Why is this game so highly rated?

[Yorik]

I don't mean to say the game isn't good, I'm mostly enjoying it, but from what I saw in the media where almost every publication apparently rated the game perfect scores, 9/10, or 4.5/5 I expected it to be much more well polished than it is.

The actual strategy gameplay is interesting and fun, but it feels like it's spread out way too thin between terrible dialogue and busy work in an overworld that feels like an unfinished beta with a bunch of systems layered on top of systems that just don't need to be there. Before and after every mission you have to run around doing chores and doing play dates and then go to sleep, and you have to figure out the right order to do it all because certain things can only be done before or after the mission and then you have to sleep to do anything else...... Why? It's kind of goofy.

Everything enjoyable about this game literally could have been a mobile game. When it came out and everyone reviewed it positively I took for granted that it's worth the full triple a retail price, now I'm confused after seeing it myself and then coming here and seeing everyone saying it was a commercial failure. Did they pay off the media or something? I don't get it.

[Zebedee]

It's low 80s average on metacritic which isn't too crazy, top 100 games of a year kind of rating and maybe some 'GOTY' award nominations. There is a bit of a division between those who got into the RPGlite side of the game and those who really didn't, especially those who came to this expecting more abstraction or just didn't get on with where the writing was being pitched.

[Yorik]

Originally posted by Zebedee:

It's low 80s average on metacritic which isn't too crazy, top 100 games of a year kind of rating and maybe some 'GOTY' award nominations. There is a bit of a division between those who got into the RPGlite side of the game and those who really didn't, especially those who came to this expecting more abstraction or just didn't get on with where the writing was being pitched.

If we're being totally honest, even among people totally submersed in the strategy gaming niche and marvel fandom and this game is 100% in their wheelhouse, does anyone really believe this game is anywhere near 10/10? I understand having fun with it, I understand guilty pleasure games because I have a few games I love that absolutely everyone else canned, but I'm not going to sit there and pretend I don't notice the flaws in the game.

[HandyVac]

Honestly, I think a lot of the negative reviews this game received stem from Firaxis' marketing department over-hyping the "from the makers of Xcom" angle, which led to a sizeable chunk of customers expecting "Basically the same thing as Xcom but they're wearing superhero costumes", which is not even remotely similar to what this game actually is.

I personally wouldn't call this a strategy game. It's a superhero game. If you like superhero stories then this is a great game, because you get to spend a lot of time talking with superheros and you also get some cool fist-fights. If you don't like superhero stories, well... this game is not for you.

[Zebedee]

Originally posted by Yorik:

If we're being totally honest, even among people totally submersed in the strategy gaming niche and marvel fandom and this game is 100% in their wheelhouse, does anyone really believe this game is anywhere near 10/10? I understand having fun with it, I understand guilty pleasure games because I have a few games I love that absolutely everyone else canned, but I'm not going to sit there and pretend I don't notice the flaws in the game.

If you don't like it, fair enough. You'd have to go read the reviews which did give it a 10/10 and maybe ask the reviewers about how they score games. I was really just picking up on the idea that there was widespread perfect or near perfect scoring for this game, not how I remember launch day reviews and the metacritic average seems to support my memory of it being correct. If you go by the average, and many mainstream publications landed at or near 8/10, then yeah I'd argue it would be a strange top 100 games of the year which wouldn't feature it.

edit: heh. remembered there's a sticky at the top of the forum, no wonder I remember it so well.

[Yorik]

Originally posted by Zebedee:

Originally posted by Yorik:

If we're being totally honest, even among people totally submersed in the strategy gaming niche and marvel fandom and this game is 100% in their wheelhouse, does anyone really believe this game is anywhere near 10/10? I understand having fun with it, I understand guilty pleasure games because I have a few games I love that absolutely everyone else canned, but I'm not going to sit there and pretend I don't notice the flaws in the game.

If you don't like it, fair enough. You'd have to go read the reviews which did give it a 10/10 and maybe ask the reviewers about how they score games. I was really just picking up on the idea that there was widespread perfect or near perfect scoring for this game, not how I remember launch day reviews and the metacritic average seems to support my memory of it being correct. If you go by the average, and many mainstream publications landed at or near 8/10, then yeah I'd argue it would be a strange top 100 games of the year which wouldn't feature it.

edit: heh. remembered there's a sticky at the top of the forum, no wonder I remember it so well.

I already said I like the game.

Visit the store page for the game and watch the trailer video.

[Zebedee]

Originally posted by Yorik:

Visit the store page for the game and watch the trailer video.

