Must Know
What’s it? A turn-based technique sport about superheroes rebelling in opposition to a dystopian regime.
Launch date Could 29, 2024
Anticipate to pay TBA
Developer Spitfire Interactive
Writer Daedalic Leisure
Reviewed on Nvidia Geforce RTX 3080, AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, 32GB RAM
Steam Deck Verified
Hyperlink Official website
All one of the best superhero groups have one factor in widespread: everybody has their function. Whereas Wolverine’s charging in, claws flashing, Cyclops is up on a ridge capturing down lasers, Iceman is zipping round freezing foes, Jean Gray is delving right into a supervillain’s thoughts, and Colossus is body-blocking power blasts.
That is what your squad of superheroes appears like in Capes as you are directing them in turn-based battles. From teleporter Rebound to psychic Mindfire to speedster Mercurial, every character is splendidly distinct, and securing victory means combining their distinctive powers to boost their strengths and canopy their weaknesses
The “Capes” usually are not fairly your typical superheroes, nonetheless. They’re primarily based in King Metropolis, a near-future metropolis that is been dominated by a group of supervillains for many years. Beneath their oppressive regime powers are outlawed, with any civilian displaying indicators of getting them shortly rounded up for a grisly destiny. Your crew is much less like a traditional crime-fighting group, and extra like a resistance cell—younger supers who’ve managed to flee seize and now struggle again in opposition to the dystopian authorities to try to free their house.
The trail to revolution consists of a sequence of story-driven turn-based technique missions—all the time a punch-up of some form, however usually with a twist, corresponding to stealth parts, a race in opposition to time, or civilians in want of safety. They are not simple—it is the form of sport the place if you first load up a mission and see an absolute horde of enemies arrayed in opposition to you, it is pure to suppose “How is that this even potential?”. Half an hour later, after a number of makes an attempt, you lastly stand surrounded by defeated thugs considering “How did I pull that off?”.
The important thing to victory is all the time in getting probably the most out of each member of your group. Their identities are excessive by design. Side, for instance, clad in crystal armour, can take assault rifle bursts with out flinching, whereas Rebound will be downed with only a few punches—however Rebound’s skill to teleport offers her mobility not like anybody else on the group, and her backstab assaults do huge injury. After they’re collectively, Side’s skills turn out to be a toolset for protecting her out of bother—taunting foes, trapping others with crystal growths, and defending her with crystal shields retains her protected sufficient to get in place to strike key targets.
With eight heroes obtainable to unlock (you may often select 4 to carry into every mission), and more and more harmful enemies arrayed in opposition to you, the online of potential combos turns into a splendidly layered fight puzzle. All kinds of complimentary mechanics add to your choices. Staff Ups, for instance, let heroes instantly mix their powers in the event that they’re bodily shut sufficient, unlocking new variations of skills. Use Mercurial’s Sprint whereas she’s close to the pyrokinetic Ignis and he or she’ll depart a path of flame behind her; backstab a goal with Rebound when Mindfire’s shut and he’ll thoughts management them into turning round to make sure she offers most injury.
Every hero additionally has a special manner of charging Final power, the juice they should unleash their strongest assault, additional encouraging you to commit every character to their function. Side, for instance, is such a devoted tank that he costs up each time he will get hit, whereas the storm-calling Weathervane will get a cost for each further goal he is capable of catch together with his chain lightning assault. Lastly unleashing an Final—setting Rebound off on a teleport frenzy the place she backstabs everybody in sight, or unleashing an enormous storm with Weathervane—is a stunning mid-mission dopamine hit, rewarding you for getting one of the best out of that character.
Tremendous troopers
Between missions heroes can improve their skills again at base, and also you’re free to replay previous missions hoping to finish extra of the bonus aims, permitting you to grind for stage ups if you want. However crucially, upgrades by no means flatten the variations between the characters. Rebound, for instance, has three well being—irrespective of how good she will get at teleporting and takedowns, she is going to by no means get any harder, at the same time as enemies turn out to be more and more quite a few and harmful. That implies that she’s solely a few blows away from dying from the beginning of the sport proper to the top, protecting her hit-and-run playstyle intact all through.
It is these sorts of intelligent selections that hold Capes’ battles brilliantly tactical and riveting all over. Nice pacing helps there, too—if you’re feeling a little bit frazzled after a very difficult boss struggle or a cautious stealth mission, that is when the sport will throw you a giant dumb struggle in opposition to an awesome horde and allow you to unleash satisfying havoc on them. It nearly by no means lets up on the problem, however developer Spitfire Interactive is nice at tickling completely different components of your strategic mind as you play, quite than hammering on the identical one to the purpose of frustration.
The place the pacing sadly is not fairly as deft is within the story. There are a variety of cutscenes in Capes, however only a few of them actually go wherever—act 2 of three takes up nearly all of the run time, and consists of far an excessive amount of meandering round with none clear thought of what the characters are attempting to realize, earlier than immediately act 3 brings issues to an abrupt shut.
Broad themes of capitalism gone awry and systemic injustice work properly sufficient as a framework, however particular person story threads inside that always really feel incongruous. There’s a lot agonising from the characters about whether or not it is okay to kill supervillains or not, for instance—that is an overused superhero trope at one of the best of instances, however in a narrative a few violent riot informed within the medium of prolonged turn-based fights, it would not match in any respect. You will take down 30 thugs by electrocution, setting them on hearth, and hurling chunks of concrete at their heads, just for Rebound, whose combating fashion is totally primarily based round sticking foot-long knives into individuals’s backs, to present you a lecture about when deadly drive is acceptable. It is absurd, and solely turns into extra in order you uncover fairly how irredeemably evil the principle supervillains they’re so involved with sparing truly are.
Sadly, lackluster presentation would not do the story any favours both. There is a plastic high quality to the characters, which mixed with stiff animation makes them appear like motion figures. In fights, that is fantastic—the sport visually conveys what it must make fight run easily. However frequent cutscenes zoom in for face-to-face chats, forcing you to see each visible flaw because the heroes emote unconvincingly to the inconsistent dialogue.
Actually, although, it isn’t the story that pulls you alongside—it is the depth of technique on provide. The drama is not within the cutscenes, it is in each nail-biting flip as you try to work out the proper combo to get you out of one other fantastic mess. It may be a severe problem—when you’re the form of one who hates the concept of reloading the identical mission a number of instances searching for the suitable method, this most likely is not for you. However meet it by itself phrases and Capes offers you 20-30 hours of splendidly substantial and engrossing superhero technique.