspired by the part of Mass Effect where you run around the Normandy getting to know the crew. It looks oddly interesting to me because I loved that shit.

[@tofo7151]

This might be campy enough to be really entertaining

[@brucevandermescht6957]

Yeah the audience you're referring to here is the "modern audience". For everyone else this is pure crap.

[@FuzzyDlop]

@@brucevandermescht6957 Nope, this is objectively good and well written. Also necessary to the scope of the game. Been playing Midnight Suns for 2 days and the stories, characters and dialogues are well written and it's actually a pleasure to experience a Bioware-like structure for the first time since 2010.

[@Kepesk]

This sounds hilarious to me.

[@jonah3985]

Your description of the book club sounds utterly hilarious. I'm legit looking forward to these interactions in a "I'm watching a train-wreck unfold" kind of way. Bird watching with Wolverine? Oh my goodness! It's almost as if Firaxis was like: "You've seen Tony Stark sacrifice himself to throw a nuke into outer space... now see him catch a large mouth bass!".

[@CasasPlays]

The combat and animations look *amazing* but man its a huge bummer to hear about the RPG mechanics. Especially with a franchise that has so so much history and material on how to showcase that character. Either way, I'm still really looking forward to getting my hands on the game.

[@JimmyLazerz]

The book club thing might have sold me on this game. Hilarious.

[@matthewcarpenter7393]

Was gonna say the same 😂

[@taylorstenhouse6168]

It’s such perfect characterization, for Steve especially. It’s a shame that the reviewers understanding of these characters is so bad that he actually uses that specifically as a negative

[@justicaar]

I expected this after watching your impressions video, but the "recommend half of" in the title makes me laugh. Thanks for yet another thoughtful, in-depth review! I was really looking forward to this game and still think I'll personally enjoy it, but will wait for a sale.

[@ShiningArmor]

If you were looking forward to it, you should still buy it. I hesitated after this review and I’m very glad I ended up ignoring him. I disagree with almost every negative point he makes.

[@jeffcarrier9808]

Like I said in the preview, games like this should have a REPLAY option after battle that plays out real time for viewing pleasure (optional of course)

[@Souredsoup]

22:15 To be fair, Robbie Reyes is exactly the same in the comics. He just sees himself as a kid from the hood who isn't in the same league as the rest of the Avengers, so this is actually accurate in the game.

[@yordaman17]

no, in his "real life", he also has to act like someone who has a flaming skull for a head' half the time /s

[@iancruz6617]

His not Johnny blaze ghost rider that already is a bad ass

[@GhostRiderLSOV]

Johnny's a badass. Danny's a badass (whines more though). Robbie...eh...I don't know. He was a badass in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV Series, which was a welcome surprise. Hell, I start to miss Alejandra, she was nuts, but no game ever used her, except as for an alternate skin and voice for Ghost Rider in Marvel Heroes.

[@UFCWWE69]

I haven’t even heard of this guy up till now. What happened to Nicolas cage?

[@ArseneGray]

thank you

[@pendantblade6361]

The friendship thing is exactly the sort of thing fanfic writers want. This is gonna be a big hit amongst them.

[@tovbyte]

Yeh lol that’s me😂😂😂

[@brendanwilliamson4248]

Same here lol, that whole scenario between Blade and Steve sounds HILARIOUS 🤣

[@Hugsloth]

for some reason mods think they are noble knights who can protect an adult game writer from being criticized and won't allow their names to be posted

[@moojoy1920]

@@Hugsloth what are you talking about.

[@RariettyC]

It's basically a high school AU you'd find easily on Archive of Our Own, except all the characters are said to be older than 18 (even if they're written like teenagers) so the writer is less likely to be called out if they include a self-insert who dates a bunch of the cast

[@clickingonchaos3741]

Commander, the aliens continue to make progress on the Avatar project. If we're going to slow them down, we need to move fast.-nico probably

[@Hotshot2k4]

Honestly the Blade Captain Marvel Steve Rogers _thing_ sounds hilarious when you tell it, but that's probably because we experienced that middle school rollercoaster in the span of a minute or two whereas you probably had to get through half an hour of cutscenes with no sense of irony in order to tell us about it. Very entertaining review overall. I think I'll try to pick this up when it's on sale at a good discount.

[@Yunglex313]

Feels more like a role for James Rhodes rather than Blade...cause Rhodey actually dated Carol Danvers...and all of them are former US Military. Blade I can see being yoga, but not telling a woman he's into her? That guy is Wesley Snipes energy codified, no way he has to work that hard for a date.

