The ban on whispering about Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has lifted, allowing numerous outlets to publish underwhelming first impressions of the highly anticipated title. Excitement for Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad game starring DC’s band of supervillains has diminished as previews expose the flawed concept and execution.
Common grievances around monotonous combat and a derivative storyline permeate early critiques of the Justice League murder plot. While Rocksteady deliberately limited the preview scope to avoid spoilers, their choices fail to inspire confidence in this Suicide Squad game. We at Fandom Pulse reported on the disturbing trends in the games storyline, and it seems that mainstream press has picked up on the message.
IGN disparages the Suicide Squad title, “From enslaving a child form of Poison Ivy, to straight up watching your heroes murder people, there’s a lot here to make you feel a bit uncomfortable about the journey you’re being taken on. And when you pair this disconnect with game mechanics straight out of the likes of Destiny, Anthem, or Marvel’s Avengers, I’m left worried about the final product coming together in a way that works. The fun just wasn’t there for me.”
GameSpot concurs about the Justice League showdown in the gameplay department, stating “[getting around] and combat during the preview never felt quite as effortless or flowing as I’d hoped they would. There were times when I got the hang of Harley, swinging deftly from location to location and wailing on enemies, and the longer the event went on, the better combat felt. But things were also always a little clunky. I felt like I kept swinging into walls, or losing track of my next grapple point, or forgetting one of Harley’s moves and breaking the movement chain at a key moment.“
Meanwhile, Game Informer’s preview of Suicide Squad reads more like a list of lingering doubts than praise: “I still have several questions surrounding post-launch support, game structure, and monetization efforts.” Any anticipation comes with caveats about the Suicide Squad game mechanics.
While some Suicide Squad previews contain bright spots about characters, positivity craters when talking gameplay mechanics involving the Suicide Squad battling the Justice League. Moreover, even optimistic Suicide Squad takes surface “questions” that cannot be answered until after launch regarding the Justice League and metahuman foes. This contrasts with NDA-breaking alpha testers who relayed enjoying playing as the Suicide Squad far more than anticipated.
The most resounding criticism accuses the Suicide Squad game of trend-chasing – specifically in implementing co-op and live service features in vogue rather than delivering a strong single-player Suicide Squad experience. Suicide Squad fans weren’t thrilled with details like battle passes and gear scores, both design elements of live service games in recent years. Rocksteady’s game was then delayed just a month later, allegedly due to backlash over the live service elements, but a subsequent report claimed the delay was merely for “polish,” with no changes to the live service.
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Darius Sadeghian, Rocksteady’s studio product director, spoke last February about the Suicide Squad game’s live service stylings. “We knew we wanted to make a four-player co-op game, so we spent a lot of time iterating on our characters,” Sadeghian, the game’s director, said. “It wasn’t so much about making a game in a specific genre for us. Rather, the emphasis is on creating a sense of flow and trinity among all of our gameplay systems. That’s reflected in the way the traversal, melee, and shooter elements all blend when you play“.
As Eurogamer states about Rocksteady’s Justice League project, “It’s clear Rocksteady is keen to try something new with Suicide Squad while remaining tied to the studio’s past, but as an online shooter with live service elements it’s perhaps trend-chasing more than sticking to what the studio does best.“
Still, as critics and fans often disagree, it remains premature to wholly discount Rocksteady’s vision of the antihero team fighting the fallen heroes. However, without a public beta before release, unconvinced fans only have these lackluster Suicide Squad previews to inform their purchase. The final showdown may surprise, but for now, Rocksteady fails to make a compelling case for this Justice League assassination plot.
Are you hyped to play Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League or do you think it’ll be another live-service dud? What do you think about Rocksteady Games? Let us know in comments!
It’s basically what I figured it would be.