Gotham City Imposters

[River_Rat_459]

I signed up for the beta. If I'm selected, I'll let you know how it is.

Gotham City Imposters is Fun And Unique, But is That Enough?
(PC, PS3, XBOX 360)
Can Monolith's newest game take on its Free-to-Play competition?

By Ryan Winterhalter 12/13/2011

Developers take a big risk implementing unconventional ideas in video games. History has shown that consumers are not exactly welcoming to anything too different from the norm. However, it's not the risks that Gotham City Imposters takes that makes me doubt its future success, but rather the risks it doesn't.

As you might guess, Gotham City Imposters takes place in Gotham City. Deciding that Batman shouldn't have all the fun, a group of aspiring super heroes and villains have sprung up. These newcomers, however, are not exactly what you'd call prime vigilante or criminal material. They wear ridiculous masks that look like a three-year-old's Halloween costume; some get around on roller skates; and all wield a deadly assortment of makeshift weapons. Underneath the humorous window dressing GCI is a pure multiplayer shooter and nothing more. This is actually quite refreshing -- it's nice to see a developer as talented as Monolith tackle a smaller, and more focused game. GCI lets you customize your character with a variety of outlandish outfits, gadgets, and weapons. My Batman wannabe was an obese nerd on roller skates with a cheap looking cowl, undersized T-shirt, assault rifle, and frag grenades. Meanwhile the get-up and kit sported by the rival "Jokerz" team was just as ridiculous.

As expected in a modern FPS, you unlock new weapons, equipment, and costumes as you play through the game. However, the sheer number of unlockables in GCI impresses in itself. Additionally, there are a variety of gameplay modes, including challenge levels that require you to master the various gadgets of the game without interference from enemy players. When you do go online to tackle the competition, you'll find that the competitive modes are fairly standard, but at least try adding a twist to change things up. For example, instead of Capture-The-Flag, there's Fumigation Mode which tasks each team with setting off a gas bomb in their opponents' base. Players have to trigger the bomb and defend it until it detonates to score.

I spent a few hours playing the game at an event recently, and found myself more drawn into it then I expected. Unlock track aside, this is not a Call of Duty clone, and simply finding a shooter with atmosphere and style is somewhat of a relief. However, GCI's unique personality begs comparison with other quirky shooters -- Team Fortress 2 to be specific, but one could also include Battlefield Heroes. Both TF2 and GCI have an off-beat art style, both feature traditional game modes with a twist, and both have an enjoyable sense of humor. However, TF2 is free, and GCI is not. That's why I said at the beginning of the article that it's the risks that the game doesn't take that make me worry for its success. The game is unique, but its business model is not.

If you're someone looking for a cartoony, and quirky shooter (and the success of TF2 shows that there are a lot of you) you have choices at this point in time. Even if Gotham City Imposters ends up being a better game than TF2, the latter still has the advantage of being free. GCI will cost 1200 Microsoft points or $15 depending on platform. My demo leads me to believe that it will be more than worth the money, but I wonder if there won't be large number of players who see the game and decide, "nah, I'll just stick with TF2." Hopefully, that's not the case and there will be an ample player base to compete against when the game comes out in January.

[loakii]

I just tried the free trial of the game. I thought it has a different game play from the usual 1st person shooters. Still get to shoot people online but the the theatrics of the game play are cool. I like the fact I can shoot a zip line across the map to get to different platforms or glide around.... its based on a genra of course, but a good break from COD

[loakii]

Its out of betta and can be downloaded for $15. I tried the free version they offered, which id the full version but 60 minutes of gameplay,l then I bought it...It has server issues of game matching but otherwise a really fun game so far

[River_Rat_459]

PC players....get on it if you haven't already!

UPDATE: As it turns out, owners of the pre-F2P version of Gotham City Impostors on PC are entitled to a permanent double XP bonus, unlocked via an emailed code that must be entered into Steam. I can confirm this personally, as an email containing a code and unlock instructions just appeared in my box. Seems fair to me. What say you, "old school" Impostors? Is this satisfactory compensation?

ORIGINAL POST: Monolith Productions' faux-Batman vs. faux-Joker shooter Gotham City Impostors is now a free-to-play title on Steam. This confirms what we had suspected earlier in the week after a Steam database registry for a "Gotham City Impostors F2P trailer" appeared.

Oddly, there's no mention of the game's pricing switch on its official website or, really, anywhere else. Packs of weapons, gadgets, support items, and costumes are selling for $1-5, but you won't need any of that to sample the core game for yourself. There's been no change in the pricing for either console version of the game, though that shouldn't come as a surprise. It's also not clear what PC users who paid for the game previously will get out the switch, if anything.

Needless to say, we've reached out to WBIE for comment.

SOURCE: http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/pos...play-on-steam/