Capes Review – A Super Good Tactical Time


Capes
is
a
superhero
turn-based
strategy
game
and
the
debut
title
from
Spitfire
Interactive,
a
small
team
based
in
Australia.
Capes
harkens
back
to
the
80s
and
90s
comics,
when
they
were
still
goofy
and
cheesy
but
also
starting
to
venture
into
darker
subject
matter.
Politics,
drugs,
sex,
morality
and
more
started
to
become
themes
tackled
by
writers,
heroes
came
from
a
wide
variety
of
backgrounds,
creeds
and
beliefs.
It
was
a
fun
time
to
be
a
comic-book
reader.

But
there’s
also
another
notable
source
of
inspiration
for
Capes,
and
that’s
Freedom
Force,
a
turn-based
superhero
game
released
in
2002
by
Irrational
Games,
spearheaded
at
the
time
by
industry
icon
Ken
Levine.
Morgan
Jaffit
is
one
of
the
writers
on
Capes,
and
worked
at
Irrational
when
they
put
out
Freedom
Force
to
massive
critical
acclaim.
Sadly
though,
Freedom
Force
has
kinda
been
forgotten
about
over
the
years.

Review
code
provided
by
the
publsher


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Capes
takes
place
in
a
world
where
the
heroes
have
already
lost.
In
King
City,
superheroes
(known
as
capes)
have
been
banned
for
the
last
two
decades
after
a
mysterious
group
known
as
The
Company
came
in
and
promised
to
get
the
masked
vigilantes
under
control.
No
surprise:
The
Company
is
controlled
by
a
bunch
of
supervillains
with
less
than
pure
motivations.
Anybody
exhibiting
powers
will
be
hunted
down,
captured
and
dragged
off
to
secret
facilities.
The
regular
folk
that
live
in
the
city
have
seemingly
bought
into
the
propaganda
and
hate
the
few
capes
that
are
still
trying
to
fight
the
good
fight.
There’s
a
little
bit
of
an
X-Men
vibe
going
on
with
the
vilification
of
everyone
born
with
a
certain
gene.

Exactly
how
The
Company
came
to
hold
so
much
power
and
why
the
country’s
government
and
the
other
heroes
leave
the
city
alone
is
something
which
is
gradually
revealed
over
the
course
of
the
game.
Something
clearly
went
down,
but
what
was
it?

That’s
where
our
group
of
misfits
come
in

you’re
going
to
recruit
a
team
of
8
young
heroes
led
by
a
grizzled
veteran
called
Doctrine
who
has
a
long
and
bloody
history
with
The
Company.
There’s
a
natural
clash
of
ideologies
here:
Doctrine
has
been
through
a
lot
and
takes
a
much
more
pessimistic
view
of
the
war
against
The
Company.
While
he
doesn’t
advocate
brutal
tactics
and
loss
of
life
for
the
greater
good,
he
is
more
willing
to
accept
that
not
everybody
can
be
saved
and
that
lives
may
be
lost
in
the
fight.
He
also
has
no
problem
with
simply
killing
a
captured
villain
to
ensure
he
won’t
come
back
and
cause
problems.
The
younger
heroes
are
more
optimistic
and
take
losses
far
harder,
and
aren’t
too
impressed
with
the
legacy
they
have
inherited.
They’ve
been
born
into
a
world
that
hates
them
for
simply
existing,
and
are
forced
to
fight
to
survive.
Mind
you,
their
reluctance
to
kill
a
supervillain
at
one
point
in
the
plot
is
somewhat
laughable
when
they
spent
the
last
few
missions
throwing
people
off
of
buildings
to
their
death.

Unfortunately,
I
found
that
the
story
never
really
got
off
the
ground.
It’s
a
straightforward
tale
of
good
versus
bad
without
some
of
the
more
subtle
elements
from
the
very
comics
it
draws
inspiration
from.
Of
course,
being
straightforward
is
not
a
problem
by
itself:
sometimes
it’s
nice
to
have
clear
bad
guys
and
villains,
and
a
team
of
good
people.
But
for
a
story
like
that
you
need
charismatic,
likeable
and
interesting
characters,
and
Capes
roster
of
heroes
are
none
of
those
things.
They
have
cool
designs
but
they
never
get
enough
time
to
develop
personalities.
It’s
almost
like
they
each
get
a
single
issue
of
a
comic
written
about
them
and
that’s
it.
It’s
not
like
there
isn’t
time
either:
the
middle
portion
of
the
game
really
spins
its
wheels,
making
it
the
perfect
time
to
build
the
characters
and
their
relationships
with
each
other.

Stop
me
if
you’ve
heard
this
before:
each
round
you
get
to
move
your
team
of
four
characters
around
the
map
and
perform
actions.
Each
hero
has
exactly
two
action
points
to
spend
on
attacks
and
special
abilities,
and
a
handful
of
movement
points.
These
can
all
be
spent
in
any
order
you’d
like,
so
you
can
move,
attack
and
move
again
before
unleashing
an
ability,
or
do
two
actions
and
then
run
away
etc.

