‘Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’ Review
Developer: Rocksteady Studios | Platform: PS5 | Playtime: 21:50
This review is based on a playthrough and roughly 5-6 hours of the post-game content known externally as Season 0, in game as Finite Crisis. This review contains mild spoilers throughout but has a section with MAJOR STORY SPOILERS. Reader discretion is advised, the specific section is marked.
Much maligned, much delayed and not very anticipated, Suicide Squad; Kill the Justice League has finally arrived. It’s been 9 years since the incredible Arkham Knight and people were eager to see what Rocksteady had lined up next. Suicide Squad? Yay! Live Service game? …why. It’s been a worrying trend to chase massive amounts of money that has big publishers like WB forcing their studios to work on titles which are not their forte. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has some of the Rocksteady charm, but it’s not enough to save the day this time.
Set 5 years after the events of Arkham Knight, specifically the true ending of the game – Knightfall, in which Batman adopts a new identity as the Demon Bat, fighting crime with the help of Scarecrow’s Fear Toxin. A Year ago he was welcomed into the newly formed Justice League, whose intergalactic escapades have attracted the attention of the game’s antagonist Brainiac. Overwhelmed by his power, the league fall victim to Brainiac’s mind control and Amanda Waller has to call in Task Force X, who are completely oblivious to what awaits them.
The squad have existed in the Arkhamverse prior, but it seems like earlier iterations seen in comics and the animated ‘Assault on Arkham’ have been retconned out in favour of this being the first iteration. The game even ignores the events of Arkham Origins and Blackgate, with no mention of Bronze Tiger or Deathstroke (At least, yet). This new team consists of course of Harley Quinn, a team staple. She is joined by three newcomers to the Arkhamverse - Deadshot (the real Deadshot, not the one seen in previous games due to a really contrived reason), King Shark (in actual shark form thankfully) and finally Captain Boomerang of the Flash’s rogue gallery. They are all written well (save for in game combat quips that repeat ad-nauseum) and bounce off of each other with jabs and insults, but also more tender moments – as “Tender” as this group gets.
It’s not just the squad that gets a lot of time in the light, and it’s also not just Batman rogues but rogues from throughout the DC Universe – Toyman, Gizmo, new character Hack just to name a few. These are unfortunately reduced down to vendors for various upgrades and items unfortunately – a fall from grace for someone like The Penguin, who was a major antagonist in several of the games up until this point.
How do the squad play then? Well a major criticism of the game leading up to launch is that you have these characters known for their unique characteristics, and you’ve thrown guns on them all. I’m not saying the addition of guns is bad, but they could have supplemented more unique playstyles. Each character gets two gun slots and a melee weapon, and each has speciality – Harley with pistols, Boomerang with Shotguns, Deadshot with Rifles and King Shark with Machine guns. I primarily played as King Shark with a machine gun, and saw very little reason to ever change – doubley so since some of the earliest story missions inexplicably give you legendary tier gear meaning you’re set for the entire game – not great when the game is based on loot.
Thankfully each character’s movement is unique and arguably the most fun of choosing different characters. Deadshot gets a jetpack which offers 360 degree movement, King Shark performs massive leaps up and across the sky. Harley’s movement disappoints, a shame for a character whose whole thing is athletic clown. Harley uses Batman’s gadgets to swing and grapple, but the outcome is
a poor hybrid of Spider-Man’s swinging and what feels a bit like Catwoman’s movement in Arkham City. Captain Boomerang gets the best of the movement – although it feels shorter range than the rest, using his boomerang as a target, he uses speed force gauntlets to teleport from place to place. Sadly this is the only major use of his boomerangs outside of cutscenes.
Over the games 10-15 hour campaign, it’s remarkable that there is absolutely nothing in the way of unique set pieces. Playing the game, you notice the repetition of the mission types, but upon reflection, everything is done more than once. That’s not to take away from the game in the moment, because in the moment it is fun, it just absolutely does not stand up to scrutiny. What isn’t fun are the side missions being the same content but with really arbitrary requirements like grenade only. Certain missions having XP boosts for certain characters is a cool idea, but it rarely works in the players favour.
