Combat Clunker

What’s not to like about a game that has the Suicide Squad and Justice League, made by the developers of Batman Arkham Trilogy? A lot, apparently

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Rating: 2/5
Developer: Rocksteady Studios
Publisher: Warner Bros
Platform: PC, XBS, PS5
Price: Rs 4,999

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was supposed to be a great game, judging from its pedigree. You have the irreverent Suicide Squad trying to murder the Justice League, which is guaranteed to be a great storyline. Then you have developers Rocksteady Studios, who have three successful Batman titles under their belts, known for their great story, cutscenes, and superb combat. The last few Suicide movies were great as well, so there is enough hype behind this. Unfortunately, the ground reality for this game is completely different. It’s not  all bad, though.

Let’s start with the story. Amanda Waller from ARGUS has implanted a mini-bomb into the heads of Arkham Asylum inmates Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, Harley Quinn, and King Shark and compelled them to join Task Force X, better known as the Suicide Squad. Their task is to kill the Justice League, who have been brainwashed by Brainiac. The rest of the plot has multi-verse stuff, a whole bunch of gore, and a surprisingly good storyline. The cutscenes, character art, and voice acting are top-notch, as good as any Arkham game before this. It is the only saving grace of this game. However, I must mention that the multiverse is starting to annoy me a bit, and I hate that so many DC and Marvel stories now rely on it. While this story is still good, I do feel a little fatigued with the idea. 

In the game, you can play as any of the four lead characters. You have to essentially jump around the place and shoot at opponents through most of the game. The combat is as far away as can be from Arkham Asylum, and more importantly, the play styles for all the characters are too similar to make any discernible distinction. You can improve your characters with their skill tree but most of the combat is focused on wielding a gun. Even your loot is focused on getting better or rather rare weapons. The weapons are mostly standard issue stuff; though you have some stand-outs, it isn’t exciting enough or good enough to save this game.

It is also especially important for this game that it impresses you with its combat because, at the end of the day, Suicide Squad is meant to be a multi-player game service that you are supposed to pay for to play for a very long time. This is another trend that irks me, along with multi-verse. I don’t want to continuously play the same game online forever with players around the world. Some games are not made to be enjoyed that way, and over the last few years, several games that have forced themselves into this mould have prematurely shut down their service because they didn’t have enough players. Honestly, there are a limited number of gamers willing to pay for content beyond what was included in the base game. If a studio doesn’t have a solid game to base this growth on, it is never going to take off. There are rumours of more playable characters. For the multiplayer version of the game, but I don’t think even that will be enough to save it. 

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, with its great story and brilliant character actors, could have been a fun game. Instead, you have to deal with repetitive combat, boring missions, and uninspired level design, making the game tedious instead of fun. I would still recommend playing the campaign mission, around 8-9 hours of game time. As for the live game service that Rocksteady is planning around this game, I doubt there will be too many takers. You might even play the main game for free once they start pushing their online game service, so I suggest waiting for that moment or buying this game when it eventually lands in the discount bin. They might even fix the combat by then which would be a double win for those who wait.

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