By Adam Smith on October 7th, 2011 at 11:37 am.
I still can’t quite believe that Gotham City Imposters is officially licensed. Coming across as a blend of Kick-ass and Batman, its comedic and yet brutal take on a Gotham without its iconic protector and his gruesome nemesis is too crazy to receive DC Comics sanction, surely? Apparently, and thankfully, that’s not the case, with a new animated short demonstrating precisely why I’m amazed and gleeful that the game exists. There’s a massive dose of customisation, allowing you to create a suave Joker or an unkempt and overweight Batman, and the game is currently in a short closed beta. From what I can gather, its multiplayer team-based madness is enjoyable and, well, mad. Watch this and feel your mind boggle.
Monolith are behind the game and it’s definitely tapping into No One Lives Forever’s style, both in terms of its crazy gadgets and its tone. There’s another insane trailer and some gameplay footage here. Did any of you manage to get into the beta?
07/10/2011 at 11:44 killmachine says:
i have a beta key but i won’t participate. the game requires g4wl. :(
07/10/2011 at 11:45 jinx_player says:
You sure will show them, won’t you?!!!
07/10/2011 at 12:05 Magnetude says:
Pass it on, then.
07/10/2011 at 12:14 Gnoupi says:
Have a beta key but the servers are on from 1am to 6am for me (CEST). So it’s not really ideal, for the current beta phase.
07/10/2011 at 12:53 killmachine says:
i would love to pass it to someone who is willing to install g4wl. sadly the key is already linked to my steam account. i really wanted to test the game out, but i just can’t get g4wl to run properly on my pc.
07/10/2011 at 14:01 Dana says:
You sure ? I got it registered on Steam, and it still needs g4wl ? Thanks but no thanks, waste of key though.
07/10/2011 at 17:41 pmh says:
Steam is just used for delivery, the game runs fine without it. If you can get the game files, you should be able to use it fine via GFWL (for some value of ‘fine’ given that you have to use GFWL).
07/10/2011 at 19:52 Wulf says:
That would be fine if GfWL weren’t such a poorly coded, crashtastical mess. It’s like Microsoft got the Windows ME guys to develop it.
07/10/2011 at 20:23 Navagon says:
One of the ME guys.Every other Friday. So as to not clash with his drugs rehab.
07/10/2011 at 11:53 westyfield says:
Wow, that was actually a really good trailer.
07/10/2011 at 11:54 neolith says:
I played the game at gamescom and was really disappointed. It plays like a reskinned TF2 that got somehow stripped of all the fun. The graphics were way oversaturated, sound was pretty much nonexistent and the controls were clunky at best (though I have to admit that I was forced to play it with a gamepad). The level I got to play was rather small, even for a 3 vs. 3 match.
From what I’ve experienced in Cologne I have to say it’s not a good game.
07/10/2011 at 20:45 runtheplacered says:
Although I disagree that it plays like a reskinned version of TF2 (in any capacity), I do agree that this game was a pretty big let down.
07/10/2011 at 12:08 Dusk777 says:
Should be able to play tonight. Sucks I have to stay up until 1am to get on the servers, but that’s what weekends are for I ‘spose. =]
07/10/2011 at 14:56 uthere1 says:
i also need to stay up till 1 (we live in the same time zone?). sucks they have these annoying hours.
07/10/2011 at 19:50 orcane says:
To be fair we Europeans weren’t supposed to be able to sign up to the beta in the first place, with the US ZIP requirement and stuff.
And if I want to check the store page of the game after I added the beta key to Steam, it told me the game’s not available in my country (do they have a Steam product page in the US?)
07/10/2011 at 20:14 wyrmsine says:
Try connecting earlier – the hours seem a little flexible.
07/10/2011 at 20:25 Ignorant Texan says:
orcane -
There is an US Steam page for GCI – http://store.steampowered.com/app/21180/?snr=1_4_4__13
07/10/2011 at 21:57 orcane says:
Alright, this is what I see there: “This item is currently unavailable in your region” :)
07/10/2011 at 12:11 JustOneWay says:
I can’t help but feel that this an brilliant idea that is going to end up being really tricky to realise as a good game.
The core conceit is brilliant as is that trailer, but I almost feel I want to read a comic book that does this more than play a TF2 clone as a way of exploring the idea.
Still, I hope they pull it off. It could be something special if they do.
07/10/2011 at 12:25 noname says:
“The uploader has not made this video available in your country.”
:(
07/10/2011 at 12:27 Adam Smith says:
Maybe this one will work?
Try me!
07/10/2011 at 14:12 Frank says:
Yup. Thanks, guy
07/10/2011 at 19:19 Shih Tzu says:
You are an international hero, Mr. Smith.
07/10/2011 at 12:26 ASBO says:
I’m in the beta for this, and got a chance to play it last night.
Comparisons to Brink will be inevitable I think. I gave up on it after 30 minutes (not including the 30 minutes waiting for GFWL to do it’s thing). I should point out that maybe 15 minutes of that was spent in a loading lobby, listening to people swearing about each other. Then I took my headphones off and had the pleasure of watching people insulting each other via chat. Couldn’t turn that off. For whatever reason, the system is such that you have to wait around 3-5 minutes in the lobby waiting for a game to start. Then the countdown ends, and you’re informed that you have to wait for additional players to join.
Once the game starts, it looks ok, but performed terribly on my 8800GT (even with the graphical options set to automatic). Waiting for the camera to pan round 10 seconds after I moved the mouse only to discover I’d been shot was no fun. There are icons all over the screen, literally pointing out everything, except the enemies.
There are no customisation options prior to level 3, and I didn’t get that far. Sure some people will enjoy it., but I am utterly put off. I didn’t mind Brink, which at least performed well on my system.
EDIT: Also everyone involved is under an NDA, so don’t expect to hear from people still playing.
07/10/2011 at 12:27 LionsPhil says:
>Batman using a gun
>And Joker using a normal one for that matter
I think that’s more an indication that they’re imposters than the fact one’s a huge fat bloke. Stylised as this teaser thing is, it’s a little disappointing that it’s all throwing and shooting.
(Yes, yes, I know about Ye Olde Detective Comics.)
07/10/2011 at 14:27 JackShandy says:
Hassault?
Has… salt?
I’m totally bewildered.
07/10/2011 at 15:44 Adam Smith says:
HA HA HAssault may have made it clearer but, like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, those headlines demand that a man plies his art within limitations.
07/10/2011 at 15:38 pandora says:
Dead Leaves Gotham Episode?
07/10/2011 at 16:30 123 says:
i’m in the beta. but haven’t had a chance to play yet because of the match making system problems.
it does look interesting though. if they would drop GFWL and add dedicated server tools it could get interesting.
07/10/2011 at 16:48 Ignorant Texan says:
It was better last night. It really is a Beta, and not just a demo.
While the game servers are dedicated, the ability to host is not there, and probably won’t be. I think Monolith is chained to GFWL by Warner Brothers, so I’m afraid the game will be stuck with it.
07/10/2011 at 20:50 Nogo says:
Looks more like Shadowrun than anything to me.
Here’s hoping!
08/10/2011 at 17:25 EpicusFuror says:
Looks somewhat Shank-ish to me…
LUV IT!! :)
07/10/2011 at 21:46 Talon says:
I’m in the technical beta but I’m pretty sure everything is covered under an NDA….
But I’m reasonably sure that even if I wasn’t, I could tell you shite-all about the game because the servers aren’t anything close to being playable. Stories of lag, lag, lag and lag abound, and that’s when you can get in, which is rare, even during testing hours.
It’s just frankly not playable right now to any degree, so it’s hard to tell how ‘fun’ it is compared to MNC or TF2
08/10/2011 at 11:21 RegisteredUser says:
Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog anyone?