Capes (PC) - Preview | Phenixx Gaming

Ok, here is a strange one for you. Following the closure of Pandemic Studios by EA in 2009, Morgan Jaffit and Dan Treble would go on to form Defiant Development, the studio behind Hand of Fate 1 and 2. In 2019, the studio would go into, as the studio would put it, “caretaker mode,” effectively closing the doors that July. Capes is a turn-based strategy superhero flick from Spitfire Interactive, with a good portion of the staff behind the upcoming title previously working on the card-based strategy of the game’s publisher, Defiant Development. Releasing next year, it will be the first title the studio has published in 4 years since the closure.

Currently available as a demo during the present Steam Next Fest, Capes gives you the hand of whatever God controls characters in turn-based strategies, and this time they are the flavor of moody teenage superheroes. Set in a world where “supes” are illegal and thus controlled by the creatively named “The Company,” your defiant little band of rebellious ruffians attempts to be the underground haven for the likes of the kid in the wheelchair in the opening mission.

Taking turns to run across the room and slap each other, the gameplay of Capes focuses on a strategy that is strange for a party-based tactics game. Similar to the likes of X-COM or Phoenix Point, you’ll send your team into a fight that has them at an initial disadvantage, and you have to find a way to overcome that. Yet unlike X-COM or its ilk, turns are based on the team member and not the team as a whole, being more akin to older turn-based Final Fantasy games or even the upcoming Sunday Gold.

Written by Morgan Jaffit, it is effortless to see what Jaffit binge-watched during the pandemic as every preview (including this one) will tell you just how heavily The Boys that Capes happens to or wants to be. I guess it is superficial to say sweary superhumans are influenced by The Boys now, as it was Deadpool before that, Watchmen before that, and Hancock before that. Conversely, it could be the comic book art style that provides that stereotypical writing that fails to pull me in. Placeholder or not, it comes across as rather simple and childish in my opinion, lacking an otherwise grimness that the Amazon series features.

There are aspects of Capes that I think function better than others, especially in that theming aimed to be similar to Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comics or even Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins Watchmen. The theming and gameplay skip merrily hand-in-hand into something I’d like to call a solid statement of intent, but the story and dialogue leave much more to be desired, particularly to pull you into the world a little more. The reason (I believe) that dialogue might not be the strongest aspect is that the party-based combat allows for anyone on the team to join a mission, therefor everyone lacks a better sense of character beyond the superficial lines to get us into a mission.

This says nothing of the experience of playing while having two monitors connected to your PC and frustration is one small part of it. While in windowed mode, as there is no way to select which monitor I want in full screen, I regularly had to maximize the window as it would reset more often than anyone wants. Not only at the end of a new load screen but also in the middle of changing graphical settings due to performance that was less than stable. This alongside some bugs that required resetting levels, such as Mercurial being unable to attack, the frustration grew and grew.

Ultimately, while I was excited for Capes before and have since had that tempered due to the writing, I’m optimistic to see where it is next year closer to release. A little rough at this early stage, I think the combat is easily the highlight. Offering different tactics, even if I often dislike the individual turn-based method, there is enough variety to each character, and the team-up abilities offer interesting ways to complete objectives. Hopefully, when Capes releases next year, the experience can be more refined and will give something more to get excited about.

A PC preview copy of Capes was provided by Defiant Development for this preview.