Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League isn’t fairly what anybody anticipated to observe up the revered Arkham trilogy. In actual fact, it’s steadily grow to be a controversial launch, as phrases like “endgame” and “post-launch content material” have understandably riled up the fanbase. From Arkane’s disastrous Redfall to the now-canned Naughty Canine Factions multiplayer, we’ve seen many single participant builders fall for the seductive attraction of reside service video games. However has Rocksteady actually offered its soul? Or has it managed to strike that positive steadiness? What is evident is that the studio has gambled large on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and the repay has been value it… largely.
So what precisely is Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League? Effectively at the start it is one other expansive story expertise set throughout the Arkhamverse. 5 years after the Darkish Knight hung up his cowl, Activity Pressure X is shipped into Metropolis — a metropolis occupied by the alien Brainiac — with a mission to take out the now brainwashed Justice League. It is one hell of an idea, and we lapped it up throughout the roughly 12 hour marketing campaign. In some ways that is one other conventional Rocksteady expertise, with trade main cinematics and facial animations, loads of twists and turns, and a few goosebump-inducing moments with its iconic roster of superheroes-turned-villains.
Then there’s the opposite aspect of the coin. Suicide Squad is a co-operative shooter, the place as much as 4 gamers assume the roles of Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark, and Captain Boomerang. Whereas some missions are extra historically linear, most are objective-based, as Activity Pressure X captures, defends, and escorts whereas defeating waves of enemies. Upon the completion of missions, gamers are met with an finish display screen, granted some loot rewards, and despatched again into the open world. The entire thing will be performed in both co-op or solo, though as of publishing, Suicide Squad requires a web based connection no matter which you select.
How effectively you suppose this hybrid mix of single participant and multiplayer works is basically right down to perspective. As a single participant recreation, Suicide Squad has some whacky pacing, as you’re left to choose off enemies repeatedly in between some sensible story content material. However as a multiplayer providing, it’s received a much better story than you’d discover within the likes of Future 2 or The Division. Both means we’ve got one thing that is good — verging on nice — however by no means fairly hits the highs we’d count on from Rocksteady, because it isn’t prepared to completely commit to at least one or the opposite.
Let’s begin with that story, although. Tone is the most important change between this and our final Arkham outing, with the bickering Activity Pressure X appearing as the guts of this story. It is a group vastly beneath certified to tackle the may of the invading Brainiac and his Justice League pets, and partially it’s what makes this comedic take so endearing. It is a far funnier recreation than we ever anticipated it to be, and we caught ourselves laughing all through its story because of the witty banter between the core squad. Each member has their very own private vendetta towards every of the Justice League, and the continuous toe-stepping makes their quests for revenge all of the extra entertaining. It won’t be for everybody, however for essentially the most half, it manages to tow that line of constant laughs that by no means actually overshadow the extra severe moments.
After all, a part of the narrative might be spoiled by the title itself, and it’s right here that feathers could also be ruffled. Rocksteady manages to expertly construct up every of the long-lasting League members, brilliantly showcasing simply how large a risk they’re beneath Brainiac’s attract. The sport’s introduction to Batman — that includes a devilish efficiency from the late Kevin Conroy — is genuinely fear-inducing, and the earth-shuddering thud of Superman withdrawing impresses each time. We now have to take a second to say Marvel Girl too, who’s portrayed much better right here than something the ill-fated DCEU conjured up.
Pacing, nonetheless, kills a lot of the nice will that Suicide Squad builds up with its usually wonderful writing and character portrayals. Not solely are marketing campaign missions set aside by a tedious cease and begin of five-minute targets, when you really get to the purpose of the sport, it doesn’t actually need you revelling within the second. We don’t need to spoil issues right here — as a lot as we are able to keep away from that with a recreation referred to as ‘Kill The Justice League’ — however after some wonderful construct up, it might be good to take a beat to course of what transpires. As a substitute, Rocksteady would slightly you progress to the subsequent taking pictures gallery as quickly as doable.
Talking of taking pictures, you’re going to be doing quite a lot of it. No matter whether or not you are taking part in as Harley Quinn or King Shark, every character might be kitted out with SMGs, pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, snipers, and even miniguns. It’s an odd match for the Arkham dev, particularly after cooking up a fight system that also holds affect to this present day. However we had been pleasantly shocked to seek out that gunplay feels snappy, responsive, and tremendous satisfying. It’s helped by the unbelievable haptic assist, which is Sony first-party degree — and that carries on outdoors the fight itself.
Whereas weapons alone will not be sufficient to make Suicide Squad’s gameplay stick out, its traversal will. Every of the 4 members of the squad have their very own means of getting round Metropolis. Harley makes use of Batman’s Bat Drone and grapple to swing round, Deadshot his jetpack, King Shark his godly leaping skills, and Boomerang his velocity pressure gauntlet. Every essentially works the identical, however all of them have a definite really feel to them that ties into the fight. Within the early hours we actually weren’t certain concerning the traversal. We had our favourites — Boomerang instantly caught out to us — however the likes of Harley and King Shark felt boring by comparability.
