Marvel’s Midnight Suns was a pleasant surprise at the end of 2022, and the card-based SRPG quickly became one of my favorite games that year thanks to its stellar writing and fun gameplay mechanics. Now that the first of its planned character and story DLC add-ons is out, I was eager to find out if that sentiment still rings true. For the most part, Deadpool’s introduction into the game and the subsequent vampyre (with a y) story arc it begins undoubtedly leave a good impression and have me eager to see just what future Midnight Suns DLC will bring.
Upon acquiring The Good, the Bad, and the Undead DLC, you can activate it at the Mirror Table in your Abbey HQ once Spider-Man joins the party and reveals his secret identity to everyone. Just search for the “A Man of Culture” story mission in New York. After completion, Deadpool officially joins up with the Midnight Suns.
The DLC’s story is largely self-contained. While hunting for Lilith and her demonic forces, Captain Marvel notices that Red Skull’s granddaughter, the vampire Sin, is up to no good with some Hydra forces at a museum. The player character, the Hunter, goes to investigate, running into the one and only Merc with a Mouth. The two join forces but aren’t able to stop Sin from stealing a rather ominous artifact. Throw in some dangerous enemies in the form of a new breed of vampires called vampyres (yes, the y replacement is intentional!). Given the fact that Deadpool’s client happens to be a doctor who has an intense fascination with doom, it isn’t surprising that Deadpool decides he’s better off hanging at the Abbey and becoming a Midnight Sun, at least until he can retrieve what Sin stole for his client, that is.
Deadpool himself is a full-fledged party member like any other despite his DLC status. He has a hero deck of ability cards that you can edit to your specific preferences, with some beneficial moves like an attack card that chain attacks two enemies together if the first happens to get KO’d from the assault or the rainbow-generating “All Together Now” that upon activation supplies your hand with more cards. Gain enough Heroism points, and he’ll perform combo attacks with other characters or use the debris scattered around a battlefield to his advantage. He can spar with Hunter at the Yard, be sent on away missions if you have the intel, have his ability cards upgraded and modified as you see fit, and even bring research projects to the table, such as the colorful food truck he establishes on the Abbey grounds if you unlock it. When you complete story missions for The Good, the Bad, and the Undead, other characters will comment on what transpired. This DLC is more than just an afterthought with how seamlessly it fits into the game.
One of the main appeals of Marvel’s Midnight Suns is its friendship-building mechanics with the heroes who join the party. Deadpool is no exception, as Hunter can compliment him, give gifts, invite him to hang out or engage in conversation to raise his affinity points as soon as he joins, something the fourth-wall-breaking mercenary is quick to note. Conversing with Deadpool is always amusing given his mannerisms, though doing so nonetheless offers some surprising depth and insight into his character. Deadpool is a comedic character, yes, but there’s a complexity to him that genuinely talented storytellers can bring out. His inclusion into Marvel’s Midnight Suns once again shows how prolific and researched the game’s writing is. Deadpool’s lack of self-worth and reluctance to bond with others while falling back on humor as a defense mechanism are explored wonderfully and chaotically throughout his scenes.
The Good, the Bad, and the Undead brings some interesting new additions to Midnight Suns aside from adding Deadpool to the roster. Vampyres are an insidious new enemy type that add a bleeding side effect to cards in your deck when they attack, causing you to think carefully about using said cards in battle. It can be easy to get overwhelmed when facing hordes of vampyres, and having that negative effect can be downright brutal. One mission where you must try to defeat vampyres before they target civilians is particularly daunting, especially if their numbers increase because of enemy waves.
I was rather impressed with the writing for Deadpool in this DLC and the story arc itself. It not only alludes to a character hinted to be a significant future player in the very final scenes of the main story, but the ending to Deadpool’s recruitment saga sets the stage for an ongoing future DLC subplot involving vampyres taking advantage of the chaos Lilith is currently causing for their agendas. There’s even some excellent foreshadowing of who the main villain of the next DLC expansion will be at the end of this DLC’s final fight. It’s short and sweet but also surprisingly substantial, as I was able to raise Deadpool’s friendship levels a few times before even finishing it up. I didn’t encounter any game-breaking glitches in the story scenes or while saving this time, which makes me think that the developers patched that particular issue out of at least the PS5 version.
The game’s voice acting continues to impress, with Nolan North as Deadpool shining just as brightly as the unicorn and rainbows the anti-hero conjures up. I love Hunter’s confusion over Deadpool’s off-the-wall remarks and the more insightful commentary they make as you raise your friendship levels with him. Hunter being eager to have this new fighter on the team as everyone else nearby exasperatedly shouts “No!” in the background never gets old.
That isn’t to say The Good, the Bad, and the Undead is devoid of weaknesses. While it sets the stage for future DLC, it is on the shorter side and will have you wondering why developers couldn’t have included the DLC characters in the base game from the start. Because you’ll have to do a general mission in between the story missions to unlock future parts, the game is also dragging the DLC out to an extent. Also, Deadpool himself is something of an acquired taste. I love his character when written well, as I’d argue it is in this title, but I could see where his humor wouldn’t be for everyone. He’s the main driving force of these new DLC story missions, so those who aren’t Deadpool fans might not enjoy the expansion as much.
Still, I came away from The Good, the Bad, and the Undead with a relatively favorable viewpoint on it, and with optimism regarding upcoming Midnight Suns’ DLC storylines. After all, this DLC is a chance for me to revisit an entertaining game, and I genuinely enjoy how Deadpool steals every scene he’s in. Marvel’s Midnight Suns continues to be a delight to play, and its first DLC doesn’t disappoint.