[@solidghost4525]

I’m having a lot of fun here. I like the dialog and cutscenes too. It’s just like watching a Marvel movie. I really like all the characters. To be fair ive only played for 23 hours and I’ve done 3 story missions so i haven’t really seen the story play out. But I think it’s really good so far. Running around the Abby is fun and a good exploration feels like fable 1. But yeah running around the Abby grounds is pretty darn “no smooth”

[@ZeklorWGD]

I was on the fence until I heard about the Captain America book club story arc. Now I'm all in.

[@rustyshakkleford]

Finally the Marvel X Sweet Valley High mashup we were all asking for.

[@Juju-cm7ge]

😂

[@halstonconnally1367]

"You can still enjoy a game even if large parts of it suck" Welcome to the life of a JRPG fan

[@jhsrpg]

Literally

[@blackhammer5035]

I've played every Xeno game since Xenogears and cannot agree more. Xenoblade 2 left me a broken man.

[@iancruz6617]

It's rpg.

[@iancruz6617]

Jrpg reminds me why I hate this games when looking back at Gameboy games and I remember seeing recommended games and an jrpg show up they attack not even enemies move just shows a slice attack and that's it brings back why I hated it.

[@WebstarGaming]

Yeah definitely not an jrpg

[@gozzythebat]

22:50 I lost it there 😂 it’s like someone on the development team inserted their own fanfiction.

[@Xero_Kaiser]

The term "lol" gets thrown around a lot, but I legit busting out laughing at that part.

[@Fachewachewa]

That's called writing

[@frankmalditx]

Captain America being too shy to tell Blade he wants to be friends is the funniest thing I’ve seen come out of marvel

[@konczdavid]

I'm sorry but I have to completely disagree with you on Mass Effect. I like the first game the most and a huge reason for that was its gameplay and its deeper RPG systems.

[@jdoggydogg]

Same, honestly.

[@user-if3os9sd6z]

I liked Mass Effect 3 and Andromeda gameplay the most (ME1 is still the best and everything else about Andromeda is terrible) but I get it. It gives you freedom and the weapon sfx and customization still holds up. I have actually been using mods that port ME1 weapons, power and mechanics over to ME2 and the experience is fuller znd funner for it.

[@marcusclark1339]

this, first game had a good balance of it and made the progress to use guns a long term investment where newer just streamlined it cause wider appeal

[@casulrekr6340]

The book club stuff actually sounds hilarious. I kinda want to see it through after your description

[@tovbyte]

lol same

[@Hounlaiga]

Is it weird that I kind of sold on the book club story? I mean I genuinely smile as I listen to Skill Up getting increasingly angry at the story, but I really want to know how the drama end!

[@CJKhaos]

Same. Did Blade and Carol get together, does Cap make a Friend and will Logan discover a new favourite book

[@Hugsloth]

It's a storyline that would work well in a "Teen Titans Go" style of Marvel cartoon or comic, where the intent IS to be a child-friendly version of the Avengers hanging out.

[@MrGgabber]

@@CJKhaos I must know!

[@mvhess]

I just read a review that completely praised the story as being authentic to the characters. I have no idea how they came to that conclusion based on what was shown here. But I trust Skillup because he's more than often right on the nose. And he provided actual examples.

[@gellister]

If there is one thing that has been proven by things like phase four MCU or Zack Snyder's DC films, people have very different ideas what makes the essence of hero characters... And not all ideas have equal value.

[@Hugsloth]

I feel like anyone who says these characters are 'authentic' to the comics, could probably be fed burgers made of grilled cardboard and not even notice.

[@TheBigJame_]

Unless he’s talking about Lost Judgement

[@metallicfingers]

@@Hugsloth nah thats a Wyoming delicacy 💯

[@Crazetex]

people love to be Right about characters and violently "over-"analyze them while not really digging past the surface, leading to "oh i know that character trait" Eye-Spy. tumblr-ass writing is the epitome of this

[@KingsNJenssons]

all the compaints about the characters in the relationship parts are acutally comic accurate at times wolverine is a nice dude, if he likes you. that is basically captain marvel when she isnt being the worst character like in civil war 2, tbf robbie is a kid and he is basically that he is a honorary ghost rider so i can see him being like that

[@bonus8885]

I fought it hard, but I finally burst out laughing when you got to Steve Rogers somehow being unable to tell Blade he wants to be friends.