It won't change the metacritic average so not sure why I would use data for that?

[Yorik]

Originally posted by Zebedee:

Originally posted by Yorik:

Visit the store page for the game and watch the trailer video.

It won't change the metacritic average so not sure why I would use data for that?

Because the point is they cite like 20 publications that say this is a perfect or nearly perfect game, and I'd say that's really strange for a game that financially has already failed months after release. So both objectively and subjectively we have a lot of journalists wildly overestimating this game, so much so that you almost have to question if they were honestly that far off the mark or if they were just puffing the game up.

Again, the game is alright, but come on now. These ads and journalists can't be serious? Of course the averaged out review ratings are going to be lower, because the game just isn't that good. But a lot of people that played it before release seemed to think it was a masterwork.

[DICE]

For some people this may be the perfect game, everyone enjoys different aspects of gaming, but it is a bit suspect that you don't see the odd 6/10. But it is FIRAXIS maybe no publication wants to piss them off, so they can get the early beta keys and get the first review out of their next game.

I rate it 8/10 personally, I think the graphics, game play and voice acting is all perfectly fine. For me there is just too much talking and making friends. But the fighting mechanic is new and innovative and works very well, however the maps and conditions are a bit repetitive.

But to say this game is not polished I am sorry I can't agree with that, it is extremely polished. FIRAXIS is a huge tripple 'A' studio that always produce extremely polished games. However for me personally I would have preferred XCOM 3.

[Yorik]

Originally posted by Guzza:

I rate it 8/10 personally, I think the graphics, game play and voice acting is all perfectly fine. For me there is just too much talking and making friends. But the fighting mechanic is new and innovative and works very well, however the maps and conditions are a bit repetitive.

But to say this game is not polished I am sorry I can't agree with that, it is extremely polished. FIRAXIS is a huge tripple 'A' studio that always produce extremely polished games. However for me personally I would have preferred XCOM 3.

I meant polished as in the presentation and flow of the gameplay. There's too much extra silly stuff that gets in the way of playing the fun parts of the game - the dialogue and relationship building stuff like you said, the morning night cycle where certain things can only be done day or night, needing to run around gathering items and reading books and talking to everyone every day, you HAVE to sleep between missions and if you don't do all this busy work between missions you miss progression and resources, etc... You can't just sit down and do a few missions back to back and just enjoy playing the video game. Imagine they cut most of the dating sim crap and developed the fighting arena environments and enemy variety more, the good part of the game would be even better and you'd be allowed to play more of it.

[DICE]

Originally posted by Yorik:

Originally posted by Guzza:

I rate it 8/10 personally, I think the graphics, game play and voice acting is all perfectly fine. For me there is just too much talking and making friends. But the fighting mechanic is new and innovative and works very well, however the maps and conditions are a bit repetitive.

But to say this game is not polished I am sorry I can't agree with that, it is extremely polished. FIRAXIS is a huge tripple 'A' studio that always produce extremely polished games. However for me personally I would have preferred XCOM 3.

I meant polished as in the presentation and flow of the gameplay. There's too much extra silly stuff that gets in the way of playing the fun parts of the game - the dialogue and relationship building stuff like you said, the morning night cycle where certain things can only be done day or night, needing to run around gathering items and reading books and talking to everyone every day, you HAVE to sleep between missions and if you don't do all this busy work between missions you miss progression and resources, etc... You can't just sit down and do a few missions back to back and just enjoy playing the video game. Imagine they cut most of the dating sim crap and developed the fighting arena environments and enemy variety more, the good part of the game would be even better and you'd be allowed to play more of it.

I agree with all of that.

[Zebedee]

Originally posted by Yorik:

Because the point is they cite like 20 publications that say this is a perfect or nearly perfect game, and I'd say that's really strange for a game that financially has already failed months after release. So both objectively and subjectively we have a lot of journalists wildly overestimating this game, so much so that you almost have to question if they were honestly that far off the mark or if they were just puffing the game up.

Again, the game is alright, but come on now. These ads and journalists can't be serious? Of course the averaged out review ratings are going to be lower, because the game just isn't that good. But a lot of people that played it before release seemed to think it was a masterwork.

You mean a game selectively took its best reviews and used them to advertise? My word, the horror. (Serious point - glad Steam insisted games stopped plastering their store pages with selectively chosen reviews precisely because there are people out there who won't be aware other opinions are available.)

