Wouldn’t it be better to create an actual diverse combat environment where second to second situations only allow certain reactions?
Anyway, 50 hours Mass Effect with Marvel characters and card based combat is fantastic news. Now instead of being disappointed at the direction XCOM is going I can just ignore it entirely.
And yet in XCom I used different abilities depending upon the enemy type and the tactical situation. I did not always use the equivalent of “laser eyes” every time. As others have noted a well designed game would require the player to mix and match different abilities according to the situation. Going beyond XCom, look at Mass Effect as another example - there I used different class powers as the situation required. So I don’t find your argument persuasive.
PS, I’ll still probably get it (depending upon reviews) and hopefully will enjoy it. But I’m just a fan of card battlers - I’d prefer the ability to use any skill whenever I feel like it, as in Mass Effect.
It’s got units and cards. That’s not enough to say what the combat is going to be, a game with a deck of 60 cards that you go through only once is going to be very different from a game where the deck has 10 or 20 cards and you get to draw 6 every turn until you run out and reshuffle.
I’ll definitely be playing this game. I’m not a fan of card-based games because of the aforementioned random factor, but my only real experience is with Slay the Spire. That game got old fast - I think it’s the roguelite design of failing being a core part of the gameplay loop that I don’t like.
Doesn’t seem like Midnight Suns is going in that direction. I do agree that encounters should be designed to encourage variety in tactics and play style instead of random cards, though.
Gameplay livestream in less than an hour
Yup, definitely card-based. You acquire new cards between missions. Cards can be upgraded. Hard to tell, but perhaps this has sort of a long-form deckbuilder feel to it, with your deck evolving very slowly across many hours of play?
The way combat plays out is much more akin to a tactical rpg, as you’d expect, with the environment playing a big role.
Gameplay trailer’s live:
I read you won’t be able to romance the Marvel character in the base, so what’s the point, then?
/looks at Wolverine picture in a frame longingly
Gameplay?
There’s like 2 or 3 seconds of a card flip and some battle movement in the middle there.
GAMEPLAY REVEALED!
-Tom
In-engine would be a more accurate description. Misguided’s link above has a decent amount of narrated footage. I’ll attach the relevant part here:
It isn’t clear to me how the movement is going to work.
Seriously. I don’t know if there was even 10 seconds of gameplay in the “gameplay trailer”.
I am cautiously excited. If anyone can hybridize tactical combat with a card base, it’s Jake. I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt because while we are used to cards that are basically normal attacks (wtf are there cards for basic attacks), it seems there are a decent number of powerful cards or upgrades into powerful cards that might just boil down to less decisions for the entire team per combat turn, but each has a more impactful effect in relation to the entire turn.
I won’t join the entitled doom and gloom gamers off of almost no gameplay footage and a description of how it works.
My current favorite superhero game is Sentinels of the Multiverse. The tabletop or videogame version. Makes no difference, they’re one and the same. As such, I’m also excited for this, and not even cautiously. There’s a long history of superheroes and card-battlers/deck-builders, and I’m totally stoked to see what Jake Solomon and Firaxis can bring to the table. Err, monitor.
The fact that it’s the Marvel license is probably the least exciting thing about it. I’ve gotten to the point that I’d rather see creative people invent their own mythology – Sentinels of the Multiverse and Freedom Force come to mind – instead of game designers cramming the current pop culture hits into their creations. I guess that’s the upside of Firaxis playing with lesser known characters.
-Tom
I get that Jake has an affinity for the Rise of the Midnight Sons storyline, but after watching today’s stream, I basically wished he liked X-Men as much, as the gameplay loop, the Abbey, etc. etc. all look like something that would make for a great Cyclops Teaches At The X-Mansion Simulator.
At first I was all, “Why are they adapting a relatively obscure 90s comic? And why are they jamming Wolverine into a magic-based storyline?”
But then I realized that needlessly jamming Wolverine into an unrelated genre fits a 90s theme perfectly.
Firaxis says next week we’re going to see Hunter and Wolverine take on Sabertooth in a gameplay stream:
There was a little bit more in a different segment. It wasn’t much, I agree, but enough to infer a fair bit.
Great question. Certainly looked to me like it will be free movement—no grid or hexes— but no way to tell beyond that. I’m wondering if the icon in the top right of cards might be movement related. It could be denoting AoE vs single target
Actually, look at the lower right:
The little orange circles with the numbers appear to be a resource for using “heroic” cards. Cards with that icon lower left generate this and it is spent by cards that have it at the top left.
The Agamotto’s Gaze card includes the text “+1 card play next turn” which is interesting. I think there is no card cost outside of the heroic cards, but there’s a limit of cards played per turn
You can see the Blade quick strike card with two different numbers on the sword, so I’m not sure what that means.
Better (not great, but certainly better) at gameplay, featuring wolverine and Sabretooth.