[@NidorinoAlliance]

It feels weird he didn’t mention the whole other chunk of the game: exploring the Abbey. It’s not just the home base. There’s all these new areas in it where you’re uncovering mysteries about your character, the Caretaker and Agatha. It’s the most engaging story part of the game imo.

[@2cents4u]

Modern gaming devs using the same assets. The male characters look just like Gotham Knights and Saints Row.

[@christopherglasper9224]

It doesn't take much for gameplay to appease, so I liked M.E. 1 gameplay and didn't realize it was a thing till others made it a thing

[@NoMercy13567]

I think that the non-combat parts of this game could have been better if they had the characters fit their personality and threw in some of the of the wall stuff. Like imagine Blade actually being a badass, but then he tells you that he does yoga. It would add just enough humor to the super serious characters

[@BaseSteve]

This is the perfect game for me and my girlfriend who doesn’t like games much, but loves romantic dramas and dating Sims. I’ll play the action, fun part and she’ll play the marvels sitcom.

[@theweddingsinger1970]

Give them credit, the writing is going to fuel memes for years to come

[@rottenborn2292]

X man destiny all over again.

[@crazymachinima1]

Naah, everyone will forget about this game after 3 weeks.

[@rottenborn2292]

@@crazymachinima1 Yk what’s funny. I actually did till your comment popped up.

[@CrocvsGator]

It sounds like Firaxis was inspired by something like Fire Emblem Three Houses. Except, the issue is that Fire Emblem characters aren't usually already established entities. Plus, they are written with interesting personalities, due in no small part to permadeath. But you can't have, say Wolverine, be subject to that, because that wouldn't make sense with his powers.

[@blackhammer5035]

Fire Emblem characters are also designed to be one-dimensional. That sounds bad, but remember: they're mostly built to be optional (they can die or simply not be recruited) as well as background to more important characters. Bernadetta needs to share the supporting cast role with like thirty other characters as well. So she has to be fairly simple from a design perspective. Meanwhile, Captain America and Wolverine are showing up with decades of character development in narratives where they are the main character. Now put that legacy in the hands of the people who thought "Indian Man Eats Curry" was character development. Yeah, that's the Firaxis writing team on Chimera Squad.

[@CrocvsGator]

@@blackhammer5035 I mean, I'd say Bernadetta is pretty three dinensional compared to some of the other characters from other FE games. A lot of other FE games have way more than 30 characters though. Even still, I find Bernadetta pretty well developed compared to say Cyril or even Hubert.

[@blackhammer5035]

Hubert's got some surprising depth to him, though it comes out in weird places. He's oddly friendly to Petra, for instance, and almost sympathetic to her situation as a political hostage. He's still probably the least interesting dark mage in the series, and one of the only ones where they never address his role as a dark mage (though to be fair, FE3H's freeform classes means nobody is guaranteed to be anything).

[@CrocvsGator]

@@blackhammer5035 See, the thing is Blue Lions is my favorite route, so I'm kind of biased admittedly. And admittedly I find Bernadetta somewhat relatable due to my own social anxiety and....unpleasant events in the past we'll say. But I'm glad you brought up Dark Mages though, because it riles me up to no end that Tharja is used in crossovers as the Awakening Dark Mage rep when Henry is right there, and is way more entertaining as a character. Seriously, Tharja is in Tokyo Mirage Sessions, FE Warriors, and gets reincarnated as Rhajat in Fates. But Tharja is hot* while Henry I guess looks too much like default male Robin, which sucks because I am way more interested in Henry's brand of crazy than Tharja's. *according to a lot of people online, not me personally.

[@CrocvsGator]

@@blackhammer5035 And admittedly, we've come along way from Shadow Dragon where they gave us a bunch of identical characters because they were literally intended to be cannon fodder. Bord, Cord, and Barst....the bald guys...those cavalry members who aren't Cain and Abel.

[@mandolorian9893]

OK the story about the bookclub with cap america being friends with Blade actually makes me want to unironically play this even more just to see what happens.

[@rottenborn2292]

Spoilers. Nothing. Nothing happens.

[@Wol1427]

Same, it's just too hilarious to pass up.

