Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment have teamed up for Gotham City: Imposters, a downloadable team-based online first-person shooter in which, as the title suggests, you never actually step into the boots of the Dark Knight. Instead you wage urban warfare as a member of either the Batz or the Jokerz, rival gangs of gun-toting wanna-bes. The Batz crew clearly doesn’t realize that the actual Caped Crusader never uses guns and doesn’t kill… but who cares? The real takeaway here is that you get to dress up as either Batman or The Joker and run around with a gun. Or more than one, most likely.
The game is the work of Monolith Productions, the studio behind the original F.E.A.R. and the great No One Lives Forever titles. Imposters is coming to Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation Network and Windows PCs… at some point. There’s no word on a release date or even the time frame we can expect one, suggesting that 2011 may not be in the cards. WBIE exec Samantha Ryan describes the game in a press release as “an exaggerated take on first-person shooters,” which brings to mind Valve’s much-loved light-hearted online FPS Team Fortress 2.
In truth, this may be one of the most bizarre uses of a franchise license that the gaming biz has yet seen. That’s saying something when you’re talking about an industry that once birthed a (remarkably terrible) Star Wars-themed Mortal Kombat knockoff. But hey, Batman’s on a hot streak with those Arkham releases and, somewhat inexplicably considering the nature of the game, fans keep asking for online multiplayer. Imposters addresses that demand, in the strangest way imaginable.
You can sign up for news updates on the game right now at GothamCityImposters.com.