So
far,
so
very
turn-based
tactical.
The
comparison
to
XCOM
is
almost
automatic
these
days,
but
it’s
not
one
worth
making
because
Capes
is
very
different.
Hell,
it’s
not
even
related
to

Marvel’s
Midnight
Suns

and
its
randomised
cards.
There’s
no
cover
system
and
no
random
rolls
of
the
dice
deciding
whether
a
punch
or
a
bolt
of
electricity
will
hit
in
Capes,
so
you
always
know
exactly
what
damage
you’ll
do.
It
lets
you
wade
into
fights
with
confidence,
which
isn’t
always
for
the
best
because
Capes
like
to
throw
a
lot
of
goons
at
you
and
its
easy
to
get
overwhelmed.
You
know
exactly
how
much
damage
you
can
do,
exactly
how
far
you
can
move,
exactly
how
many
hits
you
can
land.
The
only
thing
you
can’t
be
completely
sure
of
is
what
the
enemy
AI
might
do
on
its
turn.


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The
heroes
themselves
and
their
special
powers
are
therefore,
of
course,
central
to
how
Capes
plays.
In
my
initial
preview
of
the
game
I
worried
a
little
that
the
heroes
seemed
quite
tame
compared
to
the
bombastic
powers
and
charisma
of
classic
Marvel
and
DC
characters.
I
think
that’s
still
fair.
This
is
a
generic
assortment
of
hero
archetypes,
from
the
speedster
to
the
brawler.
Their
powers
lack
much
visual
flair,
likely
due
to
the
game’s
very
dated
graphics.
It’s
serviceable
in
the
gameplay,
but
during
cutscenes
when
the
camera
zooms
in,
the
plastic
character
models
and
stiff
animations
are
almost
distracting.
However,
this
is
a
small
game
from
a
small
team,
so
it’s
not
a
huge
issue.

Heroes
include
the
likes
of
Weathervane
who
can
blast
enemies
with
electricity
and
gusts
of
wind;
and
Ignis,
whose
whole
deal

apart
from
being
an
annoying
streamer

is
setting
fire
to
everything
which
in
turn
powers
up
her
Ultimate.
Rebound
is
all
about
using
her
teleport
to
backstab
enemies
for
huge
damage
before
retreating
quickly
as
she
can’t
take
a
lot
of
hits
before
going
down.
Mindfire
uses
his
telekinetic
powers
to
hurl
debris
at
foes
and
can
even
make
them
extra
vulnerable
to
attacks
for
a
round.
While
maybe
not
the
most
conceptually
exciting
heroes,
they
all
slot
neatly
into
their
roles
and,
most
importantly,
are
very
different
from
each
other.
That
means
some
heroes
are
far
better
than
others
in
specific
missions,
too.
I
learned
that
the
hard
way
in
a
boss
fight
where
the
supervillain
would
replicate
when
taking
damage,
which
included
taking
fire
damage
from
Ignis.
It
didn’t
take
long
before
the
map
was
covered
in
a
sea
of
clones
because
I
hadn’t
tightly
controlled
Ignis’
flames.

A
big
part
of
the
gameplay
are
the
special
team-up
moves
that
let
heroes
combine
abilities
and
powers
into
something
better.
For
example,
Facet
is
rather
slow
moving
when
he’s
armoured
up
in
crystals
(he’s
the
tank
you
put
at
the
very
front)
so
if
he’s
near
Rebound
he
can
use
her
teleport
to
shift
across
the
map
quickly.
Rebound
can
also
then
use
Facet’s
abiity
to
summon
giant
crystals
to
give
her
backstab
attack
a
little
extra
power.
Meanwhile,
Ignis
can
lend
her
flame
to
Mercurial’s
speed,
letting
her
leave
a
path
of
flames
across
the
battlefield,
while
Weathervane
can
use
Facet’s
crystals
to
chain
lightening,
letting
it
go
further.
In
fact,
so
important
are
these
moves
that
increasing
or
decreasing
the
difficulty
will
actually
change
the
range
at
which
they
can
be
used.

