Gotham City Impostors

Just the other day I got an email invitation to participate in the beta for Gotham City Impostors. I remembered hearing about this game awhile back, but hadn’t given it much thought since then. The premise of the game is that Batman and The Joker both have crazy fans, and they try to help their respective idols by strapping on makeshift costumes and running around shooting at each other. In one of the cutscenes I was shown, the “leader” and the Bats stated that Batman has vast wealth to afford not only advanced gadgets but also a stricter moral code.

I fired up the game, and where most games have the obligatory tips during loading screens, this game has “office bat”. Basically, Batman in a shirt and tie. Office bat has quite a sense of humor, and all the tool tips are related to whatever you are looking at at the moment, not just random tips that you won’t remember when someone is shooting at you.

There are two game types on display in the beta, as well as two maps. The first game type is called “Fumigation” and it is your generic “hold these three points so your team can win”. Now, this is a great starting point for this game, as it builds on this premise in a funny and original, if seriously unrealistic, way. Each team has a certain gas that is produced when any one of the three “gasblasters” is held. The gasblasters then, in keeping with their name, proceed to blast gas into the atmosphere. There are percentages in the lower left hand corner of the HUD, and the more gasblasters your team holds, the faster the gas will build too 100% in your team’s favor. Once it gets to 100%, that team will win the match. If the Bats win, the fumes cause a swarm of bats (the actual animal) to fly in and kill anything resembling a clown. If the Jokerz win, a terrible nerve gas kills all the Bats (the other team). The other game type is "Pysch Warfare" which is essentially a single flag CTF. Your team is tasked with taking the battery to your "Demoralizer" and gaurding it for a certain amount of time, so that when it activates the other team is so demoralized that they can't use any weapons or gadgets for a period of time, and during this period you get bonus points for "mopping them up".

The two maps in the beta are pretty well done, and they have their ups and downs. “Crime Alley” makes an obligatory appearance, as does “Amusement Mile”. Its fun to run around these well known places in the Batman universe and unloads all sorts of ridiculous weapons on your enemies. I am excited to see what other maps will make it into the full game.

As it is in beta form, its various flaws and glitches (and lag, oh the lag), must be forgiven for now. Hopefully we see an improvement to these issues when the game is fully released. I’m not one to generally complain about lag in online games, since I am still amazed at the concept to begin with, and also because I hate it when my friends use lag as an excuse for them sucking. If you suck, admit you suck. Anyway, as I said there are many little problems with this game as of the time of this writing, but I assume they will be fixed in the full release.

If you are able to get your hands on this beta, play the crap out of it until the full game is released on February 21st.