Hand Of Fate devs’ new tactics game is XCOM with superheroes

If you were ever fond of roguelike deckbuilding ARPG Hand Of Fate and its sequel then you might be interested in the newly revealed superhero tactics RPG Capes. It’s in development at Spitfire Interactive, a freshly founded studio made up of former Hand Of Fate devs. None of the characters in the trailer seem to be wearing their blankets around their shoulders, but it’s worth a watch all the same.

Capes is set in a city that was taken over by supervillains 15 years ago. The aim of the game is to train up a new generation of rookie heroes and take back the town from the various, nefarious crims. Spitfire say you’ll be able to combine superhero moves to take bad guys down, while moving around levels strategically in a turn-based tactical fashion. It’s a bit reminiscent of the XCOMs, natch, and will also be going up against Marvel’s Midnight Suns, recently pushed back to a 2023 launch.

Hand Of Fate’s creators Defiant Development were shuttered in 2019, with founder Morgan Jafitt crediting the closure to the games market changing too quickly for the company to adapt. Spitfire Interactive is made up of key members of Defiant’s former team who worked on the Hand Of Fate series, including Jafitt.

Jafitt previously worked on the excellent and similarly superheroic Freedom Force when he entered the industry. I rather like the sound of Capes because it reminds me somewhat of the ol’ Batman storyline No Man’s Land. Winning territory back from supervillains is something I can get behind, and an interesting concept for a tactics game.

Alec (RPS in peace) became more than a little frustrated with his character’s masked rival in his Hand Of Fate review back in 2015, but otherwise thought it was a pretty smart game. “Hand of Fate’s deepest foundations are compulsion loops,” he said, “knowingly exploiting the human hunger for more and better items and numbers and to keep on cleaning up a map/board/menu until no more options remain.”

Capes is earmarked for a Q1 2023 release on Steam, but no firm details beyond that yet. Up, up and away!