Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is Destiny-like with Crackdown-style gameplay in a large open world. It plays great, looks fantastic, and sounds incredible. Taking place a few years after the events of Arkham Knight, you are tasked with killing the Justice League. Brainiac has taken over their minds and Metropolis is under siege with millions already dead. If you are into this genre, and Destiny’s success can show that many are, then this is a fantastic “one of those”. Like always, there are some issues we’ll need to get into as well.
The Premise
In Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League you’ll take on the roles of Harley Quinn, King Shark, Deadshot, and Captain Boomerang solo or with up to three friends. Unlike Marvel’s Avengers, this game feels like it was made to be a live-service title from the start. Every mission after the opening is playable in co-op as Amanda Waller yanks you out of prison and drops you into Metropolis. The city is huge and gorgeous. Brainiac’s skull ship looms over everything as chaos abounds. The Arkhamverse’s Justice League consists of Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, and Superman. The first two’s minds are still free when the game starts, and over 10 or so hours (if you mainline it) a lot happens.
People seem to be reveling in spoiling it for others, but I do not. If you’re coming in fresh just know that the game holds no punches and is far closer to an R-rating than the previous Rocksteady titles have been. The occasional f-bomb and a whole lot of “asshole” and “shit” top off stellar writing. SSKTJL is a mix of serious moments, where the full Batman Arkham-style music sweeps in, and pointed which humor works as well as it ever has for me in a video game. The voice acting matches the quality of the writing with excellent portrayals of heroes and villains alike. Lois Lane will be a constant presence throughout the city as she live vlogs the current situation on screens and billboards.
Where the game shines best is in its setup as a Destiny-style live-service game. Nothing feels tacked on top of a “single-player” experience. You can still enjoy the game solo, as the rest of the squad will always be there as AI depending on how many people are playing. There is one major issue that hurt my time with the game so far, and I do plan on playing this one for a long time, and that is the mission variety. These games tend to “feel repetitive”. How many times did you run to a spot, press x, and defend it in Destiny, or do the same few repetitive tasks over and over. It feels a bit more egregious here though, with only 3 real major mission types for most of the base game. What saves it is the moment-to-moment combat, because it has some of the best traversal I’ve ever experienced.
The Gameplay
Every character has their own style of traversal:
Deadshot – A jetpack that can over-boost as well as be reset once per jump.
Harley Quinn – Grappling Gun that can be used on a cooldown with a Bat Drone for mid-air grapples or on buildings like in the Arkham games.
King Shark – Charged up super leap either straight up or in a forward arc along with up to 3 air dashes per jump.
Captain Boomerang – Speed Force gauntlet that ties to his boomerang throws. Can be used twice per jump and used as a speed burst when thrown at the ground.
All four characters can double jump, because why not. Each has a unique style of running up walls as SSKTJL is an extremely vertical game. Most missions take place in the open Metropolis air as Brainiac’s minions and machines are an ever-present threat. Each character has a subset of guns they excel with and 30-point talent trees to start. Once you reach max level and hit certain story points you’ll gain even more talents and extra gear slots.
It feels too spoiler-filled to break down what exactly any of it is, but I can talk about how it works as a looter. The toughest thing when adjusting to any new loot-based co-op game is how to read it all in the heat of the moment. SSKTJL has a deep, easily comprehensible, and highly grindable system. You can craft, tweak, re-roll, and grind your loot-loving life away. If you are not into this genre, and games like Diablo, The Division, or Destiny don’t speak to you then there will be nothing here to change your mind. For those of us who love the grind, this was the most important part to nail and it seems like a promising start.
You’ll have lots of guns to choose from and swapping between them and your power setup is a delight. For those who haven’t played Crackdown before, you will be in the air a lot. Shooting, smashing, slicing, dicing, and blowing aliens up has never felt so damned fun. It is a ludicrous dance of death full of color and variety as you can hop between the characters whenever you want outside of a mission. From King Shark’s smashes to jetpacking around as Deadshot you are always moving. The game’s high framerate and on-point aim acceleration make it one of the best-feeling combat experiences I have played.
