Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Review: A Self-Destructive Misfire

Long earlier than the Suicide Squad went on to strive about killing the Justice League, it dug its personal grave. The action-adventure shooter from Rocksteady was born with the burden of dwelling as much as the lofty requirements set by the studio’s beloved Batman: Arkham video games. Then, it stepped on a rake when final yr’s gameplay reveal confirmed that the recreation can be an always-online, stay service looter shooter — a departure from Rocksteady’s repertoire of narrative-focussed single-player experiences. And when it lastly got here out in early entry forward of its February 2 launch, the builders needed to pull it offline as a result of a bug that led to full story completion simply as gamers logged in to the recreation for the first time.

Just like that glitch, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League appears to have reached its fated finish earlier than it even bought a change to start. The co-op shooter, maybe by little fault of its personal, has develop into the flagbearer for the failings of stay service titles. Repetitive, grindy gameplay meant to stretch out participant engagement; in-game retailer promoting objects, weapons, and skins at exorbitant costs; and a promise of post-launch seasonal content material — Suicide Squad has all the markings for a Fortnite imitator constructed to tradition microtransactions.

But its stay service notion obfuscates rather a lot that works nicely in it, too, smearing the total recreation with a singular, barely unfair brush. Between the exhausting grind of its missions and the banal manner you go about doing them, Kill the Justice League may also be enjoyable. The mixture of chaotic taking pictures and frenetic traversal usually hits simply the proper spot; the recreation units up an attention-grabbing premise for its story, even when it loses its manner in the direction of the finish; and its playground recreation of a Metropolis in disaster gives loads of inventive distractions to maintain you coming again. But Rocksteady’s co-op shooter additionally can’t assist itself from demolishing its personal foundations. There are concepts in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League that might have helped carry the recreation above its many flaws, however its baffling design selections, mundane mission construction, and unclear identification find yourself working in opposition to its strengths.

The 33 Most Anticipated Games of 2024

In its early moments, Suicide Squad units up the items on the board fairly nicely. We’re launched to the would-be members of the squad, Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark and Captain Boomerang. The 4 are free of Arkham Asylum by A.R.G.U.S. director Amanda Waller, who deceptively vegetation miniature bombs of their heads. With her finger on the detonator, Waller forces the 4 criminals to do her bidding as a part of Task Force X. Metropolis is below siege from Brainiac, a superintelligent alien from Colu intent on invading Earth and terraforming it to his personal liking. Sounds like simply the job for the Justice League, proper? Except the league has been compromised — brainwashed by Brainiac and now working rogue and evil. The Suicide Squad’s subsequent orders: kill the Justice League.

It’s as ridiculous because it sounds, and the squad is aware of it. You cannot simply kill the Justice League; it is suicide. Any single member of the superhero group might obliterate this rapidly assembled and reasonably motivated group of goons with out sweating. And the recreation acknowledges that. So, the 4 antiheroes then go about recruiting new mates — a who’s who of DC delinquents, who assist them discover the Justice League’s weaknesses, equip them with weapons of the superhero-killing sort, and improve their gear items. There are not any actual surprises in the story right here; the recreation serves just about what the title guarantees. But the narrative shines early on due to the unhinged chemistry between the squad. The quippy back-and-forth between the principal characters can generally be Joss Whedon-esque, however it additionally usually works due to their deranged dynamic. The writing by no means rises above what we have come to count on from superhero movies, however it additionally by no means dives into cringe territory.

The unhinged chemistry between members of the Suicide Squad shines by means of
Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Games/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul

The rogue Justice League heroes stand out, too. They retain their acquainted personas, however it’s distilled by means of a comically evil filter. Superman’s infallible morality takes the form of an inflated god complicated; brainwashed Batman actually places the darkish in Dark Knight; and evil Flash, maybe the better of the lot, remains to be the comedian reduction however in a really psychopathic type of manner. The Suicide Squad itself is a vibrant, chaotic bunch. It can be simple to color all of them as loopy, however their identities and motivations are distinctly established. Harley Quinn brings the lunatic power of her ex-boyfriend; King Shark embodies the large endearing fool, channeling Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy; Deadshot brings the smarts and the sanity; and Captain Boomerang brings the Bushman vibes. The 4 consistently bicker and blather, however over time you see them truly develop into a group as their variations by some means carry a collective concord whilst they sing their particular person tunes.

