Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League review: Supervillains with guns

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After delivering the three seminal and acclaimed Batman adventures Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and Arkham Knight, game studio Rocksteady switched focus. Away with an atmospheric single-player campaign and superhero focus, in with an online-focused shooting game starring anti-heroes. To say that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has been criticized before release is an understatement, but it’s not all as bad as it seems.

Forget Arkham

The most important thing to consider in order to appreciate Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is to drop everything about Rocksteady’s previous games. Forget whipping rain over a dystopian Gotham. Forget slow, tactical combat. Forget a dark, suspenseful story that plays on the emotional strings.

Instead, think online multiplayer action with lots of shooting and weapon collecting. Think an arm cannon with +2 melee damage and skills that deal 18 percent more damage when the combo level is above 15. Imagine an online world that is continuously updated with new content. Imagine four crazy playable anti-heroes, who like to keep their mouths shut and make mean and funny comments.

This may not sound like much of a change, and I personally — like many others — would have much preferred something more Arkham-like. But once I got over that disappointment, there’s actually a lot to like here.

Fast-paced action in fast-paced cutscenes

The adventure’s strongest card is the cutscenes. While I’m not a big fan of the main plot (I don’t want to kill some of the world’s greatest superheroes…), the cutscenes are gorgeous and often hilarious. Especially Harley Quinn and King Shark are two charismatic charm packages of great proportions, but even Deadshot is easy to like. The less said about Captain Boomerang’s attitude and lines the better, although the voice actor himself does a good job.

In terms of gameplay, the highlight is the regular, more linear missions that are unique and linked to what is actually happening in the story. Strangely, these are all too rare, and far too much of the main campaign consists of tediously grinding through missions that follow the standard 1A template for repetitive side jobs in online games: Kill 20 enemies, escort the bus, rescue five hostages.

This leads to short, repetitive missions with many interruptions — and the atmosphere that actually builds up from time to time is quickly destroyed. The fact that the game world is stone dead and downright boring to explore doesn’t help matters.

That the main story can be tackled both alone or with up to three players, despite the game’s online focus, is at least worth a thumbs up.

Shoot fast, shoot right

Something else that ends up on the plus side is the combat system. The controls are impeccable and the battles are fast, smooth, and deliciously meaty — regardless of the type of weapon used. Each weapon class also has distinct advantages and disadvantages, and it’s clear that Rocksteady has put a lot of work into customizing combat systems, abilities, and weapons to suit a variety of play styles.

Unfortunately, there are also several with the combat. Above all, it is strange that the four characters are so similar to each other. Although they have slightly different moves and special attacks, it’s mostly shooting that counts — and in that respect the difference is more or less nonexistent.

That the main story can be tackled both alone or with up to three players, despite the game’s online focus, is at least worth a thumbs up.

Another unfortunate thing about the battles is that they can easily become terribly messy. When the fast pace is mixed with a fairly large number of enemies, flashy attacks, blinking icons, combo meters, time counters, and fuzzy tasks, chaos comes running from all directions.

Several times, for example, I’ve failed missions despite enemies being mowed down at every turn, but so what if I’ve missed an icon telling me which enemy to hack, which attacks to use, or where to stand.

Good, but with difficult problems

That game development is difficult is nothing new. That so-called live service games are particularly tricky is also nothing new. Still, I’m surprised at how obviously flawed Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is, especially considering the development time and the studio behind it.

But I don’t want to cut Suicide Squad down to size, because it’s a working game that sparkles every once in a while. With the right mood and company, it even entertains quite a bit.

The problem is that so much of the content feels like a sideshow; Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League lacks a solid core that ties everything together and gives the game its own identity. That’s a big problem in a genre with killer competition.

This review was translated from Swedish to English and originally appeared on m3.se.