Marvel's Midnight Suns

[koralis]

Well, wrapped that up. Steam has me clocked at 120 hrs, but some of those would be walking away and doing some other things for a bit. Also had set a goal for myself not to end the game without at least 5 Friendship level for everyone (and get their legendary abilities.) Not all legendaries are awesome.. a couple I didn't equip as I liked the alternatives better. without that self-imposed stipulation, could have wrapped it up much sooner in case anyone is feeling that too much game for them.

Overall, I enjoyed myself greatly and the end battle is pretty epic. Stage 2 of that battle is the only time that graphical performance was REALLY lagging, and I couldn't see a good reason for it.. not dissimilar to the previous stage.. I suspect a resource leak or something.

Anyway,

[koralis]

Bought the game, and it seems fun so far. One thing I was not expecting was the horrific performance. There's quite a bit of stuttering, even though I'm running on a system that can run Flight Simulator 2020 silky smooth (3060ti and 32 gigs RAM) but this game runs like ass by comparison and doesn't look nearly as good to justify the poor performance. I already disabled DX12 and the 2klauncher menu, but it still stutters frequently and is really irritating. It will be running silky smooth and then stutter stutter stutter then smooth then stutter then inexplicable frame rate drops in a scene that isn't very demanding, it's just all over the place but seems to happen most frequently when I am picking a card. I'm even running it at 1080p on this system and it still is stuttering. From what I'm reading, even players with 4080 cards are running into stuttering so this seems like a game problem. Hope they fix this soon because it is very distracting.

Hmmm.. I don't really notice any real stuttering problems, but maybe my threshhold for noticing is just lower than everyone else's. *bliss*

Maybe it's just a shader cache issue and things will smooth out.

[Jet Black]

Yeah, it's a bad graphical port. Ironically, it used to run well on Steam Deck (DX12 on High, no RT) but then they "patched" it and you can only run DX11 on Med and it looks awful, so uninstalled it and play it only on PC.

[xCLAVEx]

Bought the game, and it seems fun so far. One thing I was not expecting was the horrific performance. There's quite a bit of stuttering, even though I'm running on a system that can run Flight Simulator 2020 silky smooth (3060ti and 32 gigs RAM) but this game runs like ass by comparison and doesn't look nearly as good to justify the poor performance. I already disabled DX12 and the 2klauncher menu, but it still stutters frequently and is really irritating. It will be running silky smooth and then stutter stutter stutter then smooth then stutter then inexplicable frame rate drops in a scene that isn't very demanding, it's just all over the place but seems to happen most frequently when I am picking a card. I'm even running it at 1080p on this system and it still is stuttering. From what I'm reading, even players with 4080 cards are running into stuttering so this seems like a game problem. Hope they fix this soon because it is very distracting.

[koralis]

Curious about the game, but the one thing that is putting me off is I hear you have to "romance" or "foster friendships" with different members of the group to unlock powers or even get them on your team. Say the wrong thing, and they lose effectiveness? Bah, I don't need a dating simulator in my tactical RPG.

You don't "have to", you may. Fostering the team basically gives the teammates some bonus perks, and access to teamwork attack cards. That said, you can raise friendship levels just by taking them with you on missions or training with them, so if you don't mind things taking a bit longer to boost up, you don't need to worry about what you say in the conversations.

Also, a lot of times, friendship and light and dark levels are opposites in conversations, so it's a tradeoff.

[xCLAVEx]

Curious about the game, but the one thing that is putting me off is I hear you have to "romance" or "foster friendships" with different members of the group to unlock powers or even get them on your team. Say the wrong thing, and they lose effectiveness? Bah, I don't need a dating simulator in my tactical RPG.

[koralis]

Game is on deep discount. Worth boning?

Yes. Having a blast.

[KAC]

Game is on deep discount. Worth boning?

[Jet Black]

Yeah. RNG with the card draws but at least you know an attack will hit and with the damage you expect. Can spend your time on strategy and less time cursing the game.

I also wish I could have chosen a power set for Hunter but their cards are pretty useful and I haven’t thought much about it since the first day or two. Glad I’m not the only one liking this.

[koralis]

Bit further in, moved from new York to the southwest. Enjoying the story, the tactical fighting, and the hunt for better cards for your teammates for a given strategy. Can be irritating when the card you are looking for doesn't turn up, but that's the way things are. The semi random nature is what keeps things interesting as you need to adjust to situations on the ground.

I appreciate the lack of random damage rolls.. Really ups the ability to plan an attack.