As you tackle missions from Waller at the Hall of Justice, now the base of operations in opposition to its former occupants, the fundamental story unfolds by means of well-crafted cutscenes and well-timed narrative beats. But the story loses steam earlier than it reaches its remaining levels as Suicide Squad struggles to carry to the desk something past what the title guarantees. There are some narrative moments meant to impress, subverting what’s sacrosanct for the sake of shock. And whereas these aren’t completely unmerited, they usually really feel like the recreation is attempting too onerous.

Superman’s infallible morality takes the form of an inflated god complicated as he goes evil
Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Games/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul

The fundamental story can also be a brief one. If you persist with it, you may maybe see the finish credit in a dozen or so hours. As a end result, large narrative moments do not get the time and house to breathe. Batman: Arkham video games, compared, felt intentionally gradual, permitting gamers to actually settle inside the cape and the cowl. Suicide Squad, on the different hand, at all times appears like its dashing you to your subsequent goal, like the story is a mere formality to heat you up for the post-launch seasonal content material. As you examine heroes off your kill checklist, you’re finally funnelled to a totally unsatisfying non-ending. And whereas the credit roll, the recreation leaves you with extra meaningless stuff to do to keep up its stay service mirage.

Just like its story, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s gameplay cripples itself with essential missteps, too. At its core, the recreation is a third-person shooter with fast-paced traversal techniques to navigate its open world. And when its kinetic fight and motion techniques work as supposed, they are often actually enjoyable. The taking pictures itself is not very tight or responsive, however the beneficiant auto-aim and chaotic encounters preserve it fulfilling. The fight is constructed round sustaining lengthy combos with assist of your weapons, grenades, melee weapons, traversal assaults, and particular skills. The recreation creates accessible hyperlinks between its totally different techniques, too. For instance, each you and your enemies — the myriad minions of Brainiac now roaming the streets and rooftops of Metropolis — have shields that absorb injury earlier than the HP begins taking a success. You might shoot at enemies, try to get headshots and trick pictures whereas in the air or when sliding on the floor to get essential hits in. But for those who intention at their legs, you open them up for a protect harvesting melee assault alternative. This not solely knocks again enemies and offers large injury to their shields, but additionally drops pickups that replenish yours.

Chaotic fight and zippy traversal techniques stand out in Suicide Squad
Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Games/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul

Like any looter shooter, there are a ton of weapons in Suicide Squad, unfold throughout heavy weapons, sniper, assault rifle, SMG, shotgun and pistol classes. All weapons are tiered based mostly on their rarity — the ordinary color codes of inexperienced, purple, gold and extra. And they arrive with augments and stat bonuses that have an effect on points like essential hit probability, reload pace, injury output and extra. Guns may also be used to “counter” enemies with an alternate hearth mode that interrupts enemy assaults and stuns them for a little bit bit, opening them up for a follow-up assault. But oddly weapons classes are tied to particular characters. For occasion, solely King Shark and Harley Quinn can wield a heavy weapon, whereas solely Deadshot and Captain Boomerang can decide up a sniper. This finally ends up limiting equip choices, proscribing you from utilising rarer high quality weapons as you need.

Over time, you recruit DC villains as members of you assist group. Penguin upgrades your weapons and crafts new ones, Poison Ivy applies elemental afflictions to your melee weapons and grenades, and Toyman rejigs your weapon augments. The downside is that the recreation’s a number of weapon customisation menus and strategies usually depart you jaded. I discovered it was finest to cease caring about the statistical trivialities and follow the weapons that really feel finest to make use of.

