Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ attention to detail can be found almost everywhere. Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ gameplay design is superb in almost every respect, which is paramount because of how many different features there are between the tactical turn-based combat that Firaxis is known for and a fully fleshed out social simulator in the Abbey. Players also have an expansive region to explore in third-person on the Abbey grounds if they choose to, and the core gameplay loop of retrieving resources from Midnight Suns' missions to spend on cards and items in the Abbey is enough to fulfill its perpetual endgame content.
However, Marvel’s Midnight Suns has not been able to completely rid itself of performance issues since launch that include mild stuttering and lagging before or after the game loads a new area. These issues are thankfully less apparent during the meat of tactical gameplay, but the Abbey shows its wear and tear once players spend a bit of time there. Indeed, visuals and animations fail to meet the standards of its gameplay—facial animations and character models in particular are reminiscent of The Sims, but Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ skybox textures are perhaps its biggest oversight.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns Performs Suboptimally to This Day
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is an ambitious game and for it to perform and look as well as it does is great. Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ tactical RPG is not the sort of genre fans may flock toward on paper, especially with it involving a card deck system—even if this card deck system is only used as an illustration for the player’s allocated abilities.
However, the issues that it has are important to note for if Marvel’s Midnight Suns ever receives a sequel. In this regard, Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ potential sequel will already have gameplay foundations set in place and can therefore apply more of an emphasis on visuals.
Character models and environmental textures are one thing, with personal preference and budget in mind, but performance issues cannot afford to plague it. It may be difficult enough to get players in the door with such a niche genre that when they do, they might be discouraged from sticking around if it runs poorly too. On the other hand, environmental textures in Marvel’s Midnight Suns are mostly favorable. That said, it is unclear if it is due to a bug or glitch of some kind, but there are numerous skybox issues that players can see while on a tactical mission.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ Skyboxes Are Hit or Miss
Players may not be looking directly upward into the sky since tactical gameplay is almost always centered on a bird’s-eye or lateral view of the battlefield. This might be the excuse for not as much attention being put into skyboxes, but it is clear that some of the scenic skies seen in Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ missions will be rendered poorly.
This results in an awkward gradient of thick-cut brush strokes painted across the clouds, and again it is not confirmed to be a bug or a lack of texturing in some mission arenas. More often than not this effect does not appear, and some fans may never notice it even when it does occur since their concentration will likely be glued to the battlefield itself, though it is tough to unsee once it is noticed.
Of all the visual discrepancies to note this does feel nitpicky when characters like Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ Venom came out looking phenomenal. But it is an error nonetheless that will hopefully be ironed out in a potential sequel.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is out now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, with PS4, Switch, and Xbox One versions coming later.
