I can’t figure it out. I hate the repetitiveness of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, but I keep going back in. Maybe it is the misfit team I have grown to love over my 20 hours playing the game, maybe it is the beautiful rendition of Metropolis, or maybe it’s the solid third-person shooting. But I know for a fact that it isn’t for variety because there is none.
Suicide Squad brings a lot to the table, including a return to the beloved Arkham-universe. But developer Rocksteady lost something when it transferred from a single-player experience to a live-service approach. There were some surprising positives with the game, but there were also some surprising negatives.
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
STORY
Suicide Squad features an original story that feels unoriginal — The Justice League has been mind-controlled, and the Suicide Squad must take them down. With the help of a colorful support cast, Task Force X must do whatever is necessary to take down the Justice League or literally lose their heads. Amanda Waller has control of Captain Boomerang, King Shark, Harley Quinn, and Deadshot via nanite bombs implanted into their heads.
The story feels disjointed at times and rushed. Plot beats that feel like they should be focused on for longer, such as building up the members of the Justice League, are set aside to pay more attention to gathering a support team.
The Penguin, Gizmo, Poison Ivy, and Hack felt like they had a bigger role in the game than the Justice League themselves. Maybe this was because after completing the missions for these characters that the game requires, I was ready to drill out my eardrums. That’s not to say they weren’t good characters, but I wanted to see the Suicide Squad and the Justice League, not the Support Squad.
There was one major story moment that, mixed with the gameplay, had me thrilled beyond belief. Early in the game, after avoiding the Green Lantern, the Suicide Squad takes shelter in an exhibit dedicated to Batman and, in turn, the Arkham series. While exploring the exhibit in the pitch-dark Batman hunts you, with vents and traps galore, it truly felt like being on the other end of the Arkham games. I was the criminal being hunted. But this game failed to produce any other moments quite like this. It is very obvious that the team still loves Batman, I just wish it felt the same way with the other characters.
On the opposite side, towards the end of the game, Superman and Wonder Woman have an epic cinematic fight throughout Metropolis, which I would have loved to watch if I wasn’t being shot at. At the end of the fight, Superman gains the upper hand, and for the briefest moment, Task Force X felt like they were going to stand up and help. The music swelled, the team ignored Amanda Waller, and the scene was set. Then, instead of doing anything at all, the team watches as Superman kills Wonder Woman and then appears confused and distraught — not like they could have tried to help in any way whatsoever. It felt like a moment that was trying to top Poison Ivy’s death with none of the emotional payoff.
The Flash was the standout character for me, while I may have some bias, he had his standard quips, his costume was well-designed, and when he turned evil, I loved to hate him. The Flash and Captain Boomerang displayed a complex relationship with each other that the game failed to encompass with anyone else. They felt like they had a history, and I wanted to know more. Batman and Harley Quinn is a story we have experienced time and time again in the Arkham series, King Shark has nobody to be his rival, and Deadshot was weirdly made into Green Lantern’s rival…sort of.
Ultimately, players wanting a more complex story would be better directed toward Marvel’s Avengers… if it still existed… for something similar to Suicide Squad. For a general superhero story, players would certainly be best off revisiting the Arkham games or even trying out Insomniac’s seminal Spider-Man series.
GAMEPLAY
Suicide Squad’s gameplay is a gray area. The actual gunplay is actually quite enjoyable, and the traversal skills add enough changeup to keep me coming back. But the missions available come down to rinse and repeat. There are three main mission types: wave defense, escort, and extermination. There are a few more missions, but they are generally just rehashes of the same thing. Then there are the boss fights.
The gunplay feels so refined when compared to recent third-person shooters. Coming from the excellent melee systems that Rocksteady perfected over the course of the Arkham series, it was surprising to experience such a fluid shooting game.
Each member of the Suicide Squad has a traversal mechanic that impacts combat. Captain Boomerang has a boomerang, King Shark can jump and dash, Harley Quinn has a grappling hook and can swing through the air, and Deadshot has a jetpack. Some of these feel more refined than others, most notably Captain Boomerang. Being able to teleport around on the battlefield is amazing fun and allows Boomerang to play in a few different ways. Flying around with Deadshot’s jetpack just reminds me of a worse version of Anthem’s combat. King Shark and Harley’s movement mechanics seemed pretty lackluster when compared to the rest, not making a huge difference when in combat.
There is a skill tree for each character, but it is mainly simple stat bonuses. These would only benefit someone who is looking to gear up and grind endgame content for Suicide Squad. But the endgame content is just harder versions of the same missions you have already completed 10 times before getting to the end.
