Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League doesn’t look like it was worth the wait
The first Rocksteady title in almost 10 years is now mere weeks away, and it’s a far cry from the Batman Arkham games of old.
If you had told me, even just a few years ago, that my excitement for the next superhero game from Rocksteady would be middling at best, I simply wouldn’t have believed you. This is mainly because I think all three of the studio’s Batman games were fantastic – even 2015’s Batman: Arkham Knight, where I didn’t find the Batmobile sections as tedious or problematic as most (seemingly). Its next title, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, should be right up my street therefore, yet so far it’s been made blatantly obvious that it’s very much a live-service game caught out of its time.
You only need look at the roster of playable characters for evidence of this. King Shark, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and Harley Quinn. All are perfectly interesting figures in the DC universe in their own right, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that three out of the four were featured in David Ayer’s critically panned Suicide Squad movie from 2016. I get it, video games take a long time to make, but my hunch is that Rocksteady found themselves locked into this roster since before that movie was released, having to find workarounds to make them playable within a co-operative multiplayer format.
King Shark and Deadshot make a lot of sense, admittedly. One is a giant fish mutant that fits the perfect role of a melee brute, while the other can play as a traditional long-range character, popping off shots from afar; Deadshot very much feels like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s version of Soldier 76 from Overwatch 2. He’s there, he works, but he’s far from the most interesting to play as. Captain Boomerang and Harley Quinn make a little less sense when it comes to fighting superpowered beings.
Sure, both characters find a way to do it in the comics, but they very rarely go up against the entire force of the Justice League. Unsurprisingly, then, the latest round of previews revealed that Rocksteady has had to find smart ways to power them up appropriately. Captain Boomerang is said to acquire some of The Flash’s speedster abilities early on in the game, while Harley Quinn pillages some of Batman’s grapple gear to help get around. All four characters will become even more power due to the XP grind and weapon looting nature of the game, but Rocksteady is clearly bending over backwards to square this circle.
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Squad goals
It’s at this point I should say that I have yet to get hands on with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League myself. Obviously, my opinions may change drastically once I do dive into the live-service experience Rocksteady has spent nine years toiling away on, and I could end up liking (but probably not loving) it. Either way, I’m still recovering and mourning the loss of what could have been a fourth legitimate entry into the Batman: Arkham series. From 2009’s Batman: Arkham Asylum onwards, Rocksteady singlehandedly redefined how superhero games were thought of, and so far the same doesn’t look to be happening here.
Rather than pioneering a new way to play a certain type of game, as before, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice, so far from what’s been shown, feels like a trend-chaser. Destiny 2, Fortnite, and even Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege all benefit from having fervent player bases that don’t mind maintaining a ‘forever game’ they can regularly turn to. Square Enix’s fumble with Marvel’s Avengers, however, taught us that certain franchises (no matter how iconic in other forms) can still struggle to achieve that same degree of live-service success.
I don’t doubt that all four members of Task Force X will handle differently, rewarding players who want to continue grinding away to get the best perk for their Deadshot gun or Harley Quinn hammer. The game from a graphical standpoint looks on par with other top-tier PS5 and Xbox Series X|S titles too, feeling like a successful (though much more colourful) continuation of the Batman: Arkham world, which makes sense given the switch in location from Gotham to Metropolis. At every moment while playing, however, I know I’ll be thinking what could have been, instead of what it is.
You look at the amazing goodwill Insomniac has built up with Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and wonder why a character like Batman still isn’t receiving similar treatment. AAA single-player games like these might not offer infinite playtime in the same manner of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, but the stories they tell linger a lot longer in the brain due to how well the worlds are realised, tight the gameplay is, and excellently these familiar characters are portrayed.
Deep down I know I’ll always be gutted that instead of a new Arkham game, perhaps riffing on the concept of Batman Beyond, Rocksteady chose to make Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Right now it feels a lot like a game out of time, chasing the live-service trend when a lot of other publishers are winding down these efforts due to how costly and difficult it is to break through. Rocksteady and Warner Bros. Games will know soon after launch if they have a hit or not – I just hope the former survives regardless of the outcome.
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