My love for Marvel’s Midnight Suns cannot be overstated. Not only do I consider it one of my favourite games of all time – the only one I’ve fully completed 100% in years – but also a misunderstood gem that never received the appreciation it deserved. Capes attempts to capture some of that superhero magic while inserting a spin of its own.

I hadn’t heard of Capes until I received an email from the publisher, Daedalic Entertainment, asking if I wanted to test-drive it. While I came out of it pleasantly surprised, Capes still has a long way to go before it reaches the heights of other turn-based strategy titles it aims to emulate. I’ve played the early campaign missions and have unlocked a total of 5 heroes so far.

Here’s what I think of it so far:

If I had to describe Capes, it would be like XCOM with superheroes. This unexplored premise sounds amazing on paper. However, it’s much harder to execute than it might appear at first. Capes seems to take a more measured approach to hero powers compared to Marvel’s Midnight Suns. This makes sense, as Marvel’s heroes are widely known, so nerfing them wouldn’t make sense. To work around this, Marvel had to build its combat system around cards, whereas Capes takes a more traditional approach. Move your units, use abilities, and charge up your ultimate. The abilities available to you are always there and don’t depend on the luck of the draw.

Speaking of skills, Capes features a nice combined skill mechanic where heroes can combine each other’s powers to gain new abilities or empower existing ones in their arsenals. But that’s where the positive aspects end so far. During these early sections of gameplay, most of the abilities felt a bit underwhelming. There’s a cool hero whose superpower is control of lightning, but all he does is shock enemies and harness enough power to release a devastating area-of-effect ultimate. Yeah, it’s cool, but other than that, his usefulness is negligible outside of that. It feels like heroes are very one-dimensional in their capabilities. Probably the most versatile one so far is the first crystal guy who uses his crystals to attack, protect himself and his allies, create obstacles, and push enemies.

This leads me to the game’s second major issue at the moment: the way missions are designed. They’re very linear and play more like a puzzle than a tactical challenge that you can approach in many different ways. I sincerely hope this is just a symptom of the early game and that things open up more down the line because it can get a bit frustrating.

Last but not least, the heroes of the game. I haven’t spent enough time with them to decide if I like them, but they are memorable, I’ll give them that. I can remember them all and what each one does, and I’m intrigued by the story premise: a group of bad guys controls the city, and the heroes are the oppressed ones.

Despite some of my criticisms, I’m hoping the game’s story is great and it ends up being a success! Capes will come out on the 29th of May, 2024.