This brings us to the elephant in the room, the whole ‘Kill the Justice League’ part of the premise. The league in the Arkhamverse consisting of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman (the sole member who escapes corruption), Barry Allen Flash and John Stewart Green Lantern. You don’t have to suspend your disbelief too far, with the game providing ample explanation how each of the Squad manage to survive more than 5 seconds against the members of the league. The game doesn’t necessarily mention it outright, but it seems the league are resisting control in some instances – in other instances it’s pride or cruelty holding them back. It works well enough to facilitate the game.
MAJOR STORY SPOILERS
To give the game its credit, you really do kill the Justice League. Mostly. Superman kills Wonder Woman but the rest comes at the Squad’s hand. Besides from Superman that everyone celebrates, each member of the squad gets their victory moment (Besides King Shark, as there’s no Aquaman) – Boomerang gets Flash, Deadshot gets Green Lantern and of course, Harley gets Batman. It’s sometimes impossible to separate the wider culture impact of things from the games made within, in this case – the Batman we have played as over the course of 4 legendary games meets his match against someone who people may believe to be an undeserving villain. Personally I feel like it works for the game, even if it does diminish Knightfall somewhat. Having Harley do it is poetic in a way but the issue that arises is of course is this that this was Kevin Conroy’s last performance due to his unfortunate passing. According to everybody involved, he had a blast in the role but it doesn’t stop the internet and “fans” kicking off. Your mileage is going to vary, to me it’s probably the best this game could have done for him. The other league members just kind of drop down dead without too much fanfare and onwards the story goes.
Unsurprisingly, Batman is the villain with the most screen time. ‘Screen time’ being the person who is constantly talking to the troops and taunting the protagonists – think Arkham Knight/Deathstroke for the Militia in the last game. It’s also his sections that are the best – one in which you are the thug in one of the previous games stealth encounters as well as a series staple Fear Toxin/Hallucination section down in the Metropolis Batcave.
END OF MAJOR STORY SPOILERS
Speaking of series staples, The Riddler is back… for some reason. His in game reasoning is that he should have been picked for the squad (his narcissism talking more than any bravado) and to this end he wants to test the squad with his usual shenanigans – Riddler Trophies, Riddles and the equivalent of the AR Challenges. Mercifully there are only 42 trophies compared to Arkham Knight’s 242, and none of them are based on puzzles, you just have to find them in the world. If you pass
one, it gets marked on the map. Riddler really does feel phoned in for KTJL, I don’t think his presence would have gone amiss if this wasn’t in the game.
When all else is said and done, we have Finite Crisis, the zero season for the game’s post launch updates. Heading back into Earth 2 following your confrontation with that world’s Brainiac, the player has the option of a whopping three mission types to choose from, all of which hail from the main game – The King of the Hill type Ivy defence mission, the three wave horde mission and the Nest missions. Each of these require a new currency to access – N -. Each mission costs 1000 to access, with more of the currency being rewarded for doing the menial missions in the overworld, again all of which repeats from the main game. The purpose of this is to raise your rank for the season, with each milestone (20, 40 and 60) unlocking new tiers of themed high tier gear. For whatever reason, this season’s theme is Bane, despite it having no relevance. As you progress, you do unlock an infinite horde like mode and a rematch against Brainiac which is just a Flash battle rematch.
After my 6 hours, I had more than my fill – the more you complete the missions, the higher “Mastery” you can engage them in, by Mastery 9 (of at least 20) they were already fairly tanky and I just didn’t want to dedicate more time to optimising a perfect build or bash my head against a wall. Better gear didn’t interest me and I felt like I had seen all there was to see. Season 1 and beyond are introducing new characters – Earth 2 Joker, Earth 2 Mrs Freeze, Lawless and Deathstroke as well as new missions, so who knows maybe I’ll return for them.
It really is a shame, the Rocksteady magic does shine through here and there, but the direction is just far away from where the studios efforts should be. With any luck, the studio still receives funding and can pivot back to what they know. It’d be a great shame to see such a great studio fall due to obvious corporate medalling. Suicide Squad is fun, but it could be so much more.
