While deciding what game to play through next I became aware
that my Xbox 360 is running out of memory. With the Games on Gold downloads
meaning that I’ve somehow managed to acquire 20 or so games for absolutely
nothing, I’ve got a log going on with my hard drive now and have roughly 60
gigabytes left. Not a small amount of memory given that the laptop that I’m
writing this on only has 80GB altogether, but given that this time last year it
was something like 180, I realised that perhaps I might need to play one or two
of these games I’ve been downloading so I can farm all their achievement points
and delete them.
That being said, I was as surprised as anyone at the game I
found myself playing this week:
This is a multiplayer-only 6v6 shooter that is currently
available to download free with an Xbox Live Gold membership, and that is how I
came to own it. It’s got some nice little quirks, not the least of them the
setting: Seemingly normal people in Gotham
City
Now if this hadn’t come out as a free download I probably
would never have played it, and here’s why: I thought the idea of the game was
absolutely ridiculous. If I was going to play a multiplayer-only game, I wanted
to be using DC’s own super-heroes, not a bunch of people dressed up as Batman
and The Joker!
I’m also not a massive fan of multiplayer games for one
simple reason: I’m terrible at them. I haven’t really got the reflexes to be
able to pull accurate headshots, I’m not good at combining load-outs etc for
maximum effect, and I die far too easily to people who are far better at it
than me. I’m not saying I’ve never had any fun playing multiplayer games, but I
would not usually buy a game purely for the purpose of playing multiplayer.
I think Yahtzee made the point quite succinctly in his
review of Halo Reach: “A full-priced game has to stand up on single-player,
because there are always factors in the way of multiplayer that the game can’t
help, like its servers becoming tumbleweed-haunted ghost towns three months down
the line, or the aforementioned[1]
meta-****s doing what they do best at full volume in my ear.” And I’m
absolutely convinced that the same will become true of Gotham City Imposters in
the not too distant future, presumably once the next Call of Duty game comes
out. That being said, right now the game is free, which means a tonne of new
people will have downloaded it so there will be people playing on the servers
and perhaps not all of them will be, er , ‘power gamers.’[2] It is
for this reason, more than anything, that I decided to give this game a go.
 |
| You can use foot traps as well. He's about to die... |
Getting into the game, I was pleasantly surprised by how
much fun it actually is. As you might expect, it doesn’t take itself too
seriously. The maps are bright and colourful, the game has a good variety of modes
and the usual gunplay is augmented by ‘mods,’ ‘gadgets’ and support weapons. It
is with the latter point that the game really comes into its own, because it
gives you the freedom to decide how YOU want to play the game. Want to play a
sniper on roller skates? You can do it. Want a melee-oriented thug who can
glide? No problem. Want to play a ninja who can turn invisible? Yes, you’ll
have to work for it, but you can do it. The end result is that your ‘teams’
consist of a mixed bag of eccentric personalities and perhaps isn’t always so
coherent. This is made up for by the gadgets being a lot of fun to use, like
the grapple-hook which allows some fast movement to a high place, and the
roller-skates which increase your speed but decrease your accuracy and control.
I’m not good at the game, by any stretch of the imagination.
But I do OK and I tend to finish around about mid/low table, depending on who
else is in the game. I went with a ‘tough’ (average) build with a
semi-automatic rifle, a sub-machine gun, grenades and I switch between the
Grappling Hook and Roller Skates depending on the map. I’ve been having a
decent amount of fun being the guy shooting into a firefight and taking down
two or three enemies, or sneaking up behind people who don’t know I’m there and
gunning them down. That’s where most of my kills come from because in a
straight fight I rarely come out with my arms raised. The game shows a ranking
of the top three most valuable players at the end; rarely do I make it onto
this list but I’ve been pleased with my performance on the few times that I
have.
There are some performance issues that I think mainly relate
to having a lot more people playing the game than its servers are capable of
coping with. All too often I see other characters flutter in and out of sight
as the game struggles to keep up with them – a bit of a problem when you’re
trying to aim! Sometimes the game apparently remembers that about 4 different
people have now been killed, and sometimes the server goes down completely. There
may also be some balance issues relating to some of the combinations of builds,
weapons and mods, but to be honest in a game this diverse that was always going
to be hard to avoid!
I also liked the micro-transactions in the game, simply
because I’m at no point obligated to buy them. As far as I can see, the only
difference that any of the items you’d spend actual money on are aesthetic.
It’s not like you can buy the best weapon in the game and spam it; your money
affects your costume and nothing else. If you want the weapons, you have to
play through the game and earn them, and rightly so.
So how do I ‘play through’ a purely multiplayer game? I look
for all the achievement points. So far I’ve got 4 out of 12, and it is going to
take me a long time to get all the rest. For example, I have to max out all the
‘feats’ that relate to a single weapon – which usually means get a certain
number of kills, a certain number of headshots, and a certain number of kills
with each mod. I’m about halfway through the latter but like I said, I’m not
very good at this sort of thing and I’m not getting the kills I need. I have a
feeling I might be tired of this before I get there. I’m trying to achieve
multiple points by playing the right game mode (the Psychic Warfare mode is
played by attaching a battery to a brainwashing machine. If the enemy activates
theirs, it sends you mad and all you can do is slap people. One of the
achievement points I’m chasing involves getting 50 kills in this manner.) but I
think I may be fighting for a lost cause with the Nemesis one (I think that
just means you have to kill someone twice without dying) because I’ve not
managed it even once yet.
 |
| Not sure what this is all about but it's amusing... |
I’ll keep playing Gotham City Impostors for now because I’m
still having fun with it. I’m glad I didn’t spend any actual money on it, but
it’s a good game for what it is. While it is still essentially free to play,
and should be for another day, I’d more than recommend giving it a go. I think
you’ll be pleasantly surprised, as was I…
No comments:
Post a Comment