It’s true that audience fatigue with superheroes is a very real problem. You can’t look anywhere without coming across something from Marvel, DC, Invincible, The Boys, or any of the other superhero universes that are popular and on everyone’s lips these days. For this reason, you may be unfamiliar or less inclined to try Spitfire Interactive’s turn-based strategy game Capes, but that would be a mistake, for several reasons that I’ll get into now.
First off, Capes doesn’t belong to any of those established universes. Spitfire Interactive has explored many of those most well-known worlds to create the story and world of this game, but you don’t need experience with the vast Marvel or DC universe, or years of experience with other stories and projects, to understand and enjoy the story that’s presented. It’s an original story told in an original universe, and that gives the creators a lot of room to tell their own story that isn’t subject to the many vagaries that characterize more traditional superhero stories.
I say this because Capes is the story of a super-powered resistance unit battling supervillains who have taken control of a city after defeating its protectors decades ago. In fact, it almost comes across as a more authoritative version of The Boys story, where a group of good guys fight against a corrupt and evil whole. With that in mind, you can expect vengeful and cruel enemies, almost always grim odds, and a mature tone that’s different from the mainstream stories Marvel usually presents to its audience. I’m not going to tell you that Capes is a completely unique and novel story unlike anything we’ve seen before, because it’s not, but it’s a breath of fresh air to be able to experience a story where risks are on the line, where it seems like the hopeful heroes could lose, and that’s what Capes offers, shall we say.
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The game begins to stand out from the crowd through its gameplay. Turn-based strategy is nothing new—we’ve even had superhero takes on the format in Marvel’s Midnight Suns—but Capes tries to distance itself from others in the genre by offering gameplay that isn’t based on random numbers or percentages, and other frustrating elements that aren’t under the player’s control. Capes is strategy, pure and simple. You have to position your characters, use them as a team, take out the threats you deem the deadliest first, protect your weakest members, complete tasks and secondary objectives, and do all this without cover systems. The frustration of missing direct attacks isn’t present in this game, but because the gameplay style is more accessible and less based on numerical values and predefined systems, Capes can be a horrific nightmare to defeat.
Because you can’t exploit the environment in the same way as in XCOM, and the game tends to bombard you with enemies at once, it often feels like there’s only one way to complete each mission. When you try something new, it often feels like the game is designed to force new ideas on you. Some missions require you to protect friendly NPCs who charge into battle with no regard for their own safety, or you have to defeat the usual horde of enemies while also stopping a supervillain capable of wiping out your entire team without breaking a sweat. You have to be very adept at strategy to succeed in this game, otherwise it’s likely to become frustrating.
So the strategic game design that Capes has adopted has clear advantages and disadvantages. I can welcome the lack of random numerical elements, but at the same time it seems that this has led to a loss of freedom and control on the part of the player.
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The character design is without a doubt one of the highlights, with each character fitting a specific archetype with their own skills and playstyles that work with other characters to create unique and more effective abilities. Whether you’re playing as a speedster, covering large swathes of the battlefield and attacking before quickly moving away, or you’re taking on the role of a warrior, drawing the attention of enemies and absorbing damage, there are a variety of heroes to familiarize yourself with, level up, and improve through a fairly simple progression suite. And you’ll need to master them, because when a supervillain joins the fray, you’ll discover what it means to be a bug on the windshield of a car, a bug whose only chance of survival is slick, nearly flawless team play.
The team at Spitfire Interactive have done a fantastic job presenting this game. The UI and HUD feel very polished and accessible, the graphics are sharp and easy to follow in combat thanks to the 3D design, while maintaining the comic book feel with speech bubbles, comic fonts and styles, and drawn elements outside of the action to further emphasize Capes’ comic roots and theme. The voice acting is also top notch, the soundtrack is heroic and fits the theme, and the animations are simple enough to not overwhelm but keep the details.
I think that with a back button in combat and perhaps some difficulty adjustment or perhaps the number of enemies Capes throws at you, it could be a standout turn-based strategy title. As it is, it’s not as polished as I’d hoped, with its certain stumbles, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to love and appreciate about the world-building, narrative, character design, and presentation. Spitfire Interactive took some winding roads with this game, not all of which came to fruition, but there’s still a lot of potential and promise in this game.
