SUICIDE SQUAD KILL THE JUSTICE LEAGUE

Storyline

- Metropolis is under attack by the hordes of the alien Brainiac. This is a job for Superman!

- No, Brainiac brainwashed him. So did Batman. And Green Lantern and so on. They should be considered agents of the enemy.

-Oh...At this hour what can you do?

-How about taking some second-rate criminals out of Sanctuary, planting explosives in their heads so they can't escape, arming them and sending them to confront both Brainiac and kill the heroes he has as minions?

- I would say it sounds stupid and suicidal.

- Regarding the first one, he will indeed be a member of the Suicide Squad...However, we might be able to get them the help of Wonder Woman, the Flash and other heroes. Or criminals...

- Let's go and whatever comes out.

What it's all about

When I first saw screenshots of the game, it was obvious that it was going to be in the broader Looter Shooter category. For those who don't know what that is, these are games where acquiring increasingly superior equipment, or materials with which to make or acquire that equipment, is almost an end in itself and is part of the endgame. The first teacher was the Diablo series, which basically wrote the rules of the category (gameplay loops, which you repeat over and over again to acquire superior equipment that will allow you to level up and gain access to zones where you can find superior equipment, etc).

The baton was picked up a decade later by the Borderlands franchise, which took that logic (which started as an ARPG) and put it into shooter molds. Finally came the Destiny series, which gave a broader online dimension to the whole thing and married it with extensive monetization, especially with the second installment of the series, which became the gold standard and benchmark for any new looter in the market. And there are dozens of examples (from Warframe to The Division) that follow this formula, without seemingly having much to do with each other. Suicide Squad belongs to this family, being a third-person looter shooter. Only because the game is partially story driven, the playable characters are not faceless, but are instead Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Boomerang and King Shark.

Playing

My first thought about SS was "logically it will be like Gotham Knights , but a shooter instead of a brawler, and will probably play like Destiny 2". I was right in the first part. It's a game built like Gotham Knights (open world with plot), but adapted to looter standards with live service, meant to be played even after the campaign is complete (or rather mostly then) with levels, extensive talent trees for variety in builds etc. The main difference is that, instead of crime fighters in Gotham City, the protagonists are criminals forced to stand as heroes in Metropolis.

But in the second one I was wrong. If there's one game of this particular consortium that SS draws a lot of inspiration from, it's the now almost forgotten Anthem. You see, the gameplay here, like Anthem, is 1-4 player (cooperative) third-person, frenetic, with a lot of vertical element, and with characters floating across the map (flying, jumping, using drones, etc.). Battles are fought at super high tempo, with complex maneuvers and constant movement. It should be noted here that Rocksteady recommends the use of a controller and in my opinion they are right, as the design of the (quite complex) controls is clearly geared in that direction (the review was done using Sony's PS5 DualSense).

The basic gameplay has a high skill ceiling. It will take several hours for the average player to become familiar with the moves and systems (e.g. aiming at enemies' legs, replenish shields) and the game offers detailed tutorials, seamlessly integrated into the campaign. The campaign is really good, with characters that are dysfunctional, manipulative or misfit, with dialogue full of sarcasm, cynicism and sadistic humour. And the superheroes as enemies work surprisingly well. E.g. Batman as an adversary striking from the shadows spreads terror, while Superman has Homelander vibes (those of you who haven't watched The Boys, do so). So the script may make as much sense as having Mbappe playing basketball, but the result does the gamemakers justice.

The combination of nice plot and fun gameplay allows the player to have a very enjoyable time, until the story is sort of completed and we get to the endgame. In which unfortunately and completely predictably, is exactly where the title falls into a reef. Repetitive missions, trivial game modes, loot with no personality, a lack in instances-raids and an endgame that doesn't keep the player interested. Like Gotham Knights, Marvel's Avengers, etc. we are spectators of the same depressing view.

Graphics Engine

Have you seen the memes or videos about how inferior the design of Harley Quinn in SS is compared to Arkham Knight? I can say with certainty that it's an exaggeration. The game has one of the best motion capture implementations I've seen to date, especially when it comes to facial expressions. The main characters are drawn in great detail in general, especially the main costumes, and the cutscenes are well done and sufficiently cinematic. Flashes in combat have been used sparingly, which I find a good thing, as the battles are quite chaotic and the last thing we need is limited visibility for no good reason. Those are the positives. On the not so positive side, Metropolis is quite detailed, but lacking in character. The sense I got from running and flying from point to point is that the story takes place in a huge model city or a cinema studio.

The title ran nicely in all configurations we tried. On a laptop with Ryzen 5600H and GeForce 3060 (6GB) the 60FPS target at 1080p/low was held without any major issues apart from the transient lag when entering a new area too quickly (a feature of Unreal Engine 4/5 and present in Gotham Knights and Jedi Survivor/Fallen Order). This almost disappeared on the test desktop (Ryzen 7800X3D/Radeon 6800XT) where the framerate target was 120fps/1440p. Gameplay ranged between 110-120fps at medium settings. The same system with Radeon 7900XTX sustained 120fps/1440p on the high preset without issue.

Confession

This is where I would normally make my case for which of the strategic decisions about the direction of the title doom it to obscurity and commercial failure. And while the major "heavyweights" (poor and boring endgame, loot with no personality) have already been mentioned I can't help but admit that I'm not at all sure that if the game was richer and more thoughtful in these areas, it would have been more commercially successful. You see, games as software are partly products of the application of computer science and partly works of art, i.e. products of the expression of their creators. As with everything in which art is involved, the results will always remain unpredictable to a certain extent. Which game succeeds on the market is often the result of a happy coincidence. Take for example Helldivers 2, which is a looter shooter similar to SS, with similar weaknesses in endgame and loot, but which clicked with players and is, for now at least, enjoying sales and exposure. I haven't the slightest idea what the secret to its success is, if there is such a thing, that is. And I doubt the game's makers really know for sure. In the case of Palworld (which to my eyes looks like an April Fool's joke rather than a serious game) they have more or less openly admitted that they had no plan for massive success. What matters is the reality, these two titles won the initial market bet and with it time to mature and get a richer endgame, an opportunity that SS will probably not have.

Until a month ago I thought that the constant wave of looters that have been flooding the market for half a decade would one day stop. That the resounding failures of the last five years (from Anthem to SS) would definitely lead studios to at least consider a change of paradigm, and that the main reason so many titles are still coming out is the length of time between the conception and approval of an idea to its implementation and release (for example, there's no way SS development started after 2021, it probably started much earlier). Plus I'm not at all sure about this. The success of titles like Helldivers 2 and Palworld probably means that studios will continue to bet on looters of all kinds for the foreseeable future. Because it is a bet, after all.

There's a reason SS isn't a single player experience revolving around its storyline like Guardians of the Galaxy. Single player games in general aren't the easiest to build a live service around, and without a live service, you don't have the revenue queue for a long time after the game's release that the big studio managements seek. And without a queue, it's hard to get a crossplatform AAA title approved anymore. So Rocksteady rolled the dice and SS was implemented as a cooperative looter, in the model of Destiny 2. And beyond any doubt, many more such titles will follow.

Closure

Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League is not a bad game. It is an uneven game, a victim of market conditions. A lot of talented contributors worked here and it shows in the result. Its high price tag may be very indigestible, especially for a title that sees its player base evaporate faster than kerosene left out of a container, but that means its price will likely drop quickly. If you're a fan of the DC universe and can find it at a good price, give it a chance.

We would like to thank CD Media for providing the review code.

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