Midnight Suns devs 'absolutely' knew cards would be a controversial choice, but they were also 'absolutely the right fit for this game and our design goals'
The card system wasn't even the problem with that game. The horrible story, forced walking around an uninteresting location, endless stupid dialog, and the bugs were what made it bad.
This game was so weird to me, people wanted more xcom and they got something completely different and it didn't do well. I was mostly turned off the whole marvel thing.
It's actually a pretty good game and the card system works well for it. I got it on a big discount few months ago and was surprised to get so hooked on it even despite the marvel part of it that I have no interest in.
The cards were great, and I thought I would hate them.
The weird childish conversations and activities really killed the game for me. It was funny sort of. But it was like a 2:1 ratio of bullshit to strategic combat.