Cape - Superhero interactive fiction

[autumnchen]

Since there are a lot of superhero stories on here, I thought some people might be interested in Cape by Bruno Dias, which provides a rather different take on superheroes. It’s also one of my favorite interactive fiction things. Description: “Cape is a superhero origin story for the cyberpunk dystopia we’re all living in.”

Link:

http://ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/competition2015/Cape/Cape%201.0.2/index.html

It’s interesting to contrast Cape with all the superhero stories on CoG (I was reminded of it after playing Paradigm City). For one, it’s probably darker and more cynical than any CoG/HG that I’ve played. It’s also much shorter and almost entirely linear, with one ending and no romance or side arcs. The linearity is not necessarily a bad thing; it allows the game to have depth rather than breadth, to laser-focus on a few themes rather than spend time on characters most people won’t experience. And it doesn’t try to make having superpowers an allegory for real-world oppression (which is honestly refreshing). Cape is also very distinctly not a power fantasy; your character has a marginalized background and it’s not clear that their “heroism” has any long-term effect.

[HannahPS]

Seconding this recommendation! Really well written, and I like how it engages with and critiques superhero tropes without falling into parody. The world is fascinating and the powers are relatively understated, but have a nicely fresh and different feel depending what you go for. I played as a snake-based “hero” first, and enjoyed the difference in tone when I replayed as a shark.

I’m very fond of Mere Anarchy and Voyageur by the same author, too!

[Rhodeworks]

I hadn’t heard of this. I’ll have to check it out!