I didn't plan on seeing this download-only first-person shooter at Gamescom last week, but somehow the Warner Bros PR man managed to wrestle me into the demo room and then shut the door. Fair enough, I thought, I'll give Gotham City Imposters a quick try. And I'm really glad I did.
Designed by Monolith, the studio behind dark action adventures like FEAR and Condemned, it's an unashamedly cartoon-styled multiplayer romp, pitching two factions of crazed wannabes – The Jokerz and the Bats – against each other in idiotic four-vs-four street battles. Both sides have different classes to choose from including Mighty, Nimble and Tough, with each boasting different weapons and abilities. Nimble characters, for example, can don rollerskates, giving them super speed and the ability to jump over ramps.
Characters can be heavily customised, allowing players to change their avatar's look as well as their loadout. Outifts range from homemade halloween versions of the Batman and Joker constumes, to garish creations that retain only the signature colours and symbols of their inspirations. It's a neat idea, maintaining a definite visual theme while allowing players to express individuality. If you want your Joker to wear stockings, a pair of Y-fronts and a huge orange bowtie, that's fine.
Alongside main and secondary weapons, players can opt for a range of support items such as throwable bear traps and jack-in-the-box proximity mines. Matches take place in a variety of haunts around Gotham City, taking in city streets and abandoned amusement parks. We got to play amid a network of back alleys and car lots, jammed with vehicles, ramps and trampolines, allowing characters to leap high into the sky and onto rooftops.
With hyper-fast, twitchcore combat and plenty of mid-air skirmishes, the feel is vintage Arena-based shooter – think Unreal Tournament or Quake III, rather than Call of Duty. The conquest mode has the teams fighting to control key points on each map – the structure is a tug of war over 100 points, and it's highly fluid so even when one side is on 90 and the other on 10, it doesn't take long to shift the balance back. The set-up makes for furious, highly aggressive bouts, enriched with knockabout humour. Definitely one to watch out for if the thought of Crackdown mixed with Unreal, DC Comics and a sort of Jamie Hewlett interpretation of the Batman universe appeals.
Gotham City Impostors it out in early 2012 on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360