[koralis]

Playing this now... pretty much what I wanted and having a good time. I was hoping for more Hunter flexibility in powers (like the old Marvel tabletop RPG), but still great. Positioning is important, optimizing for different cards, debuffing/teamwork, changing your play based on opponents, etc. The socialization at The Abby is fun. Trying to figure out what to build next/which missions to run/etc keeps you thinking and planning.


Current favorite team is The Hunter, Nico, and Blade but all of the combinations have been working out... well, I hate Magik as too finnicky, but most everyone else so far.

[Sundance Kid V2]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/...midnight-suns/

That is bad...

[koralis]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/...midnight-suns/

RockPaperShotgun's James Archer measured his higher-end PC's performance while playing Midnight Suns, both with the default 2K launcher left in place and with it bypassed through a Steam command option. Archer saw a nearly 62 percent improvement in average frames per second without the 2K launcher active. On a system with a Core i9-10900K, RTX 3090, and 32GB of DDR4 memory, running at 1400p with ray tracing and the graphic quality set to "Epic," Archer's average frames per second jumped from 90 fps to 146. The only difference was disabling a launcher that essentially reminds you who published the game, markets other titles to you, and requires more clicks.

[Silent-Runner]

meh, another card game. Graphic is ok'ish, sometimes even good, but i'm not a fan of these type of card games.

[KAC]

Man I so want this. Just no time for a 70 hour game in my life these days.

[Jet Black]

Played almost an hour (enough to go through the tutorial missions) so I have a bit better idea how the combat works, and I know this is a game I will enjoy.

Basically you get a set of cards, a meter indicating how many cards you can play (default is 3 right now, but you can play other cards that may increase that for the next turn) and cards will build up Heroic points which can be used for non-card attacks or special cards that require Heroic points to use. Cards are character specific, but you have just one hand of cards (as opposed to choosing a character and having separate hands of cards), so in that way it's not like XCOM at all. You CAN move one character once per turn to setup attacks, which is XCOM-like and the non-card attacks are also like XCOM, but I would say this is more Slay the Spire or Darkest Dungeon than it is XCOM.

Cards work like normal card games: You use an attack or a skill and it does the thing. Unlike XCOM games, there is no "to hit" chance. So if you're complaining about RNG with the cards, at least you won't have to worry about RNG in the attacks. If a card says it does 5 damage, it will do 5 damage. It won't miss (and so far it also won't crit). The strategy comes from what cards you play in what order, where you line up your Heroes and how you use effects to take out as many baddies as possible (e.g., using a knockback to hit two minions together to take them both out, etc.).

Again I've only played the tutorial, so I could be wrong on this, but the combat has been in small combat "arenas" with waves of enemies. I'm not sure if there will be open maps later XCOM style or not, but that's what I've seen so far. There is no cover system, but some Heroes have block abilities that they can use on themselves or others (it's a card use similar to adding Block in Slay the Spire, but it doesn't disspate after each turn).

That's about it for now I think. I haven't really started the chatting aspect, but I'm liking the comic vibe and the chatter is good (decent voice acting). Graphics are good, though there didn't seem to be any shader cache beforehand, so every attack stuttered the first time and was fine subsequent times. I'm running 1440p 21:9 Epic scale with all Ray Tracing and I'm on an AMD card (6950) so it isn't pushing the rays too hard. No DLSS or FSR that I could see in menus (possible it has DLSS but didn't show up for me since I don't have nVidia).

I can report back later, or you can ask questions if you have. But pretty pleased with this for me - won't be refunding.

[Jet Black]

Tell us how it is?

I will when it's out!

Definitly think this will be niche. As one of the reviewers says below, it's like there's Venn diagram with Marvel Comics Fans in one bubble, Firaxis Strategy Lover in another bubble, and Relationship Sim Lover in a third bubble, and where they meet in the centre is the perfect fan. I'm definitely into the first two. I'm hoping I'll like it (but will keep an eye on my 2 hour limit in case not).

[Sundance Kid V2]

We are not allowed to play..

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3...Midnight_Suns/

"This item is currently unavailable in your region"

[KAC]

Tell us how it is?

[Jet Black]

FOMO got the best of me on this one and I ordered it. It's been high on my list and reviews are looking pretty good. Seems to be a mashup of a lot of various games built on a foundation of XCOM. There's some deckbuilding mechanics as well as significant Persona/BioWare like party relationships. It comes out on the 2nd, so if anyone is interested in knowing more (or if any of you also picked it up), we can chat about it here!