Never heard of it and the reviews are mixed. Is it any good?
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Turn-Based Tactics Capes - turn-based superhero tactics from Hand of Fate devs
- Thread starter Infinitron
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Mixed is about right.
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To elaborate I had some fun with it and the fights did get hairy, but superhero power creation is limited in that you choose a theme of powers, so a heavy hitter will have a set number of skills, as would a tank character or whatever. Wait for a sale if you wanna give it a go.
Thanks for the elaboration. I might check it out. It's a shame there isn't more selection in this particular sub-genre. I was never a comic fan, but I do like the spectacle of superhero fights (e.g. punching someone through a building or through a street sign, etc.).
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Nigga just play Yakuza.
I have been (very) slowly making my way through the series and have picked all of them up. I just find that I need a break between them, though I'm curious if 7's JRPG thing brings me in more since I find the button masher combat of the others to be pretty shallow so far.Nigga just play Yakuza.
I don't think character creation is so intimately tied to the tactical genre - quite the opposite, it's really only XCOM that stood out as allowing it, especially XCOM2. Most tactical games have had fixed characters that have certain set characteristics that you don't have full control over. So things like Chimera Squad (which I thought was okay in the tactical department, just unbearable in terms of woke story shit) with its hand-picked team of characters, and games with mercs you hire, or superhero games like this (Troubleshooter also comes to mind, as the characters there are vaguely superhero-ish) are par for the course.
Character creation is more of an RPG thing, where you have an adventure simulation, and your character is something you dream up so you feel immersed in it, and the story weighs more heavily in the balance relative to the tactical combat (which is usually okay, but not as good as a dedicated tactical game's combat should be).
Leaving too much in the hands of the player also makes devs' balancing job harder, I think. If the characters have a layer of pre-built-ness, then the game balance can be more under dev control. Hopefully.
Character creation is more of an RPG thing, where you have an adventure simulation, and your character is something you dream up so you feel immersed in it, and the story weighs more heavily in the balance relative to the tactical combat (which is usually okay, but not as good as a dedicated tactical game's combat should be).
Leaving too much in the hands of the player also makes devs' balancing job harder, I think. If the characters have a layer of pre-built-ness, then the game balance can be more under dev control. Hopefully.
Last edited:
spectre
Arcane
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Played the demo, it reminded me of Troubleshooter somewhat, it's got capeshit which I can tolerate instead of dweebery which is a major turn-off.
That one didn't click with me, maybe this one will.
It's only a few missions and it does a rather decent job at setting your expectation straight, I reckon.
You have a roster of superheroes you unlock as your progress and you pick four of them (could be more, but it was pick four out of five in the demo) to take on a missions.
They have premade bios and abilities, they unlock additional ones as well as various upgrades through exp earned on missions (upgrades were disabled in the demo).
Each mission has a bunch of optional objectives which I imagine lets you unlock more stuff and faster. You can replay missions to get them all.
The demo has a rather limited selection of characters (none of which I found particularly likeable, but this could be a me problem), a big part of the game is
experimenting with various mixes and see how they work. Each character brings his own unique set of skills to the table, but also augments the skills of other chars
if they are within LoS, which leads to interesting situation in the field. Even within the same "class", each character seems to have a unique flair - one "Striker"
is built around backstab attacks, like a D&D rouge, assists other team members by teleporting them around, another "Striker" uses super speed to
get extra "turns" and deals extra damage by smashing opponents against things. I suspect this only scratches the surface as there are plenty of unlocks
for each character, they even seem to have "achievements" which might unlock more backstory on them, but that was also disabled in the demo.
Combat has an "EXCOM-ey" feel (I think it's the hit points, more on that later), for the lack of a better term, but the system is much more to my liking.
Combatants move according to the initiative queue. You get 5AP to move and 2AP to use "abilities,"
which are all nice and varied, regular kicks and punches, throwing rocks with telekinesis, buffs, disables, taunts, knocking people around,
there are even various environmental hazards, like the tell-tale red barrels. A lot of the special moves attacks have "patterns",
so you need to factor in positioning - maybe give this guy a push, so he gets within the AoE pattern, etc.
Each character also has a unique ultimate ability and a different way to charge it up, so there's a lot to factor in.
Overall, not a bad first impression, should get fun the more options you unlock and explore the combos.
Mission maps in the demo were small, almost claustrophobic, and the missions themselves weren't really long. It's usually done in just a few turns.
As a result, I was done with the whole thing in under 3hrs, although the game invited me to replay the missions trying out a different mix of guys.
I won't be telling you much about the story, but the writing didn't really have me by the balls or anything.
If I'm waiting for the game it's mostly for exploring the mechanics and combos.
Objectives were pretty varied, but nothing too challenging, I only really restarted a mission because I wasn't 100% on the mechanics.
For enemies, you get standard mooks, unarmed and with clubs or firearms, further down the line you get androids and robots as well as augmented humans,
each brought something new to the table and needed a slightly different approach,
though not terribly so, the gist of the game is identifying what to kill first and what needs to be disabled for laters.
Your guys can be rather squishy (dedicated tanks aside) with just 3HP (to put it inperspective, some stuff does 0,5 damage, a punch deals 1dmg, rifle shot 2dmg,
dealing 3+ damage per attack is possible with setup) they can quickly get KO'd, which makes them lose turns and can potentially spiral into a mission failure.
Like I said, a lot of it seems about managing damage from enemies by killing, disabling, or staying out of their LoS.
There are nice touches here and there, if a char uses a skill augmented by another char (which gives it some extra oomph as long as the chars are within LoS),
they will comment and the animation might be a bit different, so teamwork is encouraged and rewarded.
One thing that actually left me scratching my head was the stealth portion of the last mission. You're basically walking in front of enemies in your superhero tights,
and as long as you drop each bad guy in one turn there's no alarm, even if you kick-slammed a guy into the wall right next to his pal, and you basically get infinite free turns
while the other guys bumble around. Felt rather sloppy in a game that otherwise looked rather well thought out and polished.
I'll be looking out for this one, although with a few reservations. I don't particularly like the small scale and I really hope
they won't force me to replay the same missions ad nauseam to level up the newly unlocked characters. Like I said,
the missions are short, but I'm not sure if I want to subject myself to this kind of grind.
That one didn't click with me, maybe this one will.
It's only a few missions and it does a rather decent job at setting your expectation straight, I reckon.
You have a roster of superheroes you unlock as your progress and you pick four of them (could be more, but it was pick four out of five in the demo) to take on a missions.
They have premade bios and abilities, they unlock additional ones as well as various upgrades through exp earned on missions (upgrades were disabled in the demo).
Each mission has a bunch of optional objectives which I imagine lets you unlock more stuff and faster. You can replay missions to get them all.
The demo has a rather limited selection of characters (none of which I found particularly likeable, but this could be a me problem), a big part of the game is
experimenting with various mixes and see how they work. Each character brings his own unique set of skills to the table, but also augments the skills of other chars
if they are within LoS, which leads to interesting situation in the field. Even within the same "class", each character seems to have a unique flair - one "Striker"
is built around backstab attacks, like a D&D rouge, assists other team members by teleporting them around, another "Striker" uses super speed to
get extra "turns" and deals extra damage by smashing opponents against things. I suspect this only scratches the surface as there are plenty of unlocks
for each character, they even seem to have "achievements" which might unlock more backstory on them, but that was also disabled in the demo.
Combat has an "EXCOM-ey" feel (I think it's the hit points, more on that later), for the lack of a better term, but the system is much more to my liking.
Combatants move according to the initiative queue. You get 5AP to move and 2AP to use "abilities,"
which are all nice and varied, regular kicks and punches, throwing rocks with telekinesis, buffs, disables, taunts, knocking people around,
there are even various environmental hazards, like the tell-tale red barrels. A lot of the special moves attacks have "patterns",
so you need to factor in positioning - maybe give this guy a push, so he gets within the AoE pattern, etc.
Each character also has a unique ultimate ability and a different way to charge it up, so there's a lot to factor in.
Overall, not a bad first impression, should get fun the more options you unlock and explore the combos.
Mission maps in the demo were small, almost claustrophobic, and the missions themselves weren't really long. It's usually done in just a few turns.
As a result, I was done with the whole thing in under 3hrs, although the game invited me to replay the missions trying out a different mix of guys.
I won't be telling you much about the story, but the writing didn't really have me by the balls or anything.
If I'm waiting for the game it's mostly for exploring the mechanics and combos.
Objectives were pretty varied, but nothing too challenging, I only really restarted a mission because I wasn't 100% on the mechanics.
For enemies, you get standard mooks, unarmed and with clubs or firearms, further down the line you get androids and robots as well as augmented humans,
each brought something new to the table and needed a slightly different approach,
though not terribly so, the gist of the game is identifying what to kill first and what needs to be disabled for laters.
Your guys can be rather squishy (dedicated tanks aside) with just 3HP (to put it inperspective, some stuff does 0,5 damage, a punch deals 1dmg, rifle shot 2dmg,
dealing 3+ damage per attack is possible with setup) they can quickly get KO'd, which makes them lose turns and can potentially spiral into a mission failure.
Like I said, a lot of it seems about managing damage from enemies by killing, disabling, or staying out of their LoS.
There are nice touches here and there, if a char uses a skill augmented by another char (which gives it some extra oomph as long as the chars are within LoS),
they will comment and the animation might be a bit different, so teamwork is encouraged and rewarded.
One thing that actually left me scratching my head was the stealth portion of the last mission. You're basically walking in front of enemies in your superhero tights,
and as long as you drop each bad guy in one turn there's no alarm, even if you kick-slammed a guy into the wall right next to his pal, and you basically get infinite free turns
while the other guys bumble around. Felt rather sloppy in a game that otherwise looked rather well thought out and polished.
