GOTHAM CITY IMPOSTERS: And the Joker got away

Growing up I had a friend who would constantly dress up as Batman. Now when I say constantly, I mean this kid wore a batman costume almost every day of the year. We would run up and down our block fighting imaginary bad guys, while I would try to convince myself that being Robin wasn’t that bad. The truth is being Robin sucks. Nobody wants to be Robin when they can be the Dark Knight. Aside from the whole thing with his parents being brutally murdered as a child, there is no reason to not want to be Batman. Batman is a hot commodity right now, and pretending to be the caped crusader is in at the moment. Instead of procuring a cowl and prancing around the streets like a lunatic, you can now take your pretending to a whole new level in Gotham City Imposters. 

 

Riding the Batman hype train, Warner Brothers Interactive has produced a Batman game without any actual Batman. How many times can I use Batman in a sentence? Anyway, the game’s premise is simple, Batman and the Joker have left the city and in their absence gangs of thugs have chosen sides. On one side of the fence you have “The Bats,” a group that emulates the crime fighting skill of Batman, and on the other side you have “The Jokerz,” who attempts to match the brutal insanity of the Joker. Aside from an opening tutorial in which you are trained by two of the members of “The Bats” that is the entirety of the story. Batman is gone, the crazies come out to play. 

Remember how cool Batman Beyond was?

 The entire set up oozes personality. Then you realize the game is team based first person shooter. Nevertheless, Gotham City Imposters makes a valiant effort to distinguish itself from the vast array of vapid brown and grey military shoot-em- ups. In fact, Gotham City Imposters is one of the most intriguing and fun shooters in a long time. Imagine the slick controls and leveling up system found in Call of Duty, combined with an over the top art style, whacky upgrades, and a ridiculous amount of customization. 

Customization is the name of the game. Everything can be customized including your characters appearance, what weapons and gadgets you use, even the pitch of your characters voice. It gets really insane sometimes, and the character costume pieces are all made to resemble simple household objects made into do-it-yourself costumes. You may have a helmet that is in actuality just a cardboard box, or maybe you’ll have chest plates that are really just catcher’s pads. It’s a goofy design choice that helps extenuates the silliness of the game, and really keeps you motivated to keep unlocking new apparel. 

Lookin good Batz

 The game modes are all familiar to anyone who has played a first person shooter before. There is standard team deathmatch, Fumigation: Domination with gas canisters, Warfare: Capture the flag where the the victors get to disable the opponents making them easier to kill, Bounty Hunter: Kill Confirmed, and some single player challenges. The new twists in each game mode make them feel interesting and unique, while still retaining the basic structure of familiar game types. The various maps around Gotham City are fine, although none of them really stand out as anything special. The focus is not on the map structure but the customization of your character and how you traverse the environment.

None of these side features would mean anything if the core gameplay wasn’t fun, but luckily Gotham City Imposters plays a lot like Call of Duty. The aiming is quick and responsive, and the extra gadgets make the normal task of shooting players even more intriguing. 

The way you decide to handle an online battle is different almost every time you play. You could glide over your enemy and come down with a huge stomp, or perhaps hang back and snipe from afar, you could even grapple to gain leverage over your opponent. The traversal is just as fast and furious as you would expect and desire from any big budget shooter. Also the game has a feature in which damage pops off of your opponents as you shoot them. Hrm that sounds fairly nondescript at first, but I’m speaking in literal terms here. Numbers literally fly out of the opposition as you gun them down, and it makes the shooting feel satisfying and rewarding. You know when you’re hitting someone because big numbers begin to fill up the screen and make you feel like some untouchable gunslinger.

If you are done with Arkham City and looking for some more Batman goodness to take up your time, Gotham City Imposters may actually be an ok route to travel. Sure there is no actual Batman in the game, but the game exudes a cartoony vibe all of its own, while still paying homage to the original source material.

Thanks Batman!

  So that's that guys. I forgot to properly sign off last time. This whole experiment has been really tiring. School is starting up again, so I may post less frequently, but I'm going to do my best to keep at it. As always stay safe, and treat each other well.