The similar applies to expertise bushes, too. Suicide Squad comes with particular person ability bushes for every of its antiheroes, however all of them are constructed to reward grind. Very few expertise upgrades unlock significant skills that may truly show you how to in Metropolis. Most operate as incremental boosts depending on combos. It’s actually a headache to even learn the descriptions of those ability upgrades. Sample this: “At 30x combo and higher, Melee Kills and Critical Hit Kills have a 100 percent chance to cause the enemy to Explode and deal 25 percent of their maximum health as damage to enemies within 10 metres.” Every ability improve hits you with related mathematical mumbo-jumbo to the level the place you cease caring and simply decide your skills at random.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Review: A Bold New Path for the Prince

The taking pictures is not fairly as tight and responsive, however frentic encounters preserve issues enjoyable
Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Games

The chaos of the fight in Suicide Squad may be enjoyable, particularly for those who preserve switching between squad members. While weapons work the similar throughout characters, the manner you mix the taking pictures with the traversal skills of every squad member retains issues contemporary. Harley Quinn is light-footed, fast with jumps and dodges, however her grappling hook and swinging mechanic pales compared to her colleagues. Deadshot has a jetpack with a restricted cooldown that lets him fly round. But the highlights listed below are King Shark and Captain Boomerang. The former banks on his Atlantean powers to leap and pounce lengthy distances throughout the skyscrapers of Metropolis, whereas the latter utilises his boomerang, infused with Flash’s Speed Force powers to zip throughout the skyline of the metropolis. Shark and Boomerang are simply the most enjoyable to manage in each fight and traversal and I ended up maining the two all through my playthrough. The verticality of Metropolis lends itself to the traversal, too. It’s not only a flat slab of buildings you may glide over with out thought. You must climb up skycrapers, bounce off and discover your subsequent touchdown level on the go earlier than your traversal skills run out of juice, after which recharge and take off once more.

But all the enjoyable stuff finally ends up vaporising due to how Suicide Squad chooses to construction its missions. If you need to improve your arsenal and add new gear to your stock, you’ll have to have interaction with assist quests. These are mind-numbingly repetitive. If you’ve got finished 4 or 5 of them, you’ve got finished all of them. You’re despatched to a location on the map and informed to save lots of civilians or defend Poison Ivy’s poisonous vegetation or be guinea pigs for Toyman’s unhinged experiments. The manner you go about all of them, nonetheless, is the similar. And for those who selected to disregard most of the assist quests and persist with the fundamental missions, you may miss out on a couple of vital gear upgrades. Even when the fight and traversal is enjoyable, the rinse and repeat nature of the facet quests finally ends up sporting you down and turning the considered one of the recreation’s largest strengths into senseless drudgery.

Repetitive facet quests choke the enjoyable out of the recreation
Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Games/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul

And it isn’t simply the facet quests; the marquee fundamental missions, the place you tackle members of the Justice League one after the other, are the worst perpetrator. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League options a few of the worst boss fights I’ve ever seen in video video games. You’d think about going toe to toe with the likes of Superman, Batman, Flash and the Green Lantern can be the highlights of a recreation that has ‘Kill the Justice League’ in the title. Instead, these showdowns are its nadir. Suicide Squad’s boss encounters are unimaginative, lazy, and downright offensive. Narratively, your squad will get a bit of tech or a trinket that particularly acts on the weaknesses of every member of the Justice League. For Flash, Lex Luthor builds you a Speed Force thingamajig; for Superman, you hoard up on Kryptonite; and for Green Lantern, you get your self a Yellow Lantern Battery that weakens his will. But mechanically, you go about every boss encounter the similar manner.

You use the alterative hearth to counter Justice League heroes when the counter sign flashes over their heads to refill a meter. The meter dictates the quantity of injury your weapons will deal to the hero. And as soon as the meter is full, you simply bounce round a closed enviornment and shoot at them till their well being bar crawls all the way down to zero. You cannot actually get near them and use your particular skills or traversal assaults, thus turning boss encounters primarily into goal apply. These monolithic fights are additionally framed and choreographed in shockingly inept methods, virtually as if designed to attract your ire. There’s no lock on, after all, however Flash and Superman preserve zipping round the space at invisible speeds. Half the time you are struggling to centre the digital camera on to them. And once you do, you barely get a couple of pictures off earlier than they zap away. These encounters thus develop into a cat and mouse chase, the place you are not even certain for those who’re the cat or the mouse. And for those who wanted any proof about how a lot effort went into these, the remaining boss struggle — the final encounter of the recreation — is strictly (and I imply precisely) the similar as the first one in opposition to Flash. It’s like the recreation bought bored with itself at the remaining hurdle and duplicate pasted its personal outdated homework to get it over with. It’s not solely baffling how Rocksteady went about designing these boss fights, but additionally simply merely unhappy to see a as soon as reverred studio care so little about its personal craft.

