Enlarge / All these goons are targeting Captain America, as shown in icons above their heads. Good. That’s just how he likes it. (No, really, he’s a tank, that’s his thing.) (credit: 2K/Firaxis)

I fully understand why people don’t want multiple game launchers on their PC. Steam is the default and good enough for (seemingly) most people. It’s not your job to compel competition in the market. You want to launch and play games you enjoy, as do most of us.

So when I tell you that Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a game worth the hassle of registering, installing, and using the Epic Games Launcher, I am carefully picking my shot. For the price of giving Epic your email (or a proxy/relay version, like Duck), or just logging in again, you can play a fun, novel, engaging turn-based strategy game, with deckbuilding and positioning tactics, for zero dollars. Even if you feel entirely sapped by Marvel at this point, like most of us, I assure you that this slice of Marvel feels more like the comic books and less like the overexposed current films. Just ask the guy who made it.

Tactical deckbuilding is fun

The game was very well-regarded by most critics but was not a financial success upon release in December 2022, or was at least “underwhelming.” Why any game hits or doesn’t is a combination of many factors, but one of them was likely that the game was trying something new. It wasn’t just X-COM with Doctor Strange. It had some Fire Emblem relationship-building and base exploration, but it also had cards. The cards blend into the turn-based, positional, chain-building strategy, but some people apparently saw cards and turned away.