After multiple Batman games, Rocksteady is stepping into another corner of the DC universe with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Despite not starring Batman, the new Suicide Squad game has been confirmed to be a part of the Arkham universe that has featured such games as Batman: Arkham Knight. Gotham Knights, another Batman-inspired game, was officially announced on the same day as Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and there was some initial confusion over how the games were related, if at all.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is an action-adventure shooter coming from Rocksteady in 2022. It will support from one to four players and allow players the ability to swap between Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, and King Shark. Gotham Knights, on the other hand, is an open-world action RPG. Players will also have four heroes available to play: Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Robin. Gotham Knights will be playable either in solo mode or with two-person co-op and releases in 2021.
It would be easy to assume that there could be some overlap between Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Gotham Knights. Not only are the two connected to the Batman mythos, but developer WB Games Montreal, which is working on Gotham Knights, previously released prequel game Batman: Arkham Origins and worked on DLC for Batman: Arkham Knight. In an interview with IGN, however, Gotham Knights creative director Patrick Redding confirmed that the game is very much separate from the Arkham games. Said Redding, "We want this to be the start of something, not just the continuation or prolonging of something. It was always intended as a new franchise set within DC's Batman universe."
Gotham Knights is a New Take on a Batman Game
Gotham Knights has certainly been taking measures to establish itself as a different take on crime-fighting in Gotham, most notably by creating a game that starts with the death of Batman, leaving his allies to pick up the pieces. It's a fairly drastic change for Batman canon, so it's understandable why DC would want to put some distance between Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Allowing Gotham Knights to change up the Batman game formula might bring some fresh ideas in terms of mechanics and co-op play that might not have been possible if WB Games Montreal hadn't removed Batman completely from the equation.
That's not to say that Rocksteady is sticking with the same old formula with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Despite it being set in the Arkham game universe, the game hasn't shown Batman in early marketing materials, and it will star Task Force X, the villains-forcibly-turned-heroes. It will also be a shooter, a markedly different approach from the more brawler style of Arkham games and the RPG gameplay of Gotham Knights. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League might not be connected to Gotham Knights, but they're both proving that there's more than one way to be a Batman game.
Source: IGN
Gotham Knights will be available in 2021 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One and PC. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will release in 2022 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC.