Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Review: Rocksteady's Looter Shooter Shoots Itself in the Foot

01.03.2024 - 15:03 / gadgets.ndtv.com / Harley Quinn / Amanda Waller / Xbox Series / Rocksteady Studios

Long before the Suicide Squad went on to try about killing the Justice League, it dug its own grave. The action-adventure shooter from Rocksteady was born with the burden of living up to the lofty standards set by the studio's beloved Batman: Arkham games. Then, it stepped on a rake when last year's gameplay reveal confirmed that the game would be an always-online, live service looter shooter — a departure from Rocksteady's repertoire of narrative-focussed single-player experiences. And when it finally came out in early access ahead of its February 2 release, the developers had to pull it offline due to a bug that led to full story completion just as players logged in to the game for the first time.

Just like that glitch, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League seems to have reached its fated end before it even got a change to begin. The co-op shooter, perhaps by little fault of its own, has become the flagbearer for the failings of live service titles. Repetitive, grindy gameplay meant to stretch out player engagement; in-game store selling items, weapons, and skins at exorbitant prices; and a promise of post-launch seasonal content — Suicide Squad has all the markings for a Fortnite imitator built to culture microtransactions.

But its live service perception obfuscates a lot that works well in it, too, smearing the entire game with a singular, slightly unfair brush. Between the exhausting grind of its missions and the banal way you go about doing them, Kill the Justice League can also be fun. The combination of chaotic shooting and frenetic traversal often hits just the right spot; the game sets up an interesting premise for its story, even if it loses its way towards the end; and its playground recreation of a Metropolis in crisis offers plenty of creative distractions to keep you coming back. But Rocksteady's co-op shooter also cannot help itself from demolishing its own foundations. There are ideas in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League that could have helped lift the game above its many flaws, but its baffling design choices, mundane mission structure, and unclear identity end up working against its strengths.

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In its early moments, Suicide Squad sets up the pieces on the board quite well. We're introduced to the would-be members of the squad, Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark and Captain Boomerang. The four are freed from Arkham Asylum by A.R.G.U.S. director Amanda Waller, who deceptively plants miniature bombs in their heads. With her finger on the detonator, Waller forces the four criminals to do her bidding as part of Task Force X. Metropolis is under siege from Brainiac, a superintelligent alien from Colu intent on invading Earth and terraforming it