Gotham City Impostors Review

When I first heard about Gotham City Impostors, I didn’t really think much of it. “Great, another Call of Duty rip-off. Just what we need,” I thought. It wasn’t until I played the PSN beta that I really changed my tune – after just a few rounds, I found myself enjoying this multiplayer-only shooter a lot more than I expected. Sure, it is definitely similar to Modern Warfare 3 and its predecessors – but there is definitely something special about Gotham City Impostors, and it deserves to be known as more than another faceless clone in a crowded market of shooters. After a considerable amount of time with the $15 download, I feel like Monolith Productions and W.B. Interactive Entertainment have delivered the biggest surprise of 2012 so far.

Gotham City Impostors is neither the mindless, reflex-based Call of Duty nor the strategic, team-based Team Fortress 2; it really feels like a middle ground that also happens to be based on the Batman universe. Actually, it reminds me a little bit of Brink, only it isn’t based on objectives, and playing it doesn’t make you wish you were doing something else instead. The game is essentially a competitive shooter with three different game modes (Team Deathmatch, Psychological Warfare, and Fumigation), all of which support 6-versus-6 gameplay. Regardless of which gametype you are playing, you won’t go prone to camp and snipe the opposition, like in Call of Duty – instead, you’ll spend a lot of time bouncing on trampolines, gliding through the air, and zipping around with grappling hooks.

Gotham City Impostors is definitely chaotic, but not in the same sense as, say, Modern Warfare 3. I know that the Halo fanboys commonly argue that it is too easy to die quickly in Call of Duty; just like in Halo 3 and Halo: Reach, each new life in Gotham City Impostors feels like a fresh chance to cause some damage to the other team, and not so much another senseless respawn. Although the Team Deathmatch rounds only go up to 50 kills, each match seems to be paced very well, even if the outcome is a blowout. Moving on, some of the crazy gadgets and equipment items (the jack-in-the-box trap, the hatchet, the goggles, the rollerskates) seem to be rather unconventional, but they actually work brilliantly in the game and prove to be the difference-maker, ensuring that Gotham City Impostors feels very unique and fresh amongst its many peers. Many of the weapons aren’t so unique, but there are still some pretty crazy ones in there, such as the Freeze Gun and the katana that was recently released via DLC.

That being said, the basic framework of Gotham City Impostors is very much like Modern Warfare 3 and the other Call of Duty games. You earn experience points and level up, unlock weapon attachments and set customized load-outs. You can complete challenges specific to each weapon, special ability, and custom body type. The list goes on; basically the multiplayer interface just ends up feeling very familiar and therefore works out pretty well for those with a basic understanding of the Call of Duty setup. Even the control scheme is almost identical to Modern Warfare 3’s. The only notable exceptions are Killstreaks and Strike Packages; Gotham City Impostors doesn’t really feature anything like that, besides maybe the “Rampages” you can use after getting five kills or causing a certain amount of damage in a short span of time. On the other hand, you can earn Costume Points in each match that allow you to customize the appearance of your character for both the “Jokerz” and “Batz” teams, including various headgear (cardboard Batman cowl? Check!), pants (kilts? Check!), and capes (cheap plastic bat wings? Check!). There is plenty of customization – far more than you would expect from a $15 download – and you can expect more, with one free DLC pack already released on Xbox Live (coming soon to PSN and PC), and more planned in the future.

My personal experience with Gotham City Impostors was mostly spent in Team Deathmatch, and despite my preferences in Halo (short-range) and Call of Duty (assault rifles), I loved using the Shredder and Jackhammer – the unweildy but powerful heavy machine guns. I also experimented a lot with the Targeting Goggles, which basically allow you to highlight your opponents for your teammates by “tagging” them. These puppies really came in handy with racking up assists – I even had a match with 36 targeting assists, and led the team in assists in more than half the rounds I played. Cheap? Perhaps. Useful? Definitely. I feel like there are plenty of ways to exploit the game – rollerskates and body armor with a larger body type, for example, is almost unstoppable – but rarely does anything like this prevent a match in Gotham City Impostors from being fun to play, and that’s the most important part.

I will say this: if you have the choice of getting Gotham City Impostors for Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, go with the Xbox Live Arcade version. I actually purchased the PSN version myself, but after playing for several hours on the Xbox 360, I can’t say enough how much better it feels (the controller is obviously preferable for shooters), and how much more stable the average connection seems to be. Lag and server crashes are both common problems on PSN, but there are other issues that I didn’t like – for example, I typically ran into one or two players per match on PSN with a microphone. On Xbox Live, most players on both teams used headsets in every game. Therefore, teamwork is far more encouraged, or at least some kind of interaction – therefore taking advantage of the in-game loadouts and customization options that the game offers much more than the PSN version. I also noticed that the average player on Xbox Live seemed to have more skill – I would call it a coincidence, but my profile on PSN was at a much higher level, so I thought it was a strange trend.

For what it’s worth, there hasn’t been anything released in 2012 that provides more bang for your buck at $15 than Gotham City Impostors. Sure, it is a lot like Call of Duty, but at a fourth the price and almost no expense of the depth and customization options provided to the player, that is more of a compliment than a problem. Visually, Gotham City Impostors won’t blow anyone away – the textures are rough, and sometimes don’t load completely before the match – but the style is definitely appealing, and will draw in the Batman fans who might enjoy a Call of Duty-style game without the mindless, trigger-happy gameplay found in Modern Warfare 3. Fans of Activision’s franchise (and other shooters in general) will enjoy Gotham City Impostors for what it has to offer, but also because it’s just a lot of fun to play.