The combination of gameplay and gear is the best I’ve seen in a long time, and Rocksteady has done an excellent job of making it make in-universe sense. This is good as the repeatable content can begin to feel repetitive after a while. You have a handful of mission types and they get re-used a lot. Not just in “optional” side content but in the main quests at times too. Every time you encounter the Justice League, it feels unique, with massive set pieces and some truly gorgeous cutscenes.
Featuring our first real looks at many of the biggest heroes in DC’s Batman Arkhamverse games, SSKTJL doesn’t disappoint. John Stewart’s Green Lantern is versatile and terrifying. Barry Allen’s Flash is a tornado of energy. Kevin Conroy returns as a demented version of his Bruce Wayne, and Superman is brutal. My favorite is Wonder Woman. Princess Diana’s appearance here is one of my favorites for the character, with a sick-looking outfit and fantastic vocal performance to back it all up.
SSKTJL is a bloody gorgeous game. Running at a mostly smooth feeling 60fps it looks clean. The scope is tremendous in size, as the city experiences constant ruinous destruction. I loved the story, personally, with many online furious at the portrayal of a few key characters. I’m happy they did something different and stuck to their guns (mostly). There is a lot that happens, and far more planned for future (free) content.
This is a games-a-service title after all, and Rocksteady has been detailing their post-launch plans with new episodic seasons that are free. Until season one hits you’ll get to focus on fully leveling each character up and putting together gear sets. There is/will be a Battle Pass, which is cosmetic only and is not supposed to expire. I’m fine with that microtransactions model, as new characters will join the roster every Episode along with changes to Metropolis and new storylines that never disappear. That is as long as the servers hold up.
Being an online-only title the game’s first day of early access saw nearly ten hours of downtime, an inauspicious start. After getting that sorted there was an hour of planned maintenance and whenever the servers go down, you can’t play. An offline mode is planned for post-launch and will be a welcome addition, though I’m curious what part of the game will be playable. By then a lot of new content will have been added and I hope to see how they let you pick and choose what you want to access.
Wrapping Things Up
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has overcome a rough pre-launch time after multiple delays. While the objectives can feel repetitive the excellent gameplay never does. This review will be out of date after a month or two because this is a live-service assed live-service game. For fans of Destiny, The Division, and all the loot-focused games-as-a-service titles, this is a damned good one at launch. We’ll see if they can continue to grow and improve it over time.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Looks Incredible
- Fantastic Gameplay
- Excellent Writing
- Great Loot/Gear Setup
CONS
- Limited Mission Variety
- Online-Only Server Means No Playing if It’s Down
no clue why this posted as “unlisted” but it should be visible now
Glad to hear the game looks and plays well. As a big DC fan generally, I have to say that the main characters are unappealing and the whole premise of “Watch everything you like about DC die horribly and get destroyed” feels mean-spirited and leaves me cold. If the game finds its audience then good for Rocksteady, but I just really don’t get the direction they chose to take with this game.
Great review as always.
Was fun watching you play the past couple of days too. I’m not that into schlooters really but you’ve piqued my interest enough to consider it if I find it in a sale down the line.
So far so good! VGC have scored it 4/5
Interesting. Probably won’t pick this up right away, but I’ll likely snag it at some point.
Good review Jesse. Will play this once Rocksteady adds the off-line mode which will probably be later this year.
I love (game name) so much. My wife and I have been playing it non stop for two weeks. Well… I say wife but, it’s actually a blow up doll with a poorly drawn face on it. She’s useful so I can use the carpool lane!
From the footage alone I can see the game feels great to play, looks gorgeous, and with smooth traversal, it might be the best looking and produced game as a service we have. But yeah as I expected its structure and mission style, it’s not for me unfortunately.
I created an XboxEra clan in SSKTJL if people are interested
XboxEra XBE
maybe i’ll jump in if they add in redhood