Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Review – Monumentally Forgettable
It is not a total disaster everyone dreaded it would be. Or hoped. Considering the development hell it suffered, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League turned out almost OK. But rather than serving as the poster game for a revitalized, villain-centered DC, the game became the latest exemplar for publisher pressure and design by committee. We have seen this dark process numerous times, but this example belongs in the top ten. The big publisher swooshes on a developer renowned for brilliant ideas and „makes them think outside the box“, as they usually describe the squeeze.
What exactly, other than a binding, contractual subservience, could make the legendary Rocksteady Studios, famed for its brilliant Arkham games, go completely offscript and blurt out a live service game? Was ever there a fan contemplating the Batman: Arkham Knight sequel, dreaming about a narrative-heavy open-world action adventure, but insisting on always online requirement? “Playing offline is an obsolete concept, I want permanent server connectivity and weekly maintenance cycles! I yearn for matchmaking with morons! I can’t wait for purchasable content passes!”. Yeah, no.
Vogon prose
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League continues the narrative arc from Arkham Knight, with a gap that was supposed to be filled by a comic book, not yet released at press time. In a post-Joker world, the dark Gotham is a far less interesting place, so the story moves to a perpetually sunny Metropolis across the bay. But the black clouds overwhelmed the city of hope. Devious Brainiac, the villain from planet Colu, descended from the sky and corrupted the Justice League. Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, and even Batman fell under his dark influence, turning against peaceful civilians. It seems that no one can stop the spaceborne villain, dead set on recreating his home planet via subjugating and terraforming Earth.
Enter the Suicide Squad, the last, worst hope for Humanity! Blackmailed by clandestine government official Amanda Waller, the gang of four is set against impossible odds. Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark are Task Force X. They must kill the Justice League or suffer the detonation of nano bombs placed in their heads.
At this point, you probably feel the urge to bite off your own leg, like someone exposed to a lethal dose of Vogon poetry. Is there a Vogon prose? If there is, it probably looks like a script for Suicide Squad. And I had low expectations, like everyone else. Neither Marvel nor DC storylines were ever considered worthy of the Dostoevsky Prize (I have no idea if such a prize even exists), but this is ridiculous. If I were made to exist in a world where some guy called Brainiac threatens the planet, I would voluntarily put my head on the stump and signal the executioner. BRAINIAC… Jesus Christ, America. But Rocksteady made that script work through insane verbal exchanges between four playable idiots. Even if humor never truly goes over the top for obvious corporate reasons, it elevates cringey premise to acceptable heights.
Destiny’s Child
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League wants you to play in a squad of four people (or bots), as the narrative is closely intertwined with action. Due to the systemic constraints of co-op multiplayer, the entire game is sculpted around six different mission types. You’ll repeat those until the end, then decide if you are up for endgame or not. Metropolis is an open environment where mobs freely roam and establish ad-hoc mini strongholds. You’ll move around using traversal devices unique for each member of the squad. Harley Quinn, for example, uses hooked rope and a drone, Deadshot flies with a short-range jetpack, etc. The city, or at least the traversable section, is fairly small. You can crisscross it in a couple of minutes, but I believe they’ll open more zones in the upcoming content patches.
The combat is a mixed melee/ballistic affair and it’s by far the best thing about the game. The flow of hand-to-hand violence, perfected in Arkham games, smoothly translates to a more complex, firearms-rich realm. Chaining combo multipliers for ridiculous damage never gets old. Every squad member has a slightly different combat dynamic, augmented by different talent trees. That gives the player a wide field for experimentation, especially when you factor in the upgradable loot. The classic looter shooter cycle is present and accounted for, and in that respect, the game works like Destiny or something similar.
Multiversal megagrind
The story, including the optional content, lasts between 15 and 20 hours. After you murder the corrupted Justice League and off Brainiac, you’ll learn that in the multiverse, the fun never stops. There are thirteen different Brainiacs and the same number of parallel Earths under attack. If you yearn for better, more exclusive loot, you’ll embark upon a lengthy endgame mega grind. Frankly, I’d rather gnaw industrial rubber than expose myself to this monumental waste of time. Rocksteady promises constant updates, new content, loot, and heroes, but I sincerely doubt that will help with the long-term health of the game.
Without corporate greed and shortsightedness, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League could have been something special. The immense effort and resources they spent on animation and acting set the standard for the superhero/villain games, but the cancerous, live-service looter shooter layer nullified most of it. It didn’t drive the game completely into the ditch, as it’s still fun to play, at least until the end of the story content. That fun, however, is simply not worth the asking price.
Highs
- Suberb, visceral and dynamically flowing combat.
- Facial animation quality sets a new standard in gaming.
- Quips and jabs between our anti-heroes are fun.
Lows
- The entire live service layer feels like cancerous growth.
- The story is generic and entirely predictable.
- Endgame feels like a complete waste of time.
