Gotham City Impostors Review

Ever since it debuted, IGN's been a bit baffled by Gotham City Impostors.
It's a downloadable first-person shooter set in the Batman universe,
but it doesn't feature the Dark Knight (who, of course, is a hero who
doesn't believe in guns). I've spent a few days with Gotham City
Impostors, and while I enjoy the game, I don't know why it exists. Who
was asking for this mash-up? It's like when they put out Batman action figures with neon skis, but I digress.



There's no single-player campaign in Gotham
City Impostors outside of a few medal challenges. The bulk of the title
is online firefights between six members of team Batman and six members
of team Joker. Mind you, you are not Batman or the Joker -- just guys
and gals dressed like the characters. You pick your body type and
loadout before spitting bullets in one of three multiplayer modes
(iterations of deathmatch, king of the hill and capture the flag) and
hoping you end up with some sweet XP to unlock the next round of perks.


It's one-dimensional and straight forward, but it's well put together.
Plenty of people picked up the controller at my desk and said "Oh, this
controls just like Call of Duty." It's easy to aim, run, switch weapons
and everything else you'd expect from a first-person shooter in 2012.
The controls feel good and it runs well -- especially for an online
title where you're dying and then getting thrown right back into the
action.


However, it's the things you don't expect that Gotham City Impostors has
loads of. Whereas Christian Bale and comic books have trained us all to
think of dark, rainy nights with serious undertones when it comes to
Gotham City and its Caped Crusader, Impostors is all about cheeseball.


You assemble your character's outfit from scraps -- a vampire cape, a
cardboard box cowl and so on. Each of the five maps is bathed in
sunlight with bright purples and greens radiating from the walls. The
characters you play as spit out one-liners such as "Why won't anyone be
my friend?!" after a kill. This is like the child of COD and the Batman
and Robin flick. The Adam West Batman TV show would be its Godfather. So
much crazy gets shoved into the game that it's easy to find yourself
giggling after getting wasted or watching the animated tutorials.


While you have normal weapons like rifles and machine guns, unlockable
support items and gadgets like spring shoes, the glider cape, and roller
skates also get tossed in. You can use boomerangs, glowing green
goggles to see through walls, and personalized calling cards so your
victims know who smoked them.




Oh, that Joker sucks.All
of this is... fine. I had enough fun playing Gotham City Impostors, but
I was never hooked. The flat trees and blocky visuals aren't
impressive, and, outside of deathmatch, the modes bore. While perfectly
functional and crammed with unlockables (there's at least a level 500),
it really amounts to just five maps, a sense of humor and the Batman
license. I don't know if that's enough to warrant $15 and another
first-person shooter multiplayer suite.


What's really interesting -- at least from a console perspective -- is
Gotham City Impostor's love of the microtransaction. You earn costume
coins you can use to buy new gloves and emblems for your character
throughout the game, but if you don't feel like waiting, you can use
real money to buy the superficial looks. I'm fine with the ability to
buy cooler calling cards and mascots that float next to your character,
but the ability to buy an hour of Double XP over and over again is a bit
weird.



Closing Comments
Gotham
City Impostors is a functional shooter with a sense of humor and a
Batman license. It's got plenty to unlock, but it's not all that deep.
Go, shoot, win. Over and over. If you're looking for a first-person
shooter that doesn't take itself seriously, have at it, but don't expect
a FPS revolution.