Based on early gameplay footage, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League appears to completely miss what made Rocksteady's legendary Batman: Arkham games so great and successful. The upcoming third-person shooter will be Rocksteady's first game, and the first entry in the Batman: Arkham universe since 2015's Arkham Knight. While the epic Caped Crusader simulators are still widely regarded as the pinnacle of superhero gaming, Suicide Squad: KTJL seems to be completely missing the mark.
Following the single-player narrative-driven Batman: Arkham series, Rocksteady is unexpectedly planning to make Suicide Squad: KTJL an online-only live-service co-op shooter. The project will let players choose between Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark, and Captain Boomerang as the ragtag group struggles to take down a brainwashed Justice League. The title will focus heavily on loot, with players defeating enemies to collect resources and new weapons to customize their arsenal. While the game will take Task Force X through an epic story across the streets of Metropolis, Rocksteady will also continue delivering new free content long after launch. Sadly, Suicide Squad: KTJL may still be unable to live up to its predecessors.
Batman: Arkham Turns Players Into The Dark Knight
As many developers and reviewers are quick to articulate, Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham games strive to make players truly feel like Batman. The franchise's Freeflow Combat system, Invisible Predator sections and general atmosphere help deliver the fantasy of being the Caped Crusader protecting the streets of Gotham. Batman: Arkham's side missions in later games let players hunt down and face Batman's greatest rogues, with free-roam across an open-world Gotham simulating the power and tenacity of the World's Greatest Detective. Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham games are far from perfect, but each one is focused solely on delivering the ultimate Batman experience and excels at doing so.
Suicide Squad: KTJL Makes Every Character The Same
Sadly, so far Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League appears to miss the mark by misusing its comic book protagonists. While every moment and mechanic in the Batman: Arkham series is meant to push the Dark Knight fantasy, Rocksteady's upcoming shooter makes its heroes look generic. Whether they're controlling Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark, or Captain Boomerang, players will be gunning down hordes of Brainiac's minions using guns scavenged from fallen foes. Suicide Squad: KTJL's gameplay and combat make each member of Task Force X look and feel the same, with each having access to an identical arsenal and using visually similar traversal abilities.
To remedy this issue, Rocksteady should take greater steps to differentiate each of the four protagonists. King Shark could be a melee-only brawler, for example, forgoing firearms entirely to instead tear enemies apart at close range. Rather than each member of Task Force X wielding any weapon, Rocksteady could use a more limited class-based system with Harley exclusively using pistols, Deadshot only using a sniper rifle and so on. More could also be done to make each anti-hero's traversal distinct since recent KTJL gameplay shows each character using very similar moves to casually and unrealistically float around the battlefield and dodge in mid-air.
While fans still haven't gotten their hands on real Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League gameplay, so far the game seems to have missed the lasting appeal of the Batman: Arkham games. Rocksteady's beloved series really made players feel like Batman by translating the most iconic and exciting parts of the character, like brutal hand-to-hand fights and tense stealth encounters, into an interactive experience. Suicide Squad: KTJL, meanwhile, makes each of its villainous protagonists look the same by equipping them with identical weapons and very similar traversal styles. By ignoring what made Batman: Arkham so great, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League risks failing its very first mission.
Source: PlayStation/YouTube
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Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League
- Released:
- 2024-02-02
- Developer:
- Rocksteady Studios
- Franchise:
- Batman: Arkham, D.C.
- Genre:
- Shooter, Adventure, Action
- Platform:
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X
- Publisher:
- Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
- ESRB:
- Not Yet Rated