[@Scrys]

Appreciate you always bringing up the playability on Deck as well. :)

[@celwenileran2135]

I think you're being extremely harsh to this game. A lot of love and care went into this entire game. RPG elements, tactical gameplay, puzzles, exploration, relationships, karma systems, alright customization and so much more in a single game that works well. Yes, yes. Sure. Sure. Some parts of the stories were awkward but at the same time they were compelling. You see superheroes do shit every day. But rarely you see what they do in their free time. You rarely are in a skin of a new person trying to befriend them. I found it very compelling, alongside the general story. Good game. Play it.

[@mickeymouse7726]

I'm honestly genuinely excited about playing as Morbius

[@dayven4424]

Your explantion of 'book club' had me in tears. Like, just thinking Movie blade being like, "Alright everyone come around and listen dammit!....Who wants to read motha-fuckin' My little pony with me? I need answers people! Fluttershy won't express her feelings!...and...I-I can relate..." Proceeds to go off to cry; clutching his precious stuffed unicorn. Won't you join the book club for Blade?

[@ramonserna8089]

As long has the gameplay is solid I will bear the story. Its not like I played XCOM for the cinematic storytelling anyways.

[@ciaranunderwood6963]

i am so glad you included all your praise for the comabt cause my god the character interactions sound like an actual fan fic

[@CK-lt6jl]

the good fanfics are many times better than this. jesus, this is worse than Andromeda

[@TJ-vh2ps]

Your description of the book club and friendship conversations between Wolverine and Blade had me literally laugh-crying! 😂 Ghost Rider talking about his feelings! 🤣 I have to play the game just to hear this for myself! The combat will just be a bonus! 😅

[@FlameHAZE2010]

Not the same ghost rider, just putting that out there.

[@AardvarkPaysOff]

"There are certain lines you don't cross and Marvel's Midnight Sons commits the cardinal sin of taking some of the most badass characters in the MCU and turning them all into fucking pussies" HOLY SHIT HE SAID IT

[@iancruz6617]

Confuse because this is not even part of the mcu?!?!

[@Joel-wx7zk]

@@iancruz6617 He meant the Marvel Universe as a whole, in no version will Blade, the guy who regularly goes to war with Vampires, be too afraid to ask a girl out or run a book club. He might be into yoga due to his acrobatics but that's about it.

[@fkyfky0208]

Don't worry. The actual MCU already did that.

[@iancruz6617]

@@Joel-wx7zk MCU he literally stand for Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not the actual Marvel comic universe. Plus I been seeing a lot of idiots mention phase 4 this and that and act like it's part of the mcu when idiots not everything is part of the mcu and that should be obvious

[@Joel-wx7zk]

@@iancruz6617 And? Most general people don't really seperate the two, when they say MCU, they're refering to the entire Marvel universe.

[@nbf-fb1xs]

I think the RPG angle is going to be very divisive among players. Hopefully if they revisit this format in another game they smooth it out, as this is the biggest departure from their last few games.

[@andrewjozay]

That Blade scenario you described sounds so awesome

[@Grim_Pinata]

The way you describe the characters and the way they're written sounds like a description of what someone who really loves Persona 5 but has never, ever seen a single Marvel movie or read a single comic would conjure up I know this because I AM that exact person, and if I was contracted to write a narrative-driven RPG-lite tactics game about Marvel characters, despite not being very familiar with them, I'd probably go for a tone and dialogue style very similar to this one. I'm not saying Firaxis didn't do their research when it comes to the heroes or their personalities, but that's just the vibe I'm getting from the way the dialogue is described here; a team known for making really great strategy games with generally pretty barebones plots and unexciting characters where the stories you create through your own emergent gameplay scenarios are more important than the actual plot, being contracted to write enormous amounts of dialogue and story content for some of popular culture's most beloved and widely dissected characters ever

[@walkerg.6961]

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, I like the idea of the heroes being mundane. Blade doing yoga and running the book club because he has a crush on Captain Marvel is the kind of every day tribulation anyone would go through. I understand that these are comic book heroes that are turned up to 11, but I can appreciate the slice of life kind of stuff..

[@BossXAOC]

TBH The story wasnt that great in XCOM 2 as well but the premise was very cool and gameplay wise the the premise was extremly good. But of course XCOM 1 & 2 didnt really focus on a narrative told story with much cutscenes and dialogues. Gameplaywise Firaxis a top notch round based strategy devolper. If they also want to be a top notch story driven developer they surely have to hire new and better writers.

[@razvanzamfir1545]

Well, the story didn't have to be great, but just enough there to move things along - which is what it did.

