Designing: a new ‘Suicide Squad’ Game
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has released and proven to be a fairly middling experience. There are sparks of greatness in there, but just not enough. The idea of a Suicide Squad game is tenable, it just needs better direction. Here’s how I would go about making a squad game.
Introducing:
Suicide Squad: Where Devils Play
First up of course is the story, which I’m not going to detail too deeply, just cover the main plot beats and overarching story. Who knows, I may eventually expand on this whole thing and write the story in full. For now though, a brief introduction and plot synopsis.
The Squad are called in to a remote Siberian facility to rescue or eliminate callsign ‘Hyena’. The squad consists of Deathstroke who is leading the squad, Bane, Parasite, Killer Frost and a couple other smaller criminals. They reach Hyena who is of course revealed to be Harley Quinn. Harley’s microbomb was removed, and Waller wanted to make sure she didn’t talk. Saving Harley, they discover that Amanda Waller has fallen afoul of shadowy group, ‘The Light’. There’s a traitor within The Light who wants out, but there’s also a turncoat within the Squad, feeding information to The Light.
That’s the general plot synopsis as it were. I hate when the Squad are used to fight Superhero level threats (Enchantress in Suicide Squad, Braniac in KTJL). Starro in The Suicide Squad straddles the line for me, but this is why I went with The Light. Hailing from the Young Justice animated show, The Light is a sort of villain illuminati, ran by the likes of Lex Luthor, Ras al Ghul and other big figures. With the Light as the villains, you can have regular soldiers as enemies with other villains mixed in for more drama.
To me, the perfect Suicide Squad game would play like a mix of Dishonored, Spec Ops: The Line/Binary Domain and Metal Gear Solid – That’s to say – More open ‘Play your way’ levels, Squad Commands and well, Metal Gear like stuff.
Playing primarily as Deathstroke (Being able to issue commands or switch characters ala FF7R), you must manage the loyalty of your team and your own loyalties, siding with Waller (who following the death of Rick Flagg previously, trusts you just enough to not Microbomb you) and the temptations of The Light. This is done both through story based decisions and in game mechanics – reviving teammates, allowing them to do the jobs they’re good at. Each character would have strengths and weaknesses – Bane isn’t going to be doing much in the way of stealth, for example. Playing your way means that one character could be operating in stealth while all the guards are distracted. The Metal Gear bit means you can hold up guards for their codes, for them to surrender or to trick other guards to look the other way.
Alongside the playable squad is Eclipse Team, Rick Flagg’s old squadmates who act as support for the missions as well as handlers back at the hub, offering upgrades and the like. Eclipse Team was specifically brought back by Waller as an anti Light team, but their loyalties can also be swayed.
After completing the campaign, you would unlock the extra mode. I’m struggling for a good title, so for now we’ll just settle on:
“War Games”
Following the success of the mission (Campaign), Waller has been given a blank cheque to continue on with these assignments for as long as she has criminals to use. These could be remixed versions of campaign levels or brand new ones specific to this mode.
I envision 4 game types:
- Most Wanted – You choose one character and aim to complete the objectives in as fast a time as possible.
- Attrition – Taking a similar approach to the Gears of War Horde Vs mode, completing actions earns points that can be used to respawn as more powerful villains
- Operation – You are given a certain number of points to spend on creating a team. You place each within the map in strategic positions to allow you as the player to complete your mission which would last multiple levels. If they die, they’re out.
o Exclusive to Operations, the player can access a birds eye view and map of the level as Amanda Waller, guiding the squad to certain points or killing them for strategic benefit
- Overwatch – Not originally an idea I had but a one I spun off from Operation. Overwatch would be the Amanda Waller view as an entire mode, mixed with the points system of Attrition or Operation, depending on the mission (or player decision).
This side mode would allow for more variation in team composition than the campaign provides, remixing existing teams as well as introducing new ones that are exclusive to this game mode.
It’s not quite fully comprehensive as a design document (and it’s sat in my drafts limbo for long enough) but it’s got my general ideas on. I may return to this specific idea later, but I also intend to further develop the concept of making designs on this site for other titles in the future, so that’s something to look forward to.
