Review — Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a game that launched with a death warrant. From the first preview to the launch, it has had no shortage of people and outlets willing to dump all over it. Is everyone living in the same echo chamber or are they unwilling to give the villain-centric shooter an honest try?
Story
The story in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League isn’t really anything new. It’s a combination of the traditional Suicide Squad origin story and Brainiac taking over members of the Justice League. The only “twist” is that the likes of Batman, Superman, and the Flash cannot be saved and must be put down.
So, if you’re at all familiar with either concept, then you won’t be too stunned by what plays out. Amanda Waller is an absolute piece of shit, evil Superman is just as banal as vanilla Superman, and Wonder Woman refuses to come to terms with what is happening.
Despite all of that, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League tells its tale in a very entertaining way. While I felt that, in the beginning, the comedy was very forced and King Shark was channeling the MCU’s Drax the Destroyer too much, this cast of misfits grew on me much like they have in every other iteration except for the movie with Will Smith as Deadshot.
Ultimately, the story moves from killing the members of the Justice League to saving the multiverse by defeating Brainiac. This a very tall order for a group of villains largely lacking in superpowers. However, it is the perfect playground for Rocksteady to get really creative with the addition of new characters, storylines, and settings.
We’ve already seen how a younger and more inexperienced Joker will be added to Task Force X after his own team is defeated. It’s a great way for Rocksteady to try some really unique takes on characters without having to worry about the larger continuity.
Now for the elephant in the room: Suicide Squad’s connection to the Arkham universe. There is a very vocal part of the player base that is absolutely livid about this being the curtain call for Arkham’s Batman.
I will admit that Suicide Squad is a huge tonal shift away from what many loved about the Arkham series. However, this is often the case for DC storylines once the larger casts are established. You’re taking a profoundly rich man with even more severe mental issues out of the grimy and art deco streets of Gotham City and putting him into outer space to battle giant starfish and a being as powerful as Superman who has an entire war planet. It’s gonna get stupid and silly.
If that’s something a player isn’t willing to accept, then the goofy side of comics is lost on them, and that’s fine. They’re the equivalent of a reader who sticks to a specific series, rather than the larger continuity. I totally understand that as Batman and his family are really the only titles I enjoy out of DC’s stable.
But to be outright hostile to those who poured their entire being into this project is ridiculous. If you’re not a fan of the cosmic side of DC, that’s fine; stick to what you like. But don’t yuck someone’s yum. There’s already too much negativity in the world. We don’t need to start bullshit about fictional characters.
Gameplay
Suicide Squad’s gameplay is where it truly shines. Sure, there are a lot of tutorials and hand-holding in the first several hours, but that’s because there are a lot of systems in play.
This looter shooter is drowning in loot with random stats, perks, rarities, and set bonuses. Additionally, there are even secret buffs that can be gained by mixing and matching various villains’ Infamous sets.
Where the story fell flat for me, the gameplay was there to more than make up for it. Combat is frenetic with a vertical twist thanks to the various skyscrapers of the Metropolis districts. There’s a decent amount of enemy variety which forces players to adapt their strategies if they want to emerge victorious. It’s simply not enough to fire endlessly into an enemy. Shields must be broken, teleportation must be stopped, and debuffs applied to progress.
This is paired with Mastery Levels which increase the difficulty, much like Diablo’s Torment Levels. Also taking a page from the gothic dungeon crawler are Incursions, which are the equivalent of Rifts. It’s worked wonderfully for Blizzard and works just as well here.
Having played both extensively, I will admit that I’m more a fan of the loot chase here as the build-crafting really clicked for me. The information for what gear is available and how to get it, combined with clear descriptions of effects and buffs, makes it easy for me to come up with an idea for a build and implement it. Running with a Craze build and then tinkering with a Blaze build is fun and adds a ton of replay value for me.
Simply put, Suicide Squad’s gameplay is incredibly good and goes a long way in carrying the title much in the same way Destiny 2’s gameplay makes up for the atrocious way in which its story is told.
Controls
For the entirety of my time with Suicide Squad, I’ve played on PC using an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller with the four paddles on the back mapped for various functions. Your mileage may vary depending on your control scheme.
With that out of the way, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the members of Task Force X handle. It took a while to get my bearings, but once it clicked, I was in. This is the benefit of the otherwise annoying tutorial missions. Suicide Squad is a game that forces you to learn.
This is one of the faults that will deter many. In my own experience, there are those that couldn’t tolerate the excessive number of tutorials and numerous cutscenes that litter the opening acts. I also had a hard time with it and it took much longer than I would have liked to essentially be let loose.
With each character having a unique traversal method, you’ll be quick to find who you like and who you don’t. That being said, don’t write off the others as I initially planned to. I absolutely hated Captain Boomerang, but once I figured him out, he quickly shot up to my top spot. Honestly, the only reason I don’t exclusively play him is my affinity for Harley Quinn.
All of that is to say I’m quite impressed with how well Rocksteady made a game with so many mechanics and ways to approach a fight so easy to control. It hammers home the point that if a game is fun to play, it’s easy to overlook its faults.
Endgame
The endgame is my biggest gripe with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and it’s not because I hate playing it. Instead, it is the bug-riddled online matchmaking that makes it practically unplayable.
After beating the story solo, I opted to jump into multiplayer for the endgame grind as I enjoy when people make absolutely bonkers builds and we can destroy things in a spectacular fashion. However, 80% of my multiplayer connections are either dropped outright or so maligned with desync issues as to render it unplayable.
The only times I’ve been able to get multiplayer working reliably is with another friend in a Friends Only session on the same platform. Even that is a hassle thanks to a known bug with how invites work.
Suicide Squad was released with a target on its back. Having shoddy multiplayer will be what kills it if not resolved quickly. At the time of this writing, I’ve given up entirely on it if I’m not playing with a friend simply because I can’t do the online multiplayer.
Sure, I can go after it solo, but there are known bugs with scaling in higher Mastery Levels that make Incursions like defending Ivy’s plant baby all but impossible by yourself. It’s incredibly frustrating because of how fun the game is, how much I want to work on my builds, and knowing that this could be its death knell.
Summary and Score
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is an imperfect game. While that’s to be expected in this day and age, launching a game with a focus on online multiplayer only to have that be fundamentally broken is inexcusable. I really want it to succeed and grow, but between the reception from critics and players, and the state of the game, I have serious doubts about it surviving past the next season.
Additionally, the first 3–5 hours are a rough go with the number of cutscenes, forced humor falling flat, and tutorial missions. It’s akin to recommending a show to someone with the caveat they suffer through the first several episodes to get to the good stuff.
Despite a very solid gameplay loop and loot chase, I fear that it will go the way of other looter shooters with the games-as-a-service model. I would love nothing more than to be proved wrong and will continue to advocate for it where I can. Time will tell.
6/10