[@Dja05]

The story in the XCOM games was absolutely non intrusive. A 2 minutes cutscenes every 5 hours and some optional flavor text. Here, it's basically half of the game. Shame :/.

[@amunago080]

@@Dja05 ^this 100%. It's a huge part of the game here, Xcom kept it to the side or delivered while you were fighting on a mission.

[@chrishansenwithdatelinenbc5080]

@@amunago080 even when it was to the side, the writing was kinda bad.

[@rottenborn2292]

@@chrishansenwithdatelinenbc5080 You’re missing the point.

[@NotARealPerson12345]

I bought this game and have been playing it for a week now. The game is perfect to me because I love Marvel and I love turn based games and I love card games and I love the social elements in Fire Emblem. Yes, you will spend a lot of time socializing with heroes and the quality of some conversations are bad and boring, but most of the time, I enjoyed it. I actually wouldn't play this game without it. I need some non-combat fillers between combats to balance my experience, just like Fire Emblem. The game needs a few more patches to fix some technical issues and I want to see more characters in future. I had a lot more fun playing this than God of War, although I love God of War very much.

[@wbgeek]

Your description of Blade's book club made me break out laughing. I was planning on playing this for the gameplay and enduring the story, but now you've made me excited for the story too, albeit in a "so bad it's good" kind of way.

[@ThePokestopPapi]

The book club love triangle segment between Blade/Captain Marvel/Steve Rogers was absolute gold.

[@ronok2057]

I don’t understand why they didn’t go full in with relationships and more personal friendships and Ong having to walk to your room every single night just to be able to do another mission is mind blowing. At least make it so that you can blow through 5 side missions in a row without having to waste days

[@arax20]

I can see how the book club stuff would be bad for some but honestly it sounds a little endearing and refreshing. Kinda like the hangout missions you go on in genshin. Probably not for everyone but the Blade stans probably enjoy it.

[@Wafelkowiec]

Seems like someone wanted a piece of that Persona pie. And seeing those characters I can tell that whoever the writer is, they would fit into modern-day Marvel perfectly. It's elevator music level of writing.

[@Texelion]

Apparently there are like 6 or 7 writers for this, including people who worked on the Telltale games... And I'm just like... how ?

[@BackwardsPancake]

@@Texelion If I had to guess, it's because they're doing exactly what they intended, to target a very specific audience. It may leave you cold, but this type of presentation and storytelling dynamic is like crack for two demographics: The fanfic crowd and the incredibly basic modern mainstream Marvel fans.

[@blackhammer5035]

Having six or seven writers probably means everything was designed by committee to committee standards. AKA pointless and soulless.

[@iancruz6617]

Man I seen better written of this character interact and matches there personality in the comics that I wish I took some screen shot of a few to show a good examples of it.

[@FuzzyDlop]

Nope, this is not inspired by Persona, this is inspired by old school Bioware and it worked great. The Abbey part of the game is great and the reletionship/friendship stuff is really good and well written overall. It's also necessary which makes everything better. Sometimes the combat is more enjoyable than the Abbey stuff and sometimes it's the other way around. Good stuff. Don't listen to moronic youtubers with zero attention span.

[@Nigmare191]

I've played Persona 5 royal so my standards for character interaction are usually a bit higher than what I have seen from Marvel midnight Sons.. however with that being said seeing this game is like what 60 hours. The combat looks fun and it's got DLC coming in the form of Deadpool Venom morbius and storm. I think this will be a perfect game to at least hold me over until Spider-Man 2 comes out. Now that's a game that I'm really looking forward to so I guess I don't mind buying and playing this until that game comes out a little something to do. Also to anyone reading this shout out to you if you watch the'90s Spider-Man animated TV show. If you watch the reruns of it that counts too that was my shit!

[@Egalia_1]

I’ve never heard of this game before you covered it. Man, there’s tons of interesting ideas here but it’s sad to see that it’s bogged down by bad design choices

[@FuzzyDlop]

It's not, SkillUp is just one of the many garbage and incompetent youtubers. Been playing this game for 2 days and the "second half" of the game is not bogged down by any major design choices. The writing of the characters and the dialogues is good and all those parts inspired by old school real Bioware games are necessary. The only bland design choice is the exploration of the environments of the Abbey. Other than that, this video is a complete lie and complete dogshit, made by someone with no critical skills and ZERO attention span.

