Who, at some point in their lives, has not wanted to be a superhero? When we were little kids, we would find a red blanket to tie around our necks to be Superman, or cut a pencil shape out of cardboard to be a rocketship to take us to Mars. Maybe you wanted to be a pirate and used a stick as a sword, all while shouting “Arr!” and “Avast!” It was a very basic form of make believe aided by the use of scrounged materials and our imagination.
In a sense, Gotham City Imposters is a game about two groups of people who never grew out of this basic hero worship in the form of imitative imagination. And this is where the game gets its charm. Because everything in the game is clearly meant to be an imitation of something from either Batman or Joker, but these are the adult-equivalents of the red blanket tied around your neck. One of the common costumes you will see is a happy meal box which has eye holes cut out and has been drawn on to look like Batman’s face and cowl. Batman has body armor. You have a metal trash can lid strapped to your chest. Batman has a grappling hook. You have a hook attached to a winch which allows you to turn the crank and pull yourself along the line. Batman has batarangs. You have a gun.
Gotham City Imposters is something of a guilty pleasure. The graphics aren’t amazing, the gameplay is mostly the same stuff we’ve seen a million times, the concept isn’t all that novel. But there is a certain zany kind of moxie that it has that endears it to me. The controls are a little bit awkward initially, but once you start to get used to them and get into the flow of the game, you really start to enjoy yourself.
Gotham City Imposters takes the premise that the citizens of Gotham have decided to stand up for their beliefs. Some of them believe in freedom, justice, and an awful lot of apple pie. Others believe in having a crazed time blowing things up and being completely bonkers. Like all true Americans (and especially true Gothamites) they are prepared to defend these beliefs with guns. Lots of guns.
There is the standard fare of automatic rifles, grenades, sniper rifles, shotties, and so on. But the accessories are what really let you have fun. From roller skates to bear traps to glider wings, you can run, grappling hook, and glide your way through the maps. There is even a medic-type weapon which heals teammates. Here it is a megaphone, which the user shouts encouragements into to heal teammates and give them a defensive buffs.
There are only four game types currently. Team Deathmatch is your standard deathmatch, of course. Teams of players fight to have their team rack up the largest number of kills. Anybody with a partcularly low kill/death ratio will be loved by the opposite team and hated by their own.
Fumigation is a territory capture-type game where each team struggles to control at least two (if not all three) territories. As the seconds tick by, either team is awarded more control until either the timer is up or one side has 100% control over the territory. At that point, either a swarm of bats come in to kill everything that looks like a clown, or a neurotoxin is released to kill everyone not immune (the Bat-Team).
My favorite mode is the third, Psych Warfare, a CTF varient. Capture the Flag is an old street game that had as many rules and variations as there were neighborhoods to play it. Kick The Can was one, Steal The Bacon was another. Psych Warfare is more like Steal The Bacon. Rather than both teams having one flag and each trying to steal from one another, there is a single flag (in this case, a battery). Each team attempts to grab said battery and bring it back to a machine. Once the battery is hooked up to the machine and the machine powered up, it broadcasts messages to both the friendly and opposing team. The opposing team suddenly lose the ability to use their weapons and pretty much run around like a bunch of idiots while a voice chants in their head saying things like “You’re worthless….you’re an idiot….you’ve already lost, why don’t you just give up?” The friendlies, however, hear a voice in their heads complimenting them, telling them how successful, smart, handsome, able they are. It’s pretty intoxicating to take the enemy team out like this, especially because the opposing team can still attack- by slapping. Yes, this is the first game I can think of where a sissy-slap (think of the classic cartoon idea of two people who want to fight but are too afraid to get hurt, so both start slapping the air with their heads leaned back- that’s a sissy-slap) is actually a move, let alone a deadly one. This hypnotism only lasts about 20 seconds, and then a new battery is dropped onto the field, and the mad dash begins anew.
The last game mode is a training mode, which is cleverly disguised as a challenge mode. Unfortunately, those of us who just want to play the game will skip the training and go straight into the game and have no idea how to use anything except a few basic weapons. Added to this is a very short training level and a menu system that doesn’t actually tell you all of the possible key bindings, and you can find yourself quickly frustrated initially. It took me ages to figure out that there is no mic button, but instead everybody with a microphone is always broadcasting.
There are currently only 4 maps, as far as I can tell. On the one hand, it isn’t as much variation as many of us would like. On the other hand, it does mean that you learn the maps much more quickly, which increases your effectiveness dramatically.
As you level up, you unlock different perks. These allow you to change your body type (which affects damage resistance and speed), clothing types, weapon modifications, and so on. The XP required to level up is low enough that you should gain a level every few games, even if you aren’t the MVP. This also means that you can customize your loadout as you play. Rather than being stuck with sniper/scout/heavy, you can choose a combination. I personally like a modified rocket launcher as primary, with megaphone (the healing weapon) as my secondary. It’s a nice touch, and something I deeply appreciate.
According to the developers, there is a free DLC that will soon be released which will include more weapon mods and more game-types, as well as the ability to drop-in to games. I question if that might not have been good to just package with the game (currently you need to wait for 8 people to join a lobby to start a game, which can be tedious) but the game still stands well on its own. Is it a masterpiece? No. But it has a certain goofy charm to it which more than makes up for its rough polish. And at the price, I would definitely say that if you’re looking for a new team-based online FPS, something a little bit quirky and different from the standard fare, you’ll find an enjoyable experience in Gotham City Imposters.
-Broklynite
