Marvel Night Sons Review: Super Hero Robot Wars? Why not?

In 2012 and 2016, Firaxis launched the turn based strategy game "UFO" (XCOM) and its sequel "UFO 2" respectively, bringing two benchmark works to players of turn based strategy games. The game mode it used also became a model and reference for many game manufacturers in the following years.

While players were eagerly anticipating the arrival of UFO 3, Firaxis released an unexpected work, Marvel Night Sons. The theme has changed to Marvel Comics heroes, and the gameplay has also stripped away the traditions of the UFO series. Playing checkers has become a card, leaving only turn based gameplay to prove some relevance.

It's hard to say how high expectations this game has among players. Embracing Marvel Comics and abandoning the game mechanics of the UFO series has raised doubts, but looking at the game prequel short films on Marvel Entertainment's YouTube channel, the number of views is still quite high, and it can definitely compete with some anime previews.

This also makes people more curious, what kind of game is Marvel Night Sons? What is its position in the continuous Marvel collaboration games in recent years?

From grid walking to cards

Although it is difficult to find traces from the UFO series in the gameplay of Marvel Night Sons, players familiar with the latter can still feel the inheritance of the concept of the small volume game UFO Chimera Squad from the former. Even though it may seem completely unrecognizable step by step, a complete development trajectory can still be seen from UFO 2 to UFO Chimera, and then to Marvel Night Sons.

Chimera Squad is an experimental work that is often overlooked, and its response among players is relatively average. However, from today's perspective, it has made a lot of preparations for Marvel's Dark Sons. What are the main changes of Chimera Squad compared to UFO 2? The character controlled by the player changes from a dying soldier to a character with personality and dialogue; Cancel exploration and discovery stages and reduce the number of rounds in a single battle; Actions that require more thinking and are more similar to solving the aftermath; A simpler and more understandable part of combat operations.

In fact, the above changes, combined with the new card style combat system and the storyline background of Marvel superheroes gathering, basically constitute the main features of Marvel Night Sons. Not all players of the UFO series can accept Marvel Night Sons, a game that breaks away from the past framework, but for Firaxis himself, it is undoubtedly an opportunity to seek breakthroughs, after all, the creative director of this game, Jake Solomon, is the director of the previous two UFO games.

Considering that the theme of the game has changed from "Elite Infantry vs. Aliens" to "Superheroes vs. Evil Forces", there is no doubt that the combat system has undergone significant changes. Superheroes obviously cannot hide behind the cover and shoot at Hydra minions, and if the enemy minions dodge the superhero's attack with a slight dodge, it is even more speechless. This has led to two significant changes in the combat system: there is no longer an attack hit rate, and all enemy and friendly attacks are guaranteed hits; There is no more cover, everyone is fighting without cover.

Just that's not enough. Superheroes have their own unique abilities, and no one would think that Wolverine and Iron Man have the same way of fighting. The battle system that uses cards to reflect the heroes' strengths and superpowers has emerged. At the same time, heroes are also given different career positions, such as Captain America being a reliable tank character, Scarlet Witch excelling in range attacks, Doctor Strange having cards to assist the entire team, and so on.

In this way, the key to one turn in Marvel's Dark Sons is no longer how to fully utilize action, but how to draw and play as many cards as possible. The action limit has been changed to a limit on the number of cards played, and the combat system does not limit a hero's ability to take action multiple times. Instead, it restricts players to only play 3 cards per turn. Of course, this limitation is theoretical, and there are some card playing methods in the game that do not consume the number of cards played.

Not all cards can be played casually, and powerful "hero cards" require the consumption of "hero spirit" to be used. How to use other cards to accumulate hero spirit, and whether to save hero spirit and hero cards for use in the next round are all choices that every battle must face. In battle, players can also use field objects to carry out environmental attacks. Environmental attacks do not consume card counts, but they also consume hero spirit, further enhancing the game in terms of hero spirit.

Environmental attack completed by kicking boxes in

Environmental interaction is a key focus in combat. Flying enemies onto oil drums can cause explosions and range damage, while pushing enemies back to the edge of cliffs can lead to them falling and directly forming a flash kill. However, environmental interaction requires appropriate positioning, and the game limits the number of times our side can move in a round to one. So how to utilize this opportunity for active position change, and how to use the free position change during playing to strive for a favorable position, are also things that must be considered in the battle.

The above changes have given the battles of Marvel's Dark Sons a strong tendency to solve the game, with only low difficulty levels having the possibility of easily passing. The increase in difficulty at each level means a significant increase in the enemy's health and attack power. Without careful utilization of all available resources, the ultimate result is being overwhelmed by the enemy's reinforcements each round and forced to start over. Although the number of turns in a single battle has decreased (and the system is also forcing you to resolve the battle as soon as possible), the strategic pressure that players bear in a single turn has indeed increased significantly.

The game itself also provides some challenges for solving the endgame

In addition, although the attack will not miss, the impact of randomness has been greatly improved in this game. The player's starting hand and the remaining deck arrangement are unknown. If they get stuck, how to play and how to break free from the current stalemate in their hand; Or will you draw a critical strike card with increased damage to just deal with an enemy with slightly less health in front of you? There are unpredictable situations.

