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[Eagle of Fire]

I have an old issue of Pc Gamer dating from April '96 with a preview about a game named "Superheroes". In the review it says that it should be a summer hit so I guess it got out in Summer '96 or '97.

The preview claim it is a super hero Xcom clone. Basically, you have super heroes and super powers and you use them to fight crime and 3 super villain leagues.

Superheroes

Think of SimTex's Superheroes as "X-COM with superheroes," and you have some idea of what SimTex has in store. The idea is simple: it's a short time in the future, and super-heroes are commonplace. At the beginning of the game, you start your own superhero league, recruiting or creating superheroes to battle the three super-villain leagues. Missions and superheroes can ge generated randomly, giving a high replayibility as you tackle the bad guys with different heroes who have different powers.

You start off with fifteen ready-made superheroes to chose from, such as Nightshade, Hunter, Photon, and others. Each has his or her own powers, such as the ability to shapeshift or fire mind blasts. If you don't like any of these heroes, you can make your own by creating a unique set of character properties.

Each hero has eight base characteristics, such as intelligence, dexterity, strenght, and so on. They also have skills, ranging from computer technology, to martial arts, occult studies, high finance, and beyond. There are fifty superpowers altogether to choose from, including physical blast, mental blast, energy blast, direct missile attacks, telekinesis, and so on, as well as over thirty "modifier" ratings, such as armor strenght, automatic weapons, and other values.

Similar in desing to the paper-game, Champions, (which itself has become a computer vaporware legend), Superheroes is equal parts Syndicate and X-COM. It's divided into two main sections: a global view and an angled 3D tactical combat view. When you create your league, you get a superhero base, with training, computer, deployment, and medical facilities, which can all be expanded. In the global view, you get missions much as in the original X-COM, then send your superheroes into battle. These missions are randomly generated with an overall strategy behind them as you work to destroy the three super-villain leagues and the leaders. A wide variety of landscapes ensures a high degree of mission diversity and replayability, with battles across a mix of city views, enemy headquarters, forests, frozen tundras, and other locations.

Any kind of missions the designers can think of will be included: free-for-all fights, crime stopping, super-hero deathtraps, goverment subversion, recovery of an imprisoned hero, and more. Plus, each time you play, the members of the super-villain league will have different skills and properties, adding even more to the replay factor. With Superheroes set to ship with multi-player support, as well as its wide array of heroes and missions, this looks like it could be a summertime hit. No one has managed to effectively pull off a superhero game yet, but if anyone can do it it's the folks at SimTex.

Since I never heard of that game ever, you can bet it makes me extremely curious. I did a fast search on the net and found nada. Either it never shipped or it got out on another name, or was not popular enough to be mentionned anywhere.

Does someone know anything about this title?

[wormpaul]

Sounds like an intresting game to me k:

[Wael]

I believe I´ve read that it never got out-/

[Eagle of Fire]

A shame really, it really sound great. :w00t:

[Tom Henrik]

That is correct. SimTex abandoned the Superheroes project, but it was picked up by the Australian company Irrational Games and released under the title Freedom Force in 2002.

[Wael]

And the name was "Agents of Justice"

And what it evolved to,
Freedom Force

Article of the curse of Superhero games-/

/Edit/ Freedom Force was a success-/

[Eagle of Fire]

A success maybe, but was it any good? I reckon 3D graphics on the snapshots, and that just can't be a good omen.

That's definitely not a game I would buy only by the looks. That's pretty much the opposite!

[Borodin]

Agents of Justice was an attempt to use the XCOM concept in a new setting, but it got bogged down in the move to a new graphics engine (which was never Simtex's strong point). What they showed each year at E3 was great, but they did that 3 years running. Freedom Force doesn't have the same scope as the original, but it's a reasonably good if limited RPG/strategy hybrid.

When you said Superheroes, at first I thought you meant Superheroes of Hoboken: an extremely funny RPG/adventure hybrid.

[Wael]

I meant-/
A success in my eyes,
a good game,
in my eyes-/

[Fawfulhasfury]

Looks good to me. k: