Gotham City Impostors recently came out on Xbox Live and I still don’t really know what to think of the game or why it really exists. As the title suggests it is a game set in the Batman universe without Batman or Joker. In fact you are running around on a team that is either full of Batman impostors or Joker impostors. The premise is explained to you somewhat in the tutorials with the leader saying that Batman is rich and that is how he can afford to pursue justice in a more noble fashion or whatever. The fact that the impostors are not as rich as Batman means that they have to use guns and kill people. Yeah, it didn’t make much sense to me either.

The game seems to control really well, in fact, it controls a lot like a Call of Duty title. I’m a huge Call of Duty fan so I don’t have a problem with that at all but I’m struggling to find a reason for why this game exists other than first person shooters are popular right now and they wanted to see if they could combine that with the Batman license. There are five different modes for you to choose from with Team Deathmatch, Fumigation, Psych Warfare, Challenges and Initiation. Team Deathmatch should be self-explanatory, Fumigation is where you “capture the gasblasters to unleash your attack” and Psych Warfare is where you “grab the battery and plug it in to demoralize your enemies with propaganda.” The Challenge mode is something where you simply challenge yourself to earn medals and experience while Initiation is the tutorial mode. There are also five maps to play on which can start to get boring after a little while.

As you play the game more you will unlock a number of items and abilities. You will be able to edit your loadouts, edit your costumes, personalize your calling card and more. There are plenty of unlockables here and that is probably what will keep people playing this game for a little while. There is also the “Black Market” where you can use Microsoft points to purchase calling card backgrounds and mascots. One interesting item that you can also buy is that you can buy an XP boost for either yourself or your team. When you do this you essentially purchase the ability to get Double XP for one hour. I suppose this will help you level up a lot quicker if you don’t mind spending the money but it is just weird.

Gotham City Impostors does have a pretty cool sense of humor and I found myself chuckling a couple of times during my play sessions with it. The maps do have some interesting features such as trampolines that you will shoot you into the air and the ability to glide for a bit and then essentially dive bomb an enemy that is on the ground. If you played enough and got really good at it I could see this being a popular and fun maneuver. You also have skateboard ramps that will launch you into the air as well as a grappling hook to utilize so getting around the maps quickly is pretty easy. As I said above, the game does control really well and pretty much everything you would expect from a shooter in 2012 is there.

I’m not exactly sure what segment of gamers this title was aimed at. I suppose it was aimed at people who enjoy first person shooters but if you are a shooter fan you are probably busy playing Modern Warfare 3 and/or Battlefield 3. Gotham City Impostors looks like it was initially designed to be a “freemium” title and then somewhere along the line they decided to charge for it. It even says that you can buy “premium” items in its stores. Frankly I think this title could have been really successful as a freemium game. I’m sure a lot of people would have tried it due to its license and probably would have had a lot of fun with it. By all means download the free demo and check it out for yourself. I personally don’t think it is worth the price they are asking for but there is still some fun to be had, especially if you are the type of gamer who enjoys a lot of unlockables in a game.

Score: 7/10

Originally posted on Totally Gaming Network