“X-Men meets XCOM” may be a glib summary, but it’s not totally inaccurate.
Irrational’s Freedom Force games celebrated the Silver Age of comics in all its goofy glory, with a cast of characters including a time-traveling robot called Microwave and a witch named Alchemiss. Capes evokes a later, more serious era: the Bronze Age of the 1970s and ’80s, after Stan Lee ditched the Comics Code Authority’s seal of approval to publish a Spider-Man story about drugs. It was a time when superhero stories became grittier, more political, and often dystopian.
Different as they are, Freedom Force and Capes share the influence of Morgan Jaffit. A writer on Capes, Jaffit was part of Ken Levine’s Irrational Games during the Freedom Force era, and it’s no coincidence that Capes references the period in comics history immediately following the one Freedom Force does.
“That is 100% intentional,” Jaffit says. “When I was working on Freedom Force, the Silver Age of comics is really what Ken grew up with. It’s a bit of a tribute to Ken’s youth there. I was always interested with Freedom Force—had I had my way, we would have carried that forward through generations. We would have picked that story up in like an ’80s Frank Miller version next.”
Capes isn’t quite The Dark Knight Returns, however. It’s set in King City, where superheroes have been outlawed for 20 years, and if some poor kid exhibits unnatural abilities The Company comes to knock down their door. With heroes who are hated and feared by those they protect, it’s basically X-Men meets XCOM, complete with the squabbling found-family dynamics of classic X-Men stories.
“That ’80s Chris Claremont stuff,” Jaffit says, “big, bold soap opera drama that is interested in the political environment it exists in, flowing across to Frank Miller, Alan Moore, British Invasion, ’90s Vertigo stuff? That is my bread and butter. That’s my comics history and upbringing. Hopefully that is what flows out of Capes. That’s the vibe that I was certainly hoping to evoke.”
The team you control in the turn-based tactics battles of Capes are a new generation of young rebels, standing up to The Company under the guidance of Doctrine, a cranky old cape who’s been in hiding since being banned. Exploring that tension between experienced heroes and the brash young kids, it’s a game about legacy in more ways than one, which Jaffit is keen to emphasize by explaining that Capes really belongs to others—the core team of four at indie studio Spitfire Interactive, including creative director Cade Franklin.