So Marvel Night Sons will be a full test in high difficulty, and even fine-tuning the deck based on the coordination between the attacking candidates before each battle begins is necessary.

There are many difficulty options available for

The Rise of the Son of the Dark Night

The story background of Marvel's Dark Sons is based on the 1990s manga Rise of the Midnight Sons. Firaxis gave it his own interpretation and introduced an original character "Hunter" customized by players as the central character of the story.

Hunters are the embodiment of players in the game, not only leading teams to fight, but also constantly communicating and enhancing relationships with various superheroes. This makes Marvel Night Sons no longer an SLG, but an SRPG, with players clearly playing a protagonist role.

Custom Character, Hunter

In order to confront the new crisis, the heroes lived together in a monastery, which was the hunter's home. A series of research and upgrades can be carried out in monasteries, which is similar to the management part in the past UFO. The surroundings of the monastery also carry certain exploration and plot functions, which help players obtain resources and collectibles, and understand the overall story. To be honest, this exploration session may not be very interesting, but as an embellishment and adjustment after the battle, it feels good to go around and explore.

Upgrading a monastery is a part that doesn't require too much mental effort, as it doesn't have a trade-off issue. As long as you play for a long time, you will always research and purchase all the upgrade projects. The most important issue is still in the construction of the deck. What is your positioning for this character, whether a high rarity card can be directly inserted into the deck, and which card can hold two... These are the areas that players need to think most about outside of battles.

Are you familiar with obtaining a new card for ?

In the process of advancing the game plot, players will witness the changes in the world under the efforts of the team, welcome new heroes to join the team, all of which will lead to new friendships and disputes around the hunter. Through continuous dialogue and communication, as well as the act of uniting everyone, players will eventually lead the heroes to resolve their differences, overcome internal conflicts, and work together to face another crisis of the end of the world. Although the plot is clich é d, it is also the kind that everyone can get used to the most.

One regret is that although there are many available heroes to appear in the game, a normal battle can only choose up to 3 people to play, and several important main quests will become 5 fixed characters. More than half of the characters will still transform into bench players in the rear. Although understanding that the plot needs to compromise with the gameplay, such an arrangement still makes it less likely to ignite in some important plot tasks.

: Attack 3 people in one battle

Although the direction of the plot is fixed, there is still room for players to choose in the dialogue, and various options can affect the bond value between the character and the hunter's light/dark value. Continuously increasing the bond value will allow hunters and heroes to reach higher bond levels, which will bring them passive skills and combo cards, and the improvement of combat effectiveness cannot be ignored.

Considering that the target audience of Marvel Night Sons is already Marvel Comics fans, players will hope for interesting interactions among numerous heroes, which can be guaranteed. The 11 heroes come from different groups, are in different age groups, and have had different intersections in the past. They will gather before and after the mission to express their opinions, discuss plans, and each person will also mention their opinions on others in small-scale conversations. Different heroes will also organize clubs based on their personal interests.

You will find in various conversations that Peter Parker is always concerned about the safety of Aunt Mei and Mary Jane, Tony Stark is frustrated by being in an event where magic dominates, and younger characters often experience friction in their interactions with famous Avengers, and these conversations have complete Chinese dubbing. A slight inconvenience is that dubbing and language are tied together. If you are not used to Chinese dubbing or are concerned about not matching your mouth shape, you will need to change the entire game language.

A new attempt

From various perspectives, Marvel Night Sons is like the Marvel version of Super Robot Wars developed by Firaxis - in order to allow heroes to fight side by side on the same level, everyone's combat power is balanced to the level of Captain America, and everyone has to punch and kick the Hydra minions. Similarly, each hero's combo skills and hero cards also have gorgeous performance effects, just like the battle close-up between carrots, which is handsome enough.

Death Knight's Hell Chariot

The development team also said that they are Marvel fans, as can be seen from many details in the game, such as some funny lines, the characters mentioned in the text and conversation who did not appear, as well as the handling of some character plots and transitions. However, past development experiences may have left Firaxis struggling in some areas, such as when Captain America's fighting scenes appear in cutscenes, the movements always seem somewhat soft and powerless.

The number of bugs in the media review version is even more surprising. Although I have only encountered one bug that affects the completion of the task (the task continues after eliminating all enemies), the frequent occurrence of low-level bugs still makes people laugh and cry. You know they don't affect the progress of the game, but in the end, you can't continue to watch it. Close the game and reopen it. I hope the first day patch of the game can make some repairs.

Bugs like can be quite embarrassing

There seem to be some issues with Firaxis's design of the experience system. Based on my observation, the experience value a character receives in combat seems to be calculated based on how many cards they play. If a character eliminates many enemies with one AOE, the experience gained actually decreases, which goes against the usual perception.

Setting aside these regrets, Marvel Night Sons is still a new game worth trying for Marvel fans and strategy game enthusiasts, and it also gives Firaxis the opportunity to open up a new path beyond the already mature UFO series.

Welfare period:

Leave a comment in the comments section, share your expectations for this game and your thoughts on turn based strategy games, and have the opportunity to obtain the PS5/Steam activation code for this game.

Winning Announcement

Congratulations to @ Thunder Treasure and @ Harry Landduck for obtaining the game redemption code for Marvel's Dark Night Sons. Please check it carefully for the winners.