Gamers’ backlogs are surely going to get even more backed up following The Game Awards’ release date reveals for early next year. This month, however, fans are still juggling The Callisto Protocol and Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Both games shared the same release date and fans had to choose which game they would try out first. Of course, some fans may have only been intrigued by one and not the other, making their selection much simpler. In terms of how much discourse has been generated, though, The Callisto Protocol seems to have won out.
However, while The Callisto Protocol has made laps around Marvel’s Midnight Suns with regard to fan discourse, it may not be for the reasons that fans would have liked. There will always be fans who enjoy a game regardless, but there are also a multitude of problems that fans and critical reviewers have had with The Callisto Protocol since its launch. This does not mean that Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a polished gem simply because it has not been discussed as loudly, though it may mean that The Callisto Protocol’s rough launch had an impact on Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ own exposure this month.
The Callisto Protocol Has Been Largely Bogged Down Since Release
The reason for this could fall on the idea that more fans may be playing The Callisto Protocol first and planning to play Marvel’s Midnight Suns once they finish it. The Callisto Protocol is a relatively short experience averaging around 10–15 hours in relation to Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ own 50–60-hour narrative estimate, and it is possible that more fans will hop onto Firaxis’ tactical RPG once they have completed Striking Distance Studios’ Dead Space spiritual successor.
That said, many fans have elected not to finish their experience with The Callisto Protocol because of how poorly it is running for them, or because of how frustrating they find its intimate melee combat to be with multiple enemies present. None of these concerns has helped its discourse lately, besides the fact that there have been fans who have played it and found it to run fine for them, or found the combat engaging and stimulating. Instead, negative discourse commonly outweighs general positives, and such is the case for The Callisto Protocol, even if its criticisms are well-earned.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns Has Issues That The Callisto Protocol May Have Buried
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is certainly not without its own issues—some of them being far more detrimental to the user experience than the ones experienced in The Callisto Protocol. There is an issue on PC where the game will instantly crash if players try to manually save, and on Xbox Series consoles, there is a Marvel’s Midnight Suns WAR Room error screen that disrupts players’ Hero Ops. Likewise, there are consistent visual bugs during loading screens and while transitioning through different environments. These issues have been explicitly called to Firaxis’ attention and are being fixed, but there has been much more discourse hitting The Callisto Protocol in the meantime.
This is not entirely a bad thing—no discourse means there has been no negative discourse, and players have probably been having a great time with Marvel’s Midnight Suns despite these issues. But if there is good discourse to be had for Marvel’s Midnight Suns as well, that is also being buried. This would seemingly suggest that fewer fans have been playing Marvel’s Midnight Suns, which is almost certainly not true, and it is unlikely that bugs will be fixed if they are not found and shared as prolifically as The Callisto Protocol’s own bugs have been.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is available now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, with PS4, Switch, and Xbox One versions coming later.