I'll be looking out for this one, although with a few reservations. I don't particularly like the small scale and I really hope
they won't force me to replay the same missions ad nauseam to level up the newly unlocked characters. Like I said,
the missions are short, but I'm not sure if I want to subject myself to this kind of grind.
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Definite Troubleshooter vibes from this one.
Dexter
Arcane
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- Mar 31, 2011
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- 15,656
Played the Demo. X-COM with Superheroes fighting against Supervillains that have taken over King City over 20 years ago and are ruling it through "The Company", published by Daedalic. Instead of letting you create something cool the game lets you gather and put together your Burger King Kids Club of Superheroes through story missions. The first three hero units you get to play are a generic-looking black dude that dropped out of law school to "help people", a pierced pink-haired girl and some sort of Arab in a wheelchair with lame names (Facet, Rebound, Mindfire), and the first Cutscene has allusions to police violence. The characters also keep using "They/Them" in nonsensical ways for some reason, which is all a bit concerning.
There seems to mostly be only one attack ability per unit. The others are Movement, Disarm, Buff/Debuff or Incapacitate Skills on enemies and Combo/"Team-Up" attacks of the main attack ability for Bonus Damage if viable heroes are nearby/close and every hero also has an Ultimate that he can charge up in different ways during combat. Movement Points and Action Points to spend each round. Q/E to rotate the map. There's exploding barrels that set areas on fire and do burn damage over time, Optional Objectives in every mission and Challenges that give you additional Skill Points with which you can Unlock additional abilities (but not in the Demo). You can pick which characters should go on missions (4 spots available) as you unlock more.
The Demo has 3 "Easy" missions to make you get used to some of the early heroes and game systems, but they are not consecutive story missions. Instead it has a bunch of Events that will fast-forward to various story moments, unlock two more heroes and automatically upgrade their abilities (a hulking ex-football-player that looks like The Rock shooting lightning out of his hands and a Asian woman boxer - Weathervane and Mercurial). Then it throws you into a mid-game mission. The final mission was the most "fun" gameplay-wise since you get a lot more abilities and toys to play around with. The "hardest" thing so far was trying to accomplish some of the Optional Objectives before all the enemies die though. I only had a hero K.O. once during an infinite enemy-spawning event, just to be picked up and heal up to half health next round. Story seems somewhat mediocre. Character models, animations leave a lot to be desired. Yeah, I don't think so.
There seems to mostly be only one attack ability per unit. The others are Movement, Disarm, Buff/Debuff or Incapacitate Skills on enemies and Combo/"Team-Up" attacks of the main attack ability for Bonus Damage if viable heroes are nearby/close and every hero also has an Ultimate that he can charge up in different ways during combat. Movement Points and Action Points to spend each round. Q/E to rotate the map. There's exploding barrels that set areas on fire and do burn damage over time, Optional Objectives in every mission and Challenges that give you additional Skill Points with which you can Unlock additional abilities (but not in the Demo). You can pick which characters should go on missions (4 spots available) as you unlock more.
The Demo has 3 "Easy" missions to make you get used to some of the early heroes and game systems, but they are not consecutive story missions. Instead it has a bunch of Events that will fast-forward to various story moments, unlock two more heroes and automatically upgrade their abilities (a hulking ex-football-player that looks like The Rock shooting lightning out of his hands and a Asian woman boxer - Weathervane and Mercurial). Then it throws you into a mid-game mission. The final mission was the most "fun" gameplay-wise since you get a lot more abilities and toys to play around with. The "hardest" thing so far was trying to accomplish some of the Optional Objectives before all the enemies die though. I only had a hero K.O. once during an infinite enemy-spawning event, just to be picked up and heal up to half health next round. Story seems somewhat mediocre. Character models, animations leave a lot to be desired. Yeah, I don't think so.
Have you played it? They have a lot of close up cutscenes that look like dog shit.
Yeah I really noticed that when I played around with the game. I think the tactical game and the story bits told in cartoon form do show some promise, but those pre-battle cutscenes with the janky models and scary eyes would be better off out of it, they're just sad. But maybe it's the sort of thing they could improve a lot quite quickly without too much trouble (i.e. a question of fine-tuning).
ArchAngel
Arcane
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I have seen videos of gameplay and I didn't notice these troublesome models until shits like you started complaining. I don't really care about it as long as it is not some bad pixel art shit.
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motherfucker
Educated
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- Aug 23, 2020
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gapes lol
Well at least it seems like it looks better than it did. Hopefully it's cool.
Grokalibre
Augur
Hopefully they fixed the demo main issue, aka the game simply not being fun at all.
The YT-er Christopher Odd is doing a playthrough of Capes atm with two episodes so far (he's also doing an XCOM: Enemy Within run atm, which is quite nostalgic).
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