Speaking
of
which,
Capes
is
a
surprisingly
brutal
game
at
times,
even
on
the
easiest
setting.
A
large
part
of
these
savage
difficulty
spikes
is
due
to
to
game’s
absolute
delight
in
bombarding
you
with
piles
of
henchmen
It
has
a
particular
habit
of
sending
in
new
waves
of
enemies
when
missions
feel
like
they
should
actually
be
wrapping
up,
padding
out
the
runtime.
They
swarm
the
maps,
many
of
them
having
special
attacks
that
charge-up
and
will
hit
large
areas
unless
disarmed
in
time.
The
resulting
mess
has
a
habit
of
removing
some
of
the
tactical
thinking
from
the
action,
although
I
won’t
rule
out
my
own
stupidity
and
inability
to
keep
track
of
everything
as
being
the
issue.
With
so
many
bodies
on
the
screen,
it
can
feel
less
like
carefully
analysing
which
stone
to
remove
to
bring
down
the
wall,
and
more
like
hitting
stuff
until
you
happen
on
the
right
one.
I’d
often
lose
fights
and
replay
them,
only
to
be
left
unsure
as
to
why
I
won
this
time
versus
the
last.
Amidst
the
chaos,
I
guess
I
just
stumbled
upon
the
right
enemy
at
the
right
time
or
got
a
little
luckier
on
who
they
focused
on,
but
I
don’t
like
that
feeling
of
not
knowing
what
worked.

Other
missions
are
more
balanced
between
chaos
and
strategy,
like
carefully
moving
enemies
into
place
for
Kinetic’s
Ultimate
to
slam
two
of
them
off
a
ledge.
Facet
is
a
particularly
useful
hero
because
his
Growth
skill
can
be
used
to
block
pathways
and
doors,
giving
you
time
to
deal
with
one
group
of
foes
while
the
other
group
has
to
go
the
long
way
round.
He’s
also
the
only
real
tank
in
the
game,
which
makes
him
vital
when
there
are
so
many
enemies
on
the
screen.
It’s
these
missions
with
smaller
enemy
counts
I
like
most,
when
the
action
focuses
in
on
smartly
combining
abilities,
positioning
and
forward
thinking
rather
than
battling
what
feels
like
dozens
upon
dozens
of
bad
guys.
And
thankfully,
while
there
were
a
a
few
frustrating
missions,
most
of
them
did
let
me
focus
on
that
tactical
thinking
and
were
heaps
of
fun.

As
you
successfully
smash
through
legions
of
thugs
and
the
occasional
supervillain,
heroes
will
gather
XP,
opening
upgrades
to
existing
powers
and
few
entirely
new
abilities
for
you
to
purchase
using
SP.
You
can’t
radically
alter
a
heroes
function
on
the
battlefield,
but
you
can
tweak
them
just
a
little
bit
to
your
liking.
Going
back
and
replaying
old
missions
to
complete
optional
objectives
for
more
SP
is
fairly
important,
especially
when
you
recruit
a
new
hero
as
they
start
at
level
1.
This
does
add
some
artificial
padding
to
a
campaign
which
already
feels
a
bit
too
long
at
around
20-30
hours

Outside
of
the
turn-based
heroics,
Capes
is
mean
and
lean.
Between
missions
you
get
to
head
back
to
an
underground
lair
that
was
once
the
headquarters
of
big-league
superheroes
but
is
now
like
a
dorm
for
a
bunch
of
kids
with
questionable
fashion
sense.
You
can
head
out
on
patrol
missions
and
replay
past
missions
in
order
to
get
more
points
to
spend
on
levelling
up
heroes,
but
the
lair
itself
never
comes
into
play,
which
is
surprising.
Upon
being
introduced
to
the
place,
I
was
kind
of
expecting
some
XCOM
style
base-building
or
at
least
being
able
to
customise
it
a
little.
Sadly,
it’s
nothing
more
than
a
backdrop
to
dialogue
between
the
heroes.

The
lack
of
customisation
also
extends
to
the
heroes
themselves.
You
can’t
create
a
hero
yourself,
and
you
can’t
change
up
the
costumes
they
wear,
a
real
bummer
for
the
fashion
conscious
among
you
hoping
to
have
everyone
in
matching
gear..

But
we
need
to
be
fair
to
the
developers:
working
on
what
I
assume
to
be
a
relatively
tight
budget,
it
makes
sense
to
focus
on
the
core
gameplay
rather
than
spreading
resources
thin.
And
while
I
don’t
think
the
writing
is
strong,
it’s
clear
they
also
wanted
to
focus
on
heroes
they
created
from
the
ground
up
so
that
they
could
attempt
to
tell
interesting
stories
with
them,
rather
than
trying
to
awkwardly
tip-toe
around
weirdly
named
player
creations.

Conclusion

















Rating:
3.5
out
of
5.

While
Capes
might
be
less
Avengers
and
more
West
Coast
Avengers
in
terms
of
its
presentation
and
budget,
underneath
those
plastic
faces
lies
a
really
fun
turn-based
tactics
game.
The
story
may
not
reach
the
highs
of
comic
book
greatness
but
it’s
still
a
decent
time.
It’s
the
gameplay
where
Capes
shines
though.
Sometimes
it
can
be
a
bit
too
heavy-handed
with
the
enemy
count,
but
when
you’re
in
the
middle
of
the
fray
punching
bad
guys
off
of
ledges,
powering
up
Ultimates
and
combining
abilities,
it’s
a
damn
good
time.

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