Format: PSN | Genre: FPS | Publisher: Warner Interactive | Release Date: 6/02/2012

Wow, two things jump out here: levelling and unlocks are not the reason many FPS titles are so popular nowadays, and if mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery then the guys at Monolith really, really love themselves some TF2. Bats vs Jokerz in 6v6 comedy deathmatches is the simple way to sum this up then, although everything from the attitude and style to weapons and teamplay tactics come straight from the plate of Valve's free to play masterpiece.

So, to start, a couple of positives: GCI is fun. It won't be challenging other titles for massive chunks of your time at any point, but for a quick half-hour here and there, it's great. Based around an idea of vigilantes and hooligans taking cues from Batman and the Joker and duking it out across the streets of Gotham with home made weapons and gadgets, GCI runs a huge levelling system (over 500 ranks, for Pete's sake, although really its 100 with five levels of "prestige") with bucketloads of unlocks and customisation options to put it on a par with the big boys. It's also very funny, with charm oozing out of every map, character and soundbite.

But, unfortunately, from there it starts to unravel a bit - GCI ships with a paltry 5 levels, across which three gametypes (team deathmatch, capture the flag, domination) can be played. Also, the majority of the unlockables and extras make little difference to core gameplay, with the exception of the odd overpowered weapon. And because of this, it all wears a bit too thin a bit too quickly - throw in some really crappy server issues, login bugs and horribly long load times (it takes around three minutes from firing up the game to get into a match) and I can't see a lot of players sticking around.

GCI isn't bad, just too little too soon

Which is a shame, as the potential here is huge, but it just feels rushed out of the door - there's just a lack of enough to do, and on top of this day one sees a load of small scale payable extras on sale. I just wanted to scream "Can I have the rest of the game before you flog me stuff?"

At it's core, GCI could be brilliant, and at times is - there's a lot of fun to be had with zipping around the maps on rollerskates with a rocket launcher, or grappling the upper levels with a sniper rifle. If you can get a few mates together all the better, as tactical character selections and a bit of communication make this a lot of fun, and more accessible than many FPS titles out there. But for all the unlocks, the actual core game is stale too fast, and Monolith need to have a good deal of free expansions and upgrades on the near horizon to warrant a purchase.

I'll leave you with this - this game as-is is 12 quid for 5 levels, three gameplay modes, and a bit of humour. You'll find TF2 as part of the Orange Box for a tenner online (or free on Steam if you have a PC), and with four other full games (three Half-Life titles and the original Portal), as well as loads of levels, unlocks and more, you'd be far better off with the original master of team combat. GCI isn't bad, just too little too soon, and hopefully a good bit of support could dredge this back into being something really worthy of the Batman moniker.

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The Good: Enjoyable drop-in-drop-out FPS fun; loads and loads to unlock; plenty of character and class customisations; good teamwork based around a simple premise; very funny at times; gadgets make things a bit more interesting

The Bad: Other games do the same but better; micro transactional stuff is a bit cheeky; only 3 game types and 5 levels; buggy, slow to load and prone to crash mid game; just not enough here to last

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Gameplay 8 Graphics 7 Sound 7 Overall 6 / 10 Bias Adjusted 6    The Bias adjusted score is worked out based on a gaming preferences questionnaire that reviewers have to fill out. HippyDaves bias profile I kinda like the slow thinky games. I kinda like casual games. I like my games with some good action. The idea is that it gives a score that better represents the game rather than the feelings of the reviewer to a particular genre. For instance a reviewer who hates RPG games, may mark an RPG down just because of his feelings towards that particular genre. The bias calculator would then elevate the score a certain amount. If the same reviewer loves FPS games and rates all of the high, the bias calculation would show a slightly lower score. It is in the early stages of testing right now, but we hope it will become a very helpful bit of information for you all!!

Bronze Y Award The Y Award is given based on the average of the Gameplay score, Graphics, Sound and Overall. 9.75 or more gets the Diamond Y Award 9 or more gets the Gold Y Award 8 or more gets the Silver Y Award 7 or more gets the Bronze Y Award 3 or less gets the Stink-Y Award

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