I played through the game in single-player mode, so I can’t attest to the online experience of Suicide Squad, but what I can say is that the AI is surprisingly capable. It never felt like I was doing everything. It always felt like I was part of a team even though I was playing alone, a step up from the Gotham Knights release last year.
The boss fights in Suicide Squad really shone throughout, aside from the final boss. The initial fight against The Flash was truly believable. For the majority of the fight, I had a hard time finding him — he is the fastest man alive, after all. Mixed in were some beautiful visuals, such as the speed force clones and when the Flash would make a tornado. Then came the Green Lantern fight, which felt creative, destroying his constructs and, ultimately, his will as he became vulnerable. This fight likely would have been more enjoyable if I didn’t lose internet and had to repeat it. Batman’s boss fight truly was the second-flattest in the game. Using fear gas, a callback to the Arkham games, Batman transforms into a nightmare bullet sponge. With a limited number of moves, the fight was quite boring. Then came Superman, the man of steel! The destructive force wielded by Superman as he flung tanks around and destroyed the park area the fight was centered in was quite amazing. Superman’s full power set was also on display, making me even more convinced that Rocksteady needs to make a Superman, or Flash, game and to do it now! Lastly came Braininac, the big bad. His fight was lame — it was just a reskin of the Flash fight.
With highlights in the gunplay and boss fight, Suicide Squad lives up to what most players would ask for in a new game. The bosses are imaginative, for the most part, and the combat is fluid.
PRESENTATION
Where Suicide Squad really shines is in its graphics. With some of the best facial animations in recent years and wonderfully beautiful boss fights, it is obvious that a lot of time was put into making this game beautiful. With a Rocksteady title, it is also important to note that the game was surprisingly stable even on my laptop, given the past of Rocksteady’s PC releases underperforming.
Suicide Squad truly used the power of its graphics to transform the boss fights into greater experiences. Whether it was how well it showed off The Flash utilizing the speed force or Batman’s fear toxin. One of the most memorable parts of a boss fight for me was when Superman, angry at the Suicide Squad, midway through his boss fight changed the time of day. Something about this scene truly made me feel like I was fighting a greater being. Lex Luthor’s fear of Superman was justified. Then, the gameplay reminded me that Superman was just a bigger bullet sponge.
The vocals within Suicide Squad were also very spot-on. Batman sounded like he was struggling at times, but with real-world conditions, this is truly acceptable. The rest of the cast, from the Suicide Squad to the Justice League, all had crisp audio and sounded well enough that it felt like I was truly being spoken to. The gunplay, on the other hand, really depended on the firefight. Sometimes, the audio was washed out, and sometimes, the audio was great.
LIVE-SERVICE
It’s important to note that Suicide Squad is a live-service game, with many of the live-service elements. These range from getting ever better and newer gear to brand-new characters and assumed stories.
A little over half into Suicide Squad, the live-service elements start to emerge. Although they were already considerably noticeable with the repetitive missions, these elements equate to the various “contracts” that boil down to killing these enemies or going here and killing them this way. The other live-service elements also include killing a certain enemy type to improve the quality of your daily loot crate drop. Unfortunately, these are relatively useless unless someone is looking to min-max the game.
The other very notable fact of the game being live-service was the ending. After building up to taking down Brainiac, the team does get to take one of them down, the alternate world’s Brainiac. Guess what? There are 12 more of them that also need to die to finally be rid of Brainiac for good. This equates to an expectation of at least three Brainiacs per the announced four seasons, or a total of 12 seasons to expect for Suicide Squad. With this and the reception at the launch, there is a chance we will never see the full culmination of the story. Just another thing that the now-defunct Marvel’s Avengers did right over Suicide Squad.
As a live-action game, Suicide Squad also had very little costume customization, with each character having only two main costumes. These costumes had some options to choose from, but when compared to the number of costumes the Arkham games were able to offer, they were very lackluster.
SUMMARY
Hopefully, with the use of seasonal content, Rocksteady can bring Suicide Squad up to the expectations many fans had of the studio. But to that point, the question would be, why didn’t they delay the game to get to this point? Not having a complete main story or even a variety of missions made the game feel rushed, and unfortunately, this is just another example of why the live-service model is a terrible direction for games.
Overall, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League featured some of the best third-person shooting gameplay in recent years. But paired with a lackluster story and draining live service elements, it failed to hit any of the marks expected by such a high-profile IP and developer. With really crisp audio design and some memorable moments thanks to boss fights and creative story moments, Suicide Squad didn’t fall flat, and based on player counts, it looks to be sticking around. At least for one season.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. It can be purchased on Steam or the Epic Games Store.
The Review
Fair
