Who Will Come Back To Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League?

You might think it's too early to judge Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. I disagree (that's why I reviewed it), but I understand the sentiment. Kill the Justice League has several seasons worth of content planned for the future, with Elseworlds Brainiacs set to reign supreme as new characters like a fresh Joker and Victoria Fries (AKA Mrs. Freeze) arrive further down the line. Presumably Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Martian Manhunter show up to be killed at some point as well. But I worry about who will keep coming back.

This isn't just 'it's a bad game so who would play it?', even though my review is on the lower side. There are positive reviews and it has retained a vocal fanbase, even through the controversies over Batman, Wonder Woman, and Poison Ivy. But almost everything good about the game revolves around the fact the characters have a great dynamic with each other. That's also the one surefire thing to change in future seasons, so it's hard to be too optimistic.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has repetitive mission design which all add up to the same thing. It's fast and frenetic, and would be a lot better if the traversal was smoother than the current peanut encrusted sandpaper it currently exists as, but with generic enemies, empty objectives that amount to pretty much nothing, and no real narrative - outside of the plot stated in the title, nothing happens to any character in this game - it grows old quickly.

The problem is you can guarantee that one of the things these new seasons will bring is more missions. They might sell them as fresh concepts with new goals, but the ones we have are supposed to be that. They aren't supposed to be the same thing over and over again, they just feel that way because the goal is to keep you playing so you keep unlocking new items, rather than moving the story forward. The story jolts forward each time a boss comes on the scene, where you're given one specific battle against them, and then back to the grind.

Suicide Squad Just Perfectly Demonstrated Why Paid Early Access Must Die

For publishers, these deluxe editions are a win/win. They get to charge a premium for new games, and customers will thank them for the opportunity.

This is most evident before the finale, where you must grind out a new currency to earn the right to face the boss, which then involves doing yet more repetitive missions in the boss' lair in order to unlock the doors. Even if there is a reaction to the lukewarm reception of this mission design, it will take at least a few seasons (or worse, could mean delaying content altogether) for this to be fixed. Whether players stick around that long is a huge gamble, but after nearly a decade making this game in the hopes they will, Rocksteady has little other choice.

Rocksteady doesn’t only have to contend with just patching up the parts that are showing cracks. It also risks cracking the parts that are still shiny and new. The four playable characters have an excellent dynamic not just because each one is well written, and certainly not because of any character development, but because they bounce off each other so well. Introducing more characters means you won't know which party member is active and therefore the banter will become less tailored and more open, likely making it worse. Harley and Joker may have some interesting interactions, but in the long run it feels like the connection these four have to each other will be squandered to sell new characters to players.

It feels like Suicide Squad in a better position than Anthem or Marvel's Avengers, at least. With Anthem, there were flaws and bugs that needed fixing before any work could start on meeting the playerbase's expectations for the game design. Meanwhile, though Avengers was similarly praised for its smaller single-player portion, it was given less benefit of the doubt that Suicide Squad, and its campaign was worse - more to the point, so was its weird upgrade system that allowed you to buy a better spine for Hulk. Kill the Justice League's looter shooter rewards can be overwhelming, but they at least make sense and have fans on board.

Doing better than Anthem and Avengers is not the bar Rocksteady will have set for this game though. It has garnered enough support that the jury is still out rather than racing back into the courtroom with a noose, but Henry Fonda might not be able to convince all these angry men this time around. Suicide Squad needs player retention, and it can only achieve it by doubling down on its worst qualities and diluting its best. It'll be a bigger miracle than Captain Boomerang killing Superman if it pulls this off.

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League

WHERE TO PLAY

An open-world action-adventure from Arkham creators Rocksteady, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League puts you in the roles of the antihero squad. You must take on the aforementioned Justice League, either in solo play or online co-op.