Gotham City Impostors was released today for Xbox Live, PSN, and PC; hopefully I have the willpower to stop playing long enough to tell you about it.
I don’t know how I will feel about GCI in a month, or a week. But I do know that I haven’t had this much fun playing a game the same day it was released in a long time. It helps that the game functions properly and doesn’t seem to be plagued with any real first-day jitters. I know I’ve been harping about the game a bit, but it does seem to be meeting expectations. If you have any reservations, go and download the demo. Its up now and it’s free, giving you one hour of gameplay, free of restrictions. Although it is too soon for a full review (the game really is that robust), I have managed to come up with 5 reasons why GCI is worth your attention, even if it’s for an hour.
- There is more customization than most shooters – Everything you would expect to be able to customize, you can. There are weapons, secondaries, gadgets, grenades, etc. It’s all there. The gadget customization really shines. Want to zoom around the map on roller skates? We’ve got that. Want to glide around like a flying squirrel? We’ve got that too. You can also adjust your body type (which effects your speed), your costume, your voice, your face… need I go on?
- It’s easy to learn, yet skill based – Anyone who has played a shooter before will feel comfortable with the controls. I don’t consider myself a pro-gamer, but it only took me a few rounds to get a familiar feel for the controls. The learning curve is graded by success of the game’s various skill based weapons. It’s really easy to figure out how everything works, it’s using them effectively that’s the trick.
- There’s room for individual achievement – While team play is rewarded and there aren’t any over-the-top kill streak rewards, there is still room for everyone to be a hotshot now and then. If you’re crafty, it isn’t too hard to keep a team of batman impostors off of an important point, even if they are wearing garbage lids and black shoulder pads from Models.
- Good gameplay is rewarded – You’re rewarded for saving friendly units, defending points, healing… you know, the usual. But, much like in Bulletstorm, the harder it is to use a skill shot, the more likely it is you will be rewarded for the difficulty. Snagging the “skeet” stamp for shooting an enemy player out of the sky is very rewarding by the way.
- It’s funny – It’s not like chuckle funny, it’s actually funny. Not just the aesthetic stuff either, like the voices or the funny costumes, although that stuff is pretty funny. The gameplay itself manages to crank out some pretty funny moments. During one game mode I was forced to run around slapping enemy Jokerz who, for some reason, were still able to shoot at me. You may lose, but you will lose laughing.
I could have written more but I will stop here. I can see the bat signal from my window, Gotham needs me, and my rocket launcher that fires missiles made of 2 liter bottles is ready to fire.
