Arkham Shitty: Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Review

5 years 9 months 19 days

The time is took Rocksteady to release the original Batman Arkham trilogy.

8 years 7 months 20 days

The time it took Rocksteady to release Suicide Squad : Kill the Justice League after Batman: Arkham Knight.

There are levels of disappointment in video games. There is is your "yearly release" disappointment like your Maddens or COD's which, to be honest, are expected. There is your "seeing a great trailer and being let down by the finished product" disappointment. Then there is your "when a great studio completely trips over their own feet and releases something that makes you wonder where they go next" disappointment. Arkane had that moment last year with Redfall. Bioware had that moment with Anthem and now Rocksteady has their moment with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

Imagine following up one of the greatest trilogy of games ever with a half baked, half assed looter shooter. Chasing the live service dragon like it is 2018 again. 

The story itself is not that bad. Suicide Squad is created to help defeat the Justice League who have become slaves of Brainiac as he takes over Metropolis and terraform Earth. Pretty straightforward except for the boring slog in between the story. And if all you are looking for is story get ready to breeze through the game in under 10 hours.

The four characters feel the same. They traverse around the city in different ways sure but it is all the same. Deadshot uses a jetpack, Captain Boomerang uses the speed force, Harley uses a Bat drone and King Shark jumps far. Oh and he jumps high also. All of them have different weapon types they can use from assault rifles, smg's, pistols and chain guns determined by who you are playing. It doesn't really matter what weapon you choose because they all feel like they have no impact on the bullet sponge enemies (live service tip: all enemies are bullet sponges to lengthen playtime to make it seem like you are accomplishing something). 

The normal live service staples are here: weapons with stats that don't really matter and mods slots that don't really affect anything. The usual bits taken out of every game of its ilk for over 10 years. You can put trinkets on your weapons to make it seem like you are making them special. Lootbox drops straight out of Madden Ultimate Team mode with blinking colors to make you feel special because you got a legendary item that feel the same as all the other weapons you have unlocked. 

It's all here. They hit every checkmark.

Enemy variety is something I would talk about if there were any. Well you do have your skinny generic aliens, your large generic aliens and some alien that have been given powers of the Justice League. So you have three at least. 

Mission structure is, get ready for another live service callback, boring and repetitive. Not powerful enough to take on the next Justice League member? Well go find another “kill a lot of enemies on rooftops while protecting something” mission to get you the XP you need.

Cosmetics are boring, weapons are boring, combat is boring. You sensing a theme here?

I don't mean to shit on Rocksteady. There are people that worked hard on this game. I am sure this mandate to do this game as a live service is from WB and not them. We still have to say when a shit sandwich is a shit sandwich. It's not a steak like we wanted after waiting 8 years. 

This game will be compared to Anthem and Avengers.  There is no way not to compare them. The thing about Anthem is that the bones were good. The traversal was good. There was something there that could have become more if it was given the chance. Avengers had a better story as well as each character feeling different to go along with cosmetics that you wanted your character to wear. 

Suicide Squad is worse than both of those games. If it was developed by another studio it might get a bit of a pass. The fact it was made by Rocksteady, and after waiting 8 years, makes this game the one thing it could not afford to be.

Bad.

4/10