[@Wooki3]

The writing, characters and character models feel like ME Andromeda all over again. For me an RPG with bad writing is a deal breaker. It is crucial in these kind of games. It's funny that it goes out of it's way to give us the most sanitized and non offensive version of these characters ever created and at the same time the trailers are all about heavy metal, flames and demons.

[@JewTube001]

"trailers are all about heavy metal, flames and demons" that's actually a really good point. whats up with these conflicting themes.

[@Wooki3]

@@JewTube001 My theory is that at first they wanted to go darker more like the comics but they were stopped by Marvel/Disney activ...I mean story group and all that was left were these early promotional materials. I was really looking forward to the dark, tactical RPG set in Marvel Universe but this is modern MCU level shitfest. I hope one day we are going to get the game more in line with Divinity Original Sin 2 or Freedom Force.

[@jibbersdelight1616]

If Skill Up recommend this game half-way, then im willing to buy this game for half the price.

[@rottenborn2292]

😆 Yup. I’ll probably wait till its a free ps monthly game before I buy it.

[@jibbersdelight1616]

@@rottenborn2292 that might take a while though 😅

[@DazeOfWar]

Ya it’s definitely a half price or less game now. I was looking forward to a story in this but after seeing this I can wait a while for it to get cheap.

[@gabrielrodriguez463]

the book club part was soooo funny, thanks!!! :)

[@BradyPartain]

When's the Callisto embargo up?? Can't wait

[@mickeymouse7726]

Blade having a crush on captain marvel makes no sense to me it's like if wolverine had a crush on she hulk it just doesn't make sense for either of those characters it's so out of character

[@marcusclark1339]

just for shilling CM it seems, like theres no reason he would crush on this version of her than writers pushing the idea of her being someone to want that or somehow a random storyline generated but i doubt that if its spoken dialogue

[@juans0l0]

I know you’re trying to sell that blade scene as terrible and that is an extremely condensed version of events, but it also sounded wildly hilarious and now I just need to experience it

[@KasukeSadiki]

Right?? This just makes me want to play even more lmao

[@thaddeusgenhelm8979]

I mean, I imagine the compression makes it sound way funnier than it is, since the dead air is extracted and all =P

[@fairmonkey4786]

Yea blade teaching yoga just sounds hilarious and entertaining to me

[@Tharukan]

21:40 "Most aliens you're better off avoiding, but there's a few good ones out there." ... Wolverine sure knows how to blow that dog-whistle!

[@colinclement2752]

This is honestly the first time I have heard of this game

[@Michael-bm2ll]

This translates so well to modern marvel. Empty vapid husks of their former characters but the CGI fight scenes look nice.

[@BainesMkII]

Some would argue the criticism of the story side of the game reflects the state of modern Marvel Comics. But that gets into a whole lot of controversial debates and topics. Mind, people have also criticize the "current state" of the writing and editorial of Marvel Comics for decades, long before it developed into a larger political debate.

[@Ceece20]

I honestly wish it didn’t turn into a political debate thing because the Marvel dialogue writing is objectively terrible. I honestly will compare this dialogue with Wolfenstien Youngblood but without the Marvel façade. It’s terrible dialogue with mediocre gag jokes that someone locked in a room for 15 hours of work would come up with. Marvel just does that same thing but with Superheroes instead of forgettable daughters.

[@STEVENXO]

Hopefully they add a combat-only mode similar to ME3 which had a mode that let the game go through the dialog for you, so you could just focus on combat.

[@eeleye7075]

Will wait for a sale but the combat half looks so good

[@kingc1331]

Turn based 🗑

[@arthurdent9281]

Same. This looks like it will be fun, but not deserving of a full price purchase.

[@Rehteal]

It blows my mind that Ralph didn't make a reference to Spiderverse when describing how everyone knows the backstory of Spiderman.

[@expertb6348]

I'm 30 hours into Persona 5 Royal. And I love hanging out with other characters outside of combat. But since the writing here seems to be what I don't enjoy out of marvel I don't think I'm going to play it. Maybe in the future if there are mods that speed things up so I can focus on the combat side of the game.

[@rottenborn2292]

Persona is the gold standard and I personally dont expect that kind of writing in a Marvel game, but yeah same. If you’ve shoving dialogue down our throat you better write them to be entertaining. So off putting thinking half the game is garbage writing.

[@infamous6283]

Guardians of the Galaxy managed to have some very well written characters and pretty engaging story.

[@rottenborn2292]

@@infamous6283 That game was lightening in a bootle.

[@iknothatukno]

The way you described the blade story inspired me to buy this game, it sounded hilarious!

[@Nunaden0]

Whose here because it’s free on epic?

[@wiper7000]

Hey @SkillUp. Minor suggestion. When ever you do the technical part, could you (or Austin if he's the editor) perhaps include in text what you're using when you're talking about it. I dunno about others but i tend to get that blank glance over look instantly when i hear those very technical names for things "...I tested this out on a RTX4090 with a Ryzen 9 5950X..." I would really appreciate if that would appear as text in the video so it doesn't just seem as white noise. Love the channel and content so I hope I don't come across too nickpicky ^^'

[@lary3709]

"Wolverine is a nice guy" 😆 I don't think I have ever heard anyone describe wolverine like that before ever.

[@siddhantbanerjee3328]

That Blade conversation was truly TRULY painful to listen to

[@michaeldearth6327]

It’s between this and Callisto protocol for me

[@RickRate]

go for callisto and wait for a sale for this game

[@QaysarZ94]

@@RickRate exactly

[@saniakshay12]

@@RickRate Gonna do the same. As per ACG the game is very buggy as well. Better to wait a few months

[@aznjay94]

Just wait for reviews and look at gameplay. Form your opinion dude. Half of this game wasn't skillup's cup of tea, but that doesn't mean it won't be enjoyable for you

[@Juju-cm7ge]

Calisto Protocol is a day one

[@RedBeer]

8:35 I love that enemy doing an impression of MC Hammer Can't Touch This

[@mintcake2668]

That's JRPG quality writings right there. If you change Marval super heroes to anime girls, everything suddenly makes sense.

[@georgezachos7322]

One of the benefits of not having English as one's mother tongue, is the ability to hear dialogue, but completely shut down the parts that would make a native speaker cringe. A useful skill for this game, certainly.

[@CrimsonFIame]

The writing for the story and characters reminds me of the current state of the MCU

[@donextmedonextme4351]

I don't fully agree with the review, I loved the combat and I enjoyed exploring the habbey. Only criticism I have is that there is too much talking between missions, it kills the pace imo. Of course you don't have to listen to it all if you don't want to. Its still quite a fun game though

[@WiseG33k]

I'm not sure what Firaxis was thinking with the whole social mingling side game. That dev time should have been put toward base building and resource management.

[@brightenblack207]

Funny that the sponsor this time is Steel Series. I just bought some after hearing about them from your videos before

[@xiozen]

1/2 of this review is spot on... the 2nd half, not so much. It would have been better, IMHO, if the reviewer prefaced his criticism of the 2nd half of his review to the fact that he apparently doesn't care for narrative focused game play. I LOVED IT!!! Developing the friendship for all of my team mates, getting to know their varying personalities, then unlocking their Midnight Suns ultimate ability and costume... VERY VERY well done game ALL around and completely enjoyable. HIGHLY recommend it.

[@alexnclips6790]

💯 Agree

[@piegineer9130]

Why you think he doesn't care for narrative focused gameplay when he said he like Mass effect 1 the game that heavy narrative focus with friendship team build but combat is medicore?

[@charlesmcdowell9436]

A book club with a make believe book? Is a missed advertising opportunity.

[@dtanobo]

I actually enjoyed the Mass Effect 1 combat at the time lol

[@ilikecats45648]

I still do it today

[@alexandermalin6027]

The relationship mechanics just remind me of the Persona games. I’ve rolled my eyes a lot at the dialogue but I’ve genuinely laughed too (either with it or at it)

[@robind8526]

Don't be silly, you don't kill bosses. You just down them. No character in the Marvel Universe really dies.

[@bradhaines3142]

a headless thanos disagrees

[@ACuriousTanuki]

@@bradhaines3142 "Characters in the Marvel Universe rarely actually die"?

[@robind8526]

@@bradhaines3142 One word: Retcon!

[@JamesSarkarX]

Would have bought it, but glad I waited. Game is not the problem, Denuvo is not the problem, but a game which I spend ton of money on for game and pass and then there is MTS. A truly single player game should NOT have microtransactions. Not spending a dime. Wish we got a game alt to XCOM!!

