Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is Rocksteady Studios’ first new recreation since Arkham Knight again in 2015. As an avid fan of the studio’s earlier work and of the truth that this new recreation is meant to happen within the Arkham universe, I’m equal components excited and anxious. Will the brand new recreation have the ability to stay as much as the sky-high popularity of its predecessors, or has the developer strayed too removed from the trail with its newest endeavor? Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has loads driving on it, and these are the issues that Rocksteady must get proper.
First off, Suicide Squad wants plausible boss fights. The squad of misfits is up towards a number of the heaviest hitters from the DC Universe, and although the workforce has unbelievable ability units, it’s nonetheless arduous to consider that they’d pose any actual risk to the Justice League – particularly once we already confronted two of them earlier than as Batman, and neither Deadshot nor Harley Quinn stood an opportunity towards the Caped Crusader.
So far as we all know, the League consists of, a minimum of, Superman, Batman, Inexperienced Lantern, and the Flash. How will the Suicide Squad deal with throwing down with individuals who can transfer sooner than the pace of sunshine and are able to shifting literal mountains with their naked palms? You all the time root for the underdog, however Rocksteady must put ahead an affordable situation the place the squad can win in a plausible approach.
Rockstar has already established that the group will get their palms on weapons able to taking down metahumans, courtesy of none apart from our favourite umbrella-wielding crime boss, Oswald ‘The Penguin’ Cobblepot. So possibly the best sort of arsenal will do the trick. The sooner Arkham video games boasted some memorable boss fights, from Killer Croc to Mr. Freeze, however Suicide Squad’s huge bads want to return packing spectacular and convincing battles.
One other concern: Can a sunny Metropolis be as fascinating as a grim Gotham? Will or not it’s convincing as an actual metropolis, not a Fortnite map playground? Arkham Asylum, Arkham Metropolis, and Gotham are all depicted pitch completely within the earlier video games, harkening again to the animated collection and comics whereas creating their very own id and sense of place.
The grim aesthetics turned one of many collection’ defining options, and from what we’ve seen, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League goes in a extra colourful, energetic route. The motion takes place in Superman’s house court docket, Metropolis, and the setting, in addition to the tone, appear wildly totally different from the sooner Arkhamverse video games. It’s all the time daytime, for starters, with the town boasting a clear, futuristic look.
And that sums up my important concern relating to the setting: Metropolis has by no means been that fascinating a setting, whereas Gotham inherently is. Rocksteady must make its Metropolis really feel like a pure growth of the Arkhamverse, however there’s a danger that it’ll come throughout as an excessively videogame-y playground and due to this fact a disconnected setting from its predecessors.
However even when Rocksteady manages to create a fascinating setting, it doesn’t imply a lot if the sport lacks diversified and entertaining motion. Rocksteady invented and cultivated a brand new sort of fight system with the unique video games, blended with stealth and investigative sections. If Suicide Squad focuses solely on gunplay and traversