Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League was revealed... wait, let me check.

Damn, August 2020. Okay, I knew it had been a while, but man, I didn't realize it had been almost three years since that first trailer. It was a pretty great trailer too. It was at least good enough to hook me, someone who will buy just about anything with Harley Quinn’s face slapped on it.

Having already started Arkham Asylum but carefully placing it on my ever-growing pile of half-finished games I’ll get to eventually (I swear), I figured a return to finish it, and then Arkham City and Knight was in order. Especially after it was confirmed that Kill The Justice League takes place in the same universe, presumably sometime after the end of the Arkham trilogy.

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Kill The Justice League has been delayed quite a few times since, and while that has been a bad thing for the most part, there’s a silver lining. I've actually been able to finish the Arkham games, and oh, what a journey I've been on. They’re some of the best games I’ve ever played, and I no longer roll my eyes at those who claim they’re better than Insomniac's Spider-Man, although I’m still not sure I completely agree.

As more has been revealed about Rocksteady's first project since Arkham Knight, and I have played more of its fantastic Batman trilogy, it has become evident that playing the Arkham games to prepare for Kill The Justice League was a mistake. Nothing can compare to the story that unfolds across the three Arkham games, especially not a live service game that appears to be as different from what it’s supposed to be building on as possible.

In a post-Marvel's Avengers world, any mention of a superhero team-up game sends a shiver down a lot of people's spines. It’s certainly no coincidence that Kill The Justice League, a superhero co-op live service game, was announced a month before Avengers’ release. Perhaps if Rocksteady had waited six months or so to see how that all panned out, things would have gone a little differently.

via Square Enix

A story-based Suicide Squad game not only developed by Rocksteady but taking place in the same universe as the Arkham games sounds fantastic on paper. What could possibly go wrong? Well, you could announce the game long before it's ready, delay it a bunch of times, and then when you do show it off, focus on its live service elements and complex upgrade and currency systems.

Kill The Justice League's release date was right around the corner when all of the above was shown off during a State Of Play. The backlash was so fierce, the release date was pushed again, this time into early 2024. Had I watched its showcase in an Arkham-less bubble, I don't think I'd have had the same reaction. I like supervillains, I like live service games, what's not to like?

Well, the game being about as far from the Arkham trilogy as possible is what's not to like. Having experienced the three-game arc between Kevin Conroy's Batman and Mark Hamill's Joker, I'm no longer excited about what else the writers of that story have come up with. I'm trying my very best to see how it will live up to the Rocksteady games that have come before, but I’m really struggling to do so.

Even if the team behind it were to make a U-turn and claim Kill The Justice League isn't set in the Arkhamverse after all, the bigger problem isn't fixed. It's more an issue of “wait, the team that made Arkham Asylum made this?” rather than it being the next chapter in that story. Since Batman is confirmed to be back, if anything, I would rather any connection to the Arkham trilogy's story be dropped, even if that does simply mean we all just forget anyone mentioned a connection at all.

via Rocksteady

I'll still play Kill The Justice League if and when it gets here, I just wish no one had ever said “Hey, this follows on from the Arkham games”. That way I wouldn't have got my hopes up so high and I'd have stood a better chance of enjoying it for whatever the hell it’s going to be. On the bright side, I still have Origins to play through. I've also still got Gotham Knights waiting for me in my backlog. Everyone thought that was great, right?

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