I didn’t expect Marvel’s Midnight Suns to completely engross me with its characters, but after spending too much time with Firaxis’ new strategy game and taking on the superhero universe, I fell in love with the multidimensional heroes and their personal allusions. That’s largely due to SuperLink, a sort of superhero social network that you can check in between missions that has characters that react to the news, post what they like, and are lovable goofballs.
There will be some very light spoilers about the characters in Marvel’s Midnight Suns in this article, be warned.
SuperLink brings you all the humor of social networking sites like Twitter, but cuts out the outright bullshit and constant posting about that guy in favor of curated undersized character stories that let you guys let loose, even if you all live under the same roof. . Like the rest of us, he feels invincible behind a screen. However, Tony Stark hasn’t offered to buy the platform for $44 billion and plunged it into oblivion while posting as many brain-dead memes imaginable on my copy, so there must be something wrong with that.
There’s a lot of character built into Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and the SuperLink lets it shine. There’s plenty of social media goofiness, heart-to-heart discussions, and some of the best jokes in the entire game, all of which can be easily missed if you don’t regularly check the timeline. You can’t mute any words from blocked accounts like you can on Twitter, but you don’t want to.
The reason SuperLink excels in Marvel’s Midnight Suns is because he makes everything seem… normal. The characters will host movie nights, discuss the news, and talk about what happened in the story together with the hub of the game, The Abbey. Finding out that Blade has a fondness for young adult vampire novels, or that Magik is too competitive in water volleyball. In fact, Blade stands out in the Midnight Suns social media portion, as the Firaxis writing team clearly had a blast removing the vampire slayer capes, with a joke in which everyone called out their nuggets of wisdom about kill vampires #bladefacts.
There are also several points in Midnight Suns where the SuperLink is used in a really affirming and positive way, as characters become more understanding of each other’s trauma and triggers. There’s no outright teasing or cheap jokes at this point, the characters just listen and understand, and it really helps create the feeling that each superhero is part of a cohesive team.
This sense of cohesion is also aided by banter, of course, but Marvel’s Midnight Suns uses SuperLink, which updates in real time, to remind you that these characters aren’t one-dimensional, even if they sometimes act like one.
The real reason I’m writing this, though, is because the SuperLink is packed with the best and funniest writing in all of Midnight Suns. Honestly, the fact that it’s easily skippable is a crime, I’d pay for a superhero social media game (not sure what the goal would be, but I play games, I don’t) that mocks every hero and messes with in his psyche.
It’s hard enough to explain without just spelling out each joke in paragraph form and quickly screwing it up, but the SuperLink is basically Twitter minus the stubborn, stubborn billionaires (okay, there’s a bit of that), combined with tweets from people you actually like on instead of an algorithm that puts in your face the worst shots of all time.
Of course, Marvel’s Midnight Suns benefits from the fact that it’s not real, but that’s why it works. Getting snapshots of great writing among other activities and not having to scroll through SuperLink memes for hours makes it effective. The idea is used sparingly, creating a sense of urgency whenever a notification appears letting you know someone has posted.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is this year’s sleeper hit, and the SuperLink is no small part of that. If you want to know more about the strategy game Firaxis, our review of Marvel’s Midnight Suns dives into how it’s not just XCOM with supers, but something entirely new. There are currently no plans to bring Marvel’s Midnight Suns to the Steam Deck at this time either, with the possibility of that changing in the future.