[@b1ckdrgn]

I'm not super happy to hear that the RPG half is so bad, I mean I wasn't expecting peak Bioware, but damn... I'm still buying it for launch because the combat has looked awesome and now Skill's confirmed it, and also because I really want to support Firaxis in this new IP/test - I want to see this continue, and hopefully next time they'll give as good or better combat with an at least decent RPG half

[@Hugsloth]

I'm beginning to worry that good writing in the games industry is a dying art. A lost cause. I'm starting to see the same cringeworthy twitterites in the writing credits of every AAA game. It's really starting to feel incestuous.

[@adrianwiles1]

@@Hugsloth good writing is dead period. None in Hollywierd, none on TV, and none in games anymore. Most of these writers are completely incompetent.

[@Liam-gb5cj]

I mean it sounds not good. But it also does sound potentially pretty funny

[@demon794]

@@adrianwiles1 I think you just don't watch good shows or stuff dude. Though there is a lot of "meh" writing, there are plenty of well written or atleast decently written content. (I.e. God Of War, Guardians Of The Galaxy game, Better Call Saul, etc.)

[@Hugsloth]

@@demon794 lmao god of war ragnarok has some of the same writers as this game. and it is full of old-time Norse characters talking like 21st century Sanfran people.

[@ticozayas6430]

For me the biggest failure on the role play side of this is the poorly written dialogue, even seasoned vets like steve blum, mathew mercer, and laura bailey couldn't save the bad dialogue... but on the flip side of that i was surprised that the female voice of the hunter was one of the worst performances of the bunch... while most of this can go back to the writing, a lackluster and monotone reading really makes the bad worse... the friend simulator I felt was gonna be something bigger than it ended up being, like yay u get bonuses in ur fights with higher friend ship but those bonuses could have easily been tied to each time u took a hero on a mission, at the end of the day it just feels like an out of place time sinc... BUT I too loved the card based combat and this really saved the game for me the tactics turn based fights felt very true to each character, the animations are fun and the hits feel powerful... all in all 3.5/5 (solely bc of the combat system and how fun it was)

[@bwd8664]

So hard pass but I hope the combat system gets another opportunity to shine.

[@Luckysquirrel1256]

Thank you for including the Steam Deck in your technical portion!

[@Tarquin47]

I generally have a pretty high tolerance for bad writing, tonnes of times I've consumed media and just don't see the flaws I've been told about so this all sounds fine to me, like a '78% of Midnight Suns is good' and that what I expect from a good long game, to be enjoying it about 80% of the time

[@ArseneGray]

Dont' be afraid, the bad "writing" reviews are because of bad expectations and not intristicly bad. For a marvel themed game the story and writing is on MCU Infinity arc level. Definitely not Shakespeare but also definitely not bad for its intended purpose.

[@Tarquin47]

@@ArseneGray yeah I finished it not long ago and there were maybe 3 dialogues that felt out of place or lower quality in a game with hundreds of them

[@ArseneGray]

@@Tarquin47 I usually like Skill-up but he is way too harsh here. I think he stuck up in 90s comics (which was known as the dark and gritty age) and never got up to today's marvel writing. I do not say that it is good how marvel does stuff but to say it is bad is just not honest.

[@evidicus]

Imagine having all of these comic book writers out there who have written countless stories for these iconic characters, and instead saying “Nah. I’m sure our in house guys can do it.” I get that both the Narrative Director and Lead Writer both worked on the XCOM games and titles like Elder Scrolls Online, but none of those games are personality driven. Players don’t come to XCOM with exceptional prior examples of how its characters were written elsewhere fresh in their minds. I don’t blame the writing team at Firaxis. They had an unenviable task. But Firaxis and 2K should’ve left them to write card text other UI/UX text and then put up the cash to get experienced comic writers to handle dialog and to flesh these characters out. Video game writing is tragically undervalued and unappreciated across the industry, and Midnight Suns’ “just have Jerry do it” approach is just another example.

[@0uz01]

I actually think Midnight Suns is a pretty visually appealing game. It's not filled with weird effects like ray tracing (thank goodness- that would ruin performance - I say this as someone with a 4080), but its raw visual appeal is quite nice.

[@Accidental.Creation]

Man, I laughed my butt off when you talked about the relationship stuff. Amazing!

[@juggernautxx]

Everything I have seen makes me look forward to the story parts. I see nothing wrong with a badass hero taking moments to be introspective or do something that doesn't involve having to be in battle. Also this is Firaxis first RPG that I am aware of, so I'm willing to cut them some slack. At least they are trying to do something new and different.