Suicide Squad’s boss encounters are unimaginative, lazy, and downright offensive
Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Games/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul

When it involves the visuals, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a vibrant presentation. The particle results explode on to your display screen in one million colors throughout fight and Metropolis’ embodies an imposing visible identification that at all times left me impressed. But the recreation additionally consistently clutters your display screen with persistent HUD components, results, mission goals and markers. While in fight, your display screen drowns in rubbish indicators, injury numbers, and combo buffs that blindfold you with inessential data. I additionally could not assist however really feel a sore lack of environment whereas taking part in Suicide Squad. The lightness of the visuals matches the tone that the recreation goes for, however Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham video games excelled in making a Gotham that felt depressingly actual. The darkish alleys, the fixed rain and snow, and the neon taking a ghastly glimmer in the fog made for an immersive, heady, and intoxicating Gotham. And whereas I get that Metropolis displays the unstained aura of Superman, the Brainiac invasion might have been a chance for Rocksteady to current a metropolis but unseen.

Character fashions, particularly for the squad and for the Justice League, on the different hand, are detailed, with life like animations that carry them to life. But it is the voice work right here that really shines by means of. All squad members usually are not solely distinct in tone, however the dialogue supply and the comedian timing from all 4 is sort of at all times on level. From the Justice League, particular reward should be reserved for the voice work for evil Flash, which channels simply the correct quantity of deranged and harmful whereas being humorous. But, after all, the spotlight right here is the late and nice Kevin Conroy’s voice for the Batman. In his remaining flip as the Caped Crusader earlier than he sadly handed away in 2022, Conroy delivers a masterclass. While I’ve my very own reservations with how the recreation treats the Dark Knight, Conroy’s voice finds the soul of Batman even when he is gone evil.

On the PlayStation 5, the recreation runs nicely in efficiency mode, delivering 60fps largely stably. The framerate does take a dip throughout intense fight sections, however not to a degree the place it spoils the expertise. I additionally skilled some stuttering throughout cutscenes and a few onerous crashes. More annoyingly, the recreation’s final replace introduced in additional points for me than it fastened. Suicide Squad froze proper after mission completion on three events for me, leaving me caught with a ‘Loading Metropolis’ message. I additionally had bother logging in to Warner Bros. servers a few occasions. While I did not expertise any main bugs or visible glitches, a litany of smaller points persevered all through my playthrough. These, nonetheless, ought to be fastened in subsequent updates.

Suicide Squad’s Metropolis is visually imposing and options spectacular verticality
Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Games/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League appears to be plagued with a disaster of identification. Caught between attempting to be an efficient stay service looter shooter that may preserve gamers hooked long run and trying to craft a Rocksteady-style narrative that delivers a satisfying story, it results in a limbo the place neither strategy works. These are two inherently incompatible fashions that require complete dedication. The lately launched Helldivers 2 is the excellent instance of how a web-based stay service shooter might distinguish itself in an oversaturated style. And Suicide Squad want solely take a look at 2021’s Guardians of the Galaxy to see how a squad-based superhero motion recreation can ship a memorable story.

Perhaps the most baffling truth is that it took Rocksteady, a famed developer whose previous video games are thought of plain classics which can be being performed to at the present time, took 9 years to make a recreation that falls abysmally wanting the studio’s personal excessive requirements. Suicide Squad is not a horrible recreation — a few of the detrimental consideration might maybe be attributed to advertising misfires, and a few of the criticism is probably too harsh, even when not unwarranted. But it consistently pales compared to Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham video games in each side that issues. There are seeds of concepts, techniques, and story right here that might have delivered a legitimately enjoyable and distinctly distinctive shooter. But as the self-destructive recreation that it chooses to be, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League solely shoots itself in the foot.

Pros

• Fun traversal
• Interesting story premise
• Likeable solid of characters
• Chaotic fight
• Kevin Conroy’s Batman

Cons

• Repetitive missions
• Grindy gameplay
• Live service fatigue
• Unimaginative boss fights
• Unsatisfying story

Rating (out of 10): 6

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League launched February 2 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.

Pricing begins at Rs. 4,999 for the Standard Edition on Steam and Epic Games Store for PC, and Rs. 5,299 on PlayStation Store for PS5 and Xbox Store for Xbox Series S/X.