Here's a link you can click and actually read the reviews:
https://www.metacritic.com/game/marvels-midnight-suns/critic-reviews/?platform=pc

As said, you don't have to like how reviewers score games from their reviews, and that's fair enough, but it's all opinions. You'll see most of the larger publications cluster around 8/10 btw. Some of the 'perfect' scores also seem to be a function of scoring out of 5 rather than more granular detail. I don't think 'game reviewed well' and 'game sold well' are really linked in quite the way you seem to suggest there but it's all fun.

[Volo]

Because it's good, fun and addictive

[JC]

I'd give it a 10. It's easily in my top 20 of all time. Different people like different things. There are tons of people that would say skyrim or New vegas are the best games ever made, me not so much. Typically there isn't a single game in steams top 25 that i'd even play even if you gave it to me for free. Baldur's gate 3 is one of the rare ones that has been there but i go months with out seeing things even in the top 50 that i'd even remotely consider. Yet they are in the top 50 because lots of folks like them. I say this as it's just quite simple, Not everything is for every person even games that millions say is awesome.


The game might of financially failed, but i'd blame that more on the budget. They made a game that had to be the best selling super hero game of all time or it was going to be a bust for them. Super hero games even today with the popularity of the movies are still Niche. Basically one has broken through to be one of the best selling games ever made with the batman fighting game (i thought it was horrible, fighting games bore me to tears) till a second hit with spider-man (have not played it but it also doesn't seam to be my type of game) Both are the top hero for each of their labels. That's two games in 40 years of gaming, not so hot of a track record. Even freedom Force which was a money maker and a hit for the time still wasn't good enough for irrational so the moved on to bioshock.

Firaxis took a chance and made a great game but it's a game about a group even comic book fans never heard of. So it's not surprising that it's been slow catching on.


Lastly Just hit the escape key, You don't need to do any of the RPG side of the game. You can just open some packs on occasion and upgrade your characters every 4-5 missions, It takes all of 20 seconds to run back and forth if you just wanna play missions. I do it quite often seeing the story will just go on hold till you get around to it. I do wish they added remote options at the war table to reduce it even further but oh well, it's just a minor annoyance.

[Sekzon]

it should not be. I gave it a negative review. dx12 causes the game to crash. achievements are bugged. After solving mysteries you should get some type of armor but it is bugged. after getting used to it you win in the first turn. the gameplay is somewhat satisfying but feels like something is missing and gets repetetive soon. the whole game feels like an experimental sideproject. the deadpool character is a joke. his moves consist of shooting a gun... in the most boring way. literally just pointing at an enemy and shooting. most of the game mechanics are redundant because the final goal is to kill everthing on the first turn.

this game is one of the rare occassions where the steam ratings don't match the game.

[Yorik]

Originally posted by Zebedee:

Originally posted by Yorik:

Because the point is they cite like 20 publications that say this is a perfect or nearly perfect game, and I'd say that's really strange for a game that financially has already failed months after release. So both objectively and subjectively we have a lot of journalists wildly overestimating this game, so much so that you almost have to question if they were honestly that far off the mark or if they were just puffing the game up.

Again, the game is alright, but come on now. These ads and journalists can't be serious? Of course the averaged out review ratings are going to be lower, because the game just isn't that good. But a lot of people that played it before release seemed to think it was a masterwork.

You mean a game selectively took its best reviews and used them to advertise? My word, the horror. (Serious point - glad Steam insisted games stopped plastering their store pages with selectively chosen reviews precisely because there are people out there who won't be aware other opinions are available.)

Here's a link you can click and actually read the reviews:
https://www.metacritic.com/game/marvels-midnight-suns/critic-reviews/?platform=pc

As said, you don't have to like how reviewers score games from their reviews, and that's fair enough, but it's all opinions. You'll see most of the larger publications cluster around 8/10 btw. Some of the 'perfect' scores also seem to be a function of scoring out of 5 rather than more granular detail. I don't think 'game reviewed well' and 'game sold well' are really linked in quite the way you seem to suggest there but it's all fun.

I literally just had a book club meeting with Blade and this guy is telling me I'm playing the turn based strategy game everyone told me it was.

Alright.

Bro, there is nothing in any of the reviews or product descriptions that imply 80% of the gameplay is dating sim. I'm less questioning the devs for making it that way and questioning why journalists not only thought it was acceptable but failed to mention it as they hyped up what a great strategy game it is.

Even if you did enjoy this type of story and dialogue based gameplay, the writing and the way they handle the characters is atrocious. I don't know who this guy is, but he isn't Blade.