Gotham City Impostors was one of the titles I was really hoping to see at gamescom. The reveal trailer really appealed to me, both in terms of gameplay and the wicked sense of humour that the game offers. Even the premise itself, the Bats versus the Jokers, sounds awesome, even more so since it’s not just your typical Bat or Joker – they’re fully customisable.

The streets of Gotham City have been overrun by impostors bearing a striking resemblance to Batman and The Joker. Will you join the Bats team and fight for justice, or create chaos with the Jokerz team?

Whichever team you join you’ll be able to create and customise your own impostor based on Batman or The Joker as you go head-to-head against the other impostors in Gotham City Impostors, an online multiplayer first-person shooter from Monolith Productions. The game is based upon a concept from the DC Universe and sees up to 12 vigilantes (6 versus 6), either on Batman’s team or antagonist Joker’s team, battling for control over an unhinged Gotham City.

Gotham City Impostors is not a class based shooter, everything that you unlock can be customised. Your character is fully customisable, right down to your character’s body type, face, costume, make-up and even their voice and calling cards, while you’ll be able to arm your makeshift hero or villain with traditional weapons and gadgets or comical ones. You’ll also be able to customise how your character gets around, with mobility gadgets including roller-skates and glider wings. This is your chance to create the Batman and Joker that you’ve always envisioned in your mind. As you progress in the game you’ll earn experience through kills and achievements, team support and challenges, enabling you to level up and upgrade your character even further.

Not only did we get the chance to chat to Lucas Myers (Associate Producer at Monolith Productions) at gamescom, but we also spent some hands-on time with the game. We played a couple of rounds of a new mode called Fumigation. It’s a control point type game mode (we played it three versus three) that sees The Jokerz facing off against the Bats in an attempt to be the first team to capture three different zones.

Once a team has captured all three points they win the round. At this stage if you’re playing on The Jokerz side when you have captured all three points a toxic gas will be released to kill the Bats, while if you’re playing on the Bats team when you have captured all three points The Jokerz will be taken out by the swarm of bats that are released. The only catch is that this mode is tug of war based, so until one team has reached 100% and captured all three points, no one has won the round.

You’ll be able to make your way around the map by making use of the trampolines dotted throughout, giving you quick access to the other capture points, which are all clearly marked on the mini-map in the top left corner of the screen. You’ll need to develop a strategy to both capture the points and defend them. You’re armed with an array of weapons to achieve this, as well as a few awesome gadgets to test out. I played on The Jokerz team and enjoyed getting to higher ground quickly thanks to my grappling hook.

All of the maps and modes in the game are inspired by DC Comics’ Batman license. In addition to the Fumigation mode, so far we also know that Psychological Warfare, a Capture the Flag type mode, and Team Deathmatch will be available in the game. But for the rest, Monolith is playing their cards very close to their chest.

Gotham City Impostors is a really fun, co-operative and competitive online shooter. Expect to have a lot of fun as an amateur vigilante or villain when the game arrives next year.

Gotham City Impostors will be available on the PlayStation Network (£8.99), Xbox LIVE (1200 Microsoft Points) and PC (£8.99) in early 2012. Remember, as the guys from Monolith Productions said to me, early next year is better than late next year! If you’re lucky you might get to play it sooner as the closed beta for North America kicks off in September.

Flip through El33tonline’s previous coverage for screenshots and trailers from the game to help make the time pass quicker.

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