Nevertheless, as we delved deeper into the marketing campaign, and steadily received to grips with the varied traversal types, the true enjoyable of Suicide Squad’s gameplay unearthed itself. Whereas missions are initially brief, they steadily lengthen, and bumping the issue as much as the best tier means you actually must knuckle down at occasions. Retaining your character within the air, shifting round, countering pictures, and melee attacking enemies to realize again your defend turns into a delight, and we genuinely could not get sufficient of the fight within the latter hours of the sport. It’s helped much more by the rock strong efficiency on PS5.
In testomony to how enjoyable every character is to play, our playtime is a fairly equal throughout all 4 antiheroes. Nevertheless, when you do need to follow one member of the squad, you’ll be able to simply accomplish that. Due to the weapons, grenades, melee weapons, and mods, you’ll be able to mildew any of the characters to your most popular playstyle, and Suicide Squad has a fairly in-depth customisation course of by way of expertise timber and weapon rolls.
The Corridor of Justice acts as the sport’s working base, and it’s right here that NPCs equivalent to Poison Ivy and Penguin can amplify and modify your builds. Admittedly, it’s all just a little numbers heavy for us, and as soon as we discovered the next tier weapon and equipment we sometimes simply caught with that. Credit score the place credit score is due, it is good that you may simply let the stats fall by the wayside if you wish to, but it surely does imply that outdoors of rising aware of the traversal, nothing actually adjustments your playstyle. It is all there when you actually need to dig into it, however the methods fall just a little flat.
What about all this reside service stuff we maintain listening to about, then? Effectively, outdoors of the mission varieties you’d discover in a shooter like The Division, there isn’t actually something too intrusive all through the bottom marketing campaign. Enjoying the sport solo would make the top display screen leaderboard stuff actually annoying, and it does affect pacing, however when taking part in with a buddy, it undeniably sparked that aggressive edge in us.
Putting high on the leaderboard means you grow to be the squad chief, and get to choose the subsequent mission. Particularly as we creeped our means into the later missions, the specter of dropping out on the highest spot goaded us into pulling off flashier strikes and dealing extra damaging combos. It’s a pleasant solution to incentivise competitors with your mates, and Suicide Squad makes certain it’s tremendous straightforward to have interaction with it.
Matching up with different on-line gamers can also be a breeze, and fortunately when taking part in in a buddy’s world, yours will replace seamlessly alongside it — so there’s no must replay the marketing campaign or aspect content material in your model of Metropolis. There’s additionally a neat function referred to as Social Squad, the place if taking part in with AI, you’ll be able to fill the bot gamers along with your buddy’s character profiles — that includes their weapons, gear, and cosmetics. When that buddy logs again in, they’ll obtain a small portion of the sources you gained from taking part in. There are a selection of good high quality of life options like this that many comparable video games merely wouldn’t launch with.
All this pleasant competitors and cooperative play turns into more and more prevalent as you progress into the endgame content material. Thus far, the Incursion missions — which observe the ultimate boss — are just a little underwhelming. You successfully play a variant of an goal at increased and better mastery ranges, with the intention of unlocking villain-centric weapon units. The co-op side of the gameplay by no means feels particularly prevalent, as you are successfully taking pictures on the identical group of enemies slightly than working collectively to take them down. Enemy selection, whereas visually bland, does maintain issues recent gameplay-wise, however we simply want there was a extra satisfying levelling system, or higher rewards, and due to that, we’re undecided the sport has the legs to be performed for weeks or months.
Nevertheless, Rocksteady is eager to emphasize that the primary season of content material is on its means, with new Elseworld-inspired areas, a brand new playable character, and naturally new story stuff, mission varieties, and weapons. Three following seasons are teased upon completion of the marketing campaign, with the scope for what we estimate to be six full seasons. It’s refreshing that Rocksteady seemingly has an endpoint in retailer for its post-launch plans, however the jury continues to be out on whether or not this might be sufficient to maintain gamers engaged.
What’s a aid, nonetheless, is that every one of this content material is free. The one paid DLC in Kill The Justice League is beauty, bought both by means of the shop or a battle cross. And there are literally a good quantity of cosmetics you’ll be able to unlock by way of issues like Riddler challenges and riddles, which make a welcome return from the Arkham video games. When put subsequent to different reside service video games, Suicide Squad is a fairly beneficiant providing that hits the bottom with a lightweight jog, slightly than a full-on dash. There’s actually lots to sit up for, however whether or not it’s going to be well worth the wait is one other factor totally.
