Preview: Gotham City Impostors has the comedy factor down pat and some unique features to boot.
I’m Batman. No, I’m Batman. No! I’m Batman. Et al. Such is the character premise of Gotham City Impostors as you don the cosplay version of the Dark Knight’s armour—complete with hockey pads—in order to fight for domination of tiny corners of Gotham City. And if playing as the baddies is more your pace, you can cosplay as the Joker instead.
Apparently a fair chunk of your incentive to continue playing the multiplayer title is for unlocking various kit items that let you personalise your appearance. And by your appearance, I mean the appearance that you see in a loading screen and only your enemies really get to see in-game. All that hard work for someone else’s benefit and subsequent LOLs. Such is the dilemma of skin unlocks for a first-person perspective game. But I digress.
Gotham City Impostors looks and feels like the modded offspring of Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty. Team Fortress 2 because of the effective comedic feel to the game, and Call of Duty because it plays exactly like the FPS juggernaut (right down to the controls). I only had hands-on time with the game for one map, one mode and in a 3v3 showdown (the final version will allow for 12 players max, including PC), but for anyone who has played a recent iteration of Call of Duty on Xbox 360, you already know the controls.
The only difference in default controls was that the special grenade bumper has been switched out for the ‘activate gadget’ button. Gadgets are one of the cool additions that stop Gotham City Impostors from playing like a straight CoD clone, and their tactical edge ships complete with plenty of laughs. While the grappling hook may be pretty straight up in what it does, you can also strap on roller skates, equip a (rather underpowered) boomerang or tie on a glider.
The glider was particularly entertaining as you had to use a combination of tactically positioned trampolines and hot air vents to stay in the air for any decent length of time. But the coolest bragging point of this gadget was the ability to perform a one-hit diving takedown, which looks particularly badass when someone is trying to grappling hook away from you.
Amid all the wacky humour and oddball gadgets, the real shining star of my time with Gotham City Impostors was the game mode itself. Both teams were required to capture and hold certain points to bring the team tally to 100 for that sweet, sweet ‘Victory!’ fade-up super. Big deal, right? That’s been done before.
What made it more interesting was that both teams started on 50 points apiece, and capturing a majority of the control points meant that your team’s total increased at the expense of the enemy’s total points. As if to illustrate the uber satisfying comeback potential of this mode, my team’s points were dwindled to four before we clawed our way back to ultimate 100-point victory. There are few things more satisfying than this type of turnaround.
Gotham City Impostors is slated to hit PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 screens within the first quarter of 2012 and I’m looking forward to the final result. Are you interested?
Issue: 137 | June, 2012