Gotham City Imposters Hands-on

Developer: Monolith Productions / Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment / Played on: Xbox 360 / ESRB: Teen [Blood, Comic Mischief, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence] / Release Date: January 2012

IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FATTERY

The problem with being a living legend/idea in the minds of men is that—sometimes—your most ardent, devoted followers can be…well, something of a PR nightmare. When you’re an exceptionally fit, exceptionally intelligent, exceptionally principled crime fighter, there’s nothing worse than having a bunch of yahoo fanboy (oft-overweight) vigilante-wannabe schlubs running around dressed like you and blowing people away. Batman has faced similar problems in the past, in the comics—and this time, he’s got a bunch of Dorito-eating videogamers dispensing indiscriminate multiplayer ‘justice’ in his name (the Joker does, too, but he probably cares a lot less).

Gotham City Impostors, a downloadable title coming to Xbox Live and PSN, lets you dress up your onscreen self in crude (and very obviously homemade) approximations of either the Batman’s wardrobe or the Joker’s (indeed, the warring factions are known simply as the ‘Bats’ and the ‘Jokerz’). Then you go crazy on each other in a series of environments taken more-or-less from the Batman/Gotham City mythos. Batman has long espoused a commitment never to use guns—to use deadly force, for that matter—but in GCI, all bets are off (since the legendary Dark Knight never himself appears): Pistols, knives, explosives, sniper rifles, pipe bombs, axes, boomerangs—whatever does the job.

The numbers of weapon and gear attachments, unlocks, skins, gadgets, and all-around perks in GCI is serious business, and the various characters’ loadouts available put a heavy (and fairly comedic) emphasis on getting around the map with speed and in unique style. Any Batman impersonator worth his knocked-up utility belt is going to want a grappling hook gun to zip around the environment, of course, but the game also offers spring-loaded boots and roller-skates to boost off ramps, and even a personal gliding rig with which you can take advantage of high ledges, updrafts, and rooftops to survey, strafe or bomb the enemy.

All the while, the body types available for each faction (male and female) allow for every conceivable build from the fast-and-stringy to the muscle-bound hulk to the Lumbering Fatass (with concomitant movement and damage modifiers). The wardrobe options are equally varied, albeit thoroughly saturated with the sense of last-minute, on-the-cheap Halloween costumes—pinned towels for Batman capes, shiny-purple Goodwill specials for Joker blazers (face paint and bad lipstick included), and concealing headgear ranging from swim-goggles to ski-masks to boxes, if the budget it really an issue. You even get to pick your own cheesy catchphrases.

Among the modes we got a crack at were Fumigation (your basic territory multiplayer game) and Psychological Warfare, a capture-the-flag variant wherein each team struggles to nab and install batteries into a mind-control device. Amid the comedic gang-on-gang carnage, the occasional Gift pick-up appears randomly, triggering frantic every-Imposter-for-himself scrambles to grab the newly-spawned, wrapped packages. We got to play in game arenas including a seedy Gotham Docks district, and ran through the obligatoryCreepyAmusement Park. Monolith wasn’t discussing all the possible levels and environments at this time, but in the cases we did see first-hand, there were plenty of visual signage in-jokes for the attentive comic fan.

It’s been compared, not unfairly, to a goofy Team Fortress or Call of Duty, focused rather more on comedic anarchy and frantic movement, but the controls were solid and responsive enough to stand more or less toe-to-toe with more high-profile, full-console releases…and there is something to be said for swooping down (with a cobbled-together glider-rig) on your clown-painted foes almost literally like a Bat out of Hell and making some Joker’s smeary red grin just a little wider with a good old-fashioned combat knife. Gotham City Impostors is slated for release in mid-January 2012—at which time Batman might be wise to invest some of those Wayne billions in media spin-control.

SHARE THIS POST WITH YOUR IDIOT FRIENDS: