Within the dystopian way forward for Capes, renegade superheroes are referred to as “Capes”, however none of them put on capes. What are you presupposed to make of that? I used to be planning to dedicate the next 1000 phrases to making an attempt to determine a potential rationalization for this weird state of affairs, however then it turned out to have actually wonderful turn-based technique fight, so sadly I’ve needed to pivot.
It is tempting to name this superhero XCOM, and definitely in case you had been disenchanted by how Marvel’s Midnight Suns strayed from the studio’s roots that is more likely to be extra up your (crime-ridden) alley. Like that iconic collection, the turn-based battles listed here are tense and methodical, and at all times a few flawed steps away from going horribly sideways. However actually it is extra akin to the forgotten XCOM spin-off Chimera Squad, with a roster of named operatives with distinctive ability units and a give attention to quick, sharp mission design as an alternative of managing an entire base and world map between fights.
Your staff is a ragtag group of super-powered freedom fighters pushing again towards the oppressive rule of “The Firm” of their house of King Metropolis. Superheroes are outlawed, whereas supervillains secretly run the present from behind the scenes, retaining the populace in keeping with media propaganda. In case you’ll allow me one final XCOM comparability, it is oddly just like the setting of XCOM 2, even all the way down to its visuals, and certainly the sci-fi dystopia of all of it does really feel prefer it smothers makes an attempt to make this really feel like a comic book e-book superhero story. Maybe that is why there aren’t any capes: they would not be cool sufficient for this darkish future.
It is all a good sufficient excuse, nonetheless, for the existence of an infinite provide of goons, henchmen, and sinister brokers out to get you, and whenever you’re within the streets cracking heads, oh boy does Capes really feel tremendous.
Every member of your staff has a singular and actually well-defined function that performs into their energy set. Aspect, for instance, makes use of his potential to summon crystals to be the final word protector—his crystal armour lets him take a punch like nobody else, he can block assaults on his allies with crystal shielding, and entice enemies in crystal growths. In the meantime floating psychic Mindfire desires to bed-in at a secure place and act like a human artillery piece, amplifying harm towards enemies after which bombarding them with telekinetic assaults.
The variations between every member really feel actually pronounced in comparison with different technique video games. Once I say Aspect’s a tank and Mindfire’s a bit squishy, it is a distinction between the previous with the ability to take gunshots to the pinnacle for spherical after spherical whereas the latter will battle to outlive a few punches. Equally, Aspect will typically go a complete battle with out doing any harm in any respect, whereas Mindfire’s racking up the kills. Such excessive strengths and weaknesses match the superhero style properly, but additionally create actually fascinating tactical puzzles.
Teamwork is essential, and there are all kinds of intelligent mechanical components to reward intelligent cooperation. For instance, every character has their very own set of “Crew-Ups”, that are basically buffed variations of their skills that they’ll use after they’re near particular different characters. Take the staff’s teleporter Rebound. She’s at all times seeking to get behind enemies for additional backstab harm and, if she’s shut sufficient to Mindfire, then when she makes use of her Strike potential, he can psychically compel the foe to show round and expose their again for it. Each character has a Crew-Up like this with each different character, not solely opening up the methods they’ll work collectively, but additionally inserting extra significance on good positioning of your models.
Further texture comes within the potential to disarm opponents, knocking weapons and melee weapons out of their fingers or stopping supervillain opponents from launching highly effective charged assaults. Once more, every character has a singular means of doing it—Mindfire can do it from a distance together with his telekinesis, whereas Rebound can teleport in shut to mix a disarm with a wholesome chunk of harm. These completely different approaches imply that usually the character most underneath menace from an armed assailant is not the one greatest positioned to neutralise them, encouraging each additional teamwork and considering a number of turns forward.
I do want that tonally and visually the sport had a extra four-colour really feel—I am an previous Freedom Power fan at coronary heart, and King Metropolis is only a bit too bleak for my liking. However all of those well-judged twists and lots of extra be sure that in battle you actually do really feel such as you’re commanding not only a squad however a superhero staff.
If the sport has a kryptonite, it is the story. There’s various cutscenes, and the character fashions that look simply positive in battle actually do not stand as much as being zoomed-in on for lengthy sections of dialogue. Uneven writing delivered through comedian e-book speech bubbles does not assist, particularly within the sport’s extra private diversions—one facet story centered on Rebound’s sophisticated lesbian love life (potential she did not get her identify from her powers) has flashes of actual humanity, commonly buried by horribly clunky strains. “What did I ever see in you?” she asks her ex-girlfriend throughout an argument. “You favored me for my mind… and my physique” is the reply. Hmm.
However it does the job of propelling you from mission to mission and, when the motion is that this good, it is easy to forgive some dodgy connective tissue. For this preview I am solely in a position to play up till the top of the primary act of the story—that is about 4 hours in—however already I really feel like I’ve seen a extremely thrilling slice of what Capes has to supply. The promise of unlocking extra superheroes to experiment with and new enemies and managers to throw them at… nicely, it is received me wishing my superpower was altering the date to Could twenty ninth! As a result of, er, that is when it is comes out.