Video Game Review - Capes
Capes is a superhero turn-based strategy game and the debut title of Australian developer Spitfire Interactive. Taking inspiration from a wealth of 80s and 90s comic books, Capes throws players into the murky streets of King City. With bad guys to beat and a wealth of memorable supes to command, King City is a comic book reader's fever dream.
Capes takes place within a world where the good guys lost. Ever since a shadowy group called The Company took control of King City “capes” have been outlawed. Anyone who displays a form of superpower or ability is deemed a vigilante and is at mercy to the full force of The Company’s power. The ordinary citizens who call King City their home are also under the spell of propaganda set by The Company that leads them to the belief that all superheroes are bad. Naturally, those who rule The Company just so happen to be a cadaver of supervillains who are quite literally ruling with an iron fist.
As one of the only few “good guys” left in King City, grizzled superhero Doctrine is about to stand against the powers that be. Recruiting a group of 8 young misfits who all display the superhero gene, Doctrine aims to defeat the Company once and for all, whilst righting the wrong of his past. With the war between good and evil looming on the horizon, King City is about to become a battleground.
Where Capes’ story is a typical good vs evil situation, it’s one that’s packed with subtle social satire and elements from the comics that inspired it. A lot of Capes reminded me of Alan Moore’s Watchmen, mixed in with a little bit of X-Men. Not only are superheroes marked as vigilantes (much like Watchmen), but anyone who displays the superhero gene is persecuted and hunted down by those who fear them (X-Men anybody?). It’s quite heavy in places as we’re thrown into the middle of conflicting ideologies and moral compasses as the group tackles their inexperience and Doctrine’s penchant to walk close to the line that the good guys shouldn’t cross.
The gameplay comes straight out of the book of XCOM fame as Capes takes the classic grid-based tactical approach. Each “turn” your capes has a pool of movement points and two action points that power their abilities. These can be spent however you choose with both pools being refreshed come your next turn. What does make Capes unique that that unlike XCOM - and other tactical games - there’s zero RNG involved. Your attacks and super abilities never miss and you’ll always know what damage you’re going to do beforehand. The only issue is that this is also true for the game AI. With a lack of cover mechanic, you can get a lot of enemies thrown at you in quick succession which often results in your team being surrounded very easily.
While the characters themselves are a great assortment of personalities and powers, they are pretty safe. Fans of both Marvel and DC will see some similarities with the heroes on offer, but Capes keeps its cast very generic. There are your typical speed, and brawling power types, but don’t expect to play as Superman or *cough* Homelander. What we do have are characters such as Rebound who uses teleportation powers to act as a run-and-gun assassin, Weathervane who utilises weather like a Poundland Storm, and Ignis who (as the name suggests) can control fire. My overall favorite cape does fall to Mindfire who is a telekinetic powerhouse. Think of Charles Xavier with fewer morales and you’ll get the idea.
Each of the heroes can also team up to utilise both of their powers to create some flashy moves. For instance, teaming up with Rebound and Facet allows the tank character to quickly get into a defending position due to Rebound’s teleportation. Likewise, Weathervane can utilise Facet’s crystal powers to chain some devastating lightning attacks. As the team battle their way through generic henchmen and the occasional supervillain, they’ll start to earn experience points. In typical style collecting enough XP rewards the option to purchase new abilities for them to use. You can’t necessarily change a hero's role or power, but there’s enough room to tailor each to your particular tastes.
Experience points aren’t persistent across your roster, which means that recruits start at level 1. While this isn’t relatively uncommon for titles of the genre, Capes has a lengthy game time. This coupled with needing to replay past missions to “level up” these new heroes then adds extra unnecessary time to overall progression.
When it comes to general difficulty, I wouldn’t say that Capes was particularly easy. Even playing on the lowest difficulty setting will see odd spikes in difficulty. There are more than a few missions which will see you bombarded with wave after wave of henchmen with no real let-up. In terms of story, it makes sense as you are on the back foot, but it often results in frustration more than moments of triumph. These generic goons are also pretty tough to beat, with each having a crazy special attack that can be devastating - if you allow neglect to micro-manage them. It all adds to a chaotic feeling where missions descend into total anarchy.
The presentation is a bit of a mixed bag. Graphics feel extremely dated and in my opinion, don’t lean on the benefits of playing the title on the PlayStation 5. Cutscenes also overly zoom on to the action which gives the characters present a shiny, play-doh-like complexion with some very ridged animations. Likewise, each superpower lacks any “wow” factor which takes away any feeling of grandeur of superhero action.
What Capes does well is with its story. It’s quite a hard-hitting story that goes to some pretty dark places. Doctrine’s morales in going close to that grey line reminded me a lot of The Boy’s own Billy Butcher, while the overarching narrative is very similar to Watchmen and Wanted. Naturally, having control of a team of superheroes gives plenty of Avengers, X-Men, and Justice League vibes, Capes plays it somewhat safe. For those budding Charles Xaviers amongst us, you’re sadly not able to give everyone matching outfits. But it does mean each hero has their unique style, even though some of the personalities are undercooked.
Overall Capes is a decent enough experience that is hampered by some dated graphics and odd spikes in difficulty. However, it’s hard not to applaud Spitfire Interactive on what they’ve achieved. The storyline is a greatest hits parade of comics from the 80s and 90s which will appeal to most - if not all - comic book audiences. Likewise, the general nitty-gritty gameplay of Capes is pretty darn good. It never got boring punching random henchmen and pulling off the team-up moves gives a glimpse of what the title could have been with a higher budget.
Rating:7/10
Capes are available now and can be purchased on the PlayStation Store.
A code was kindly provided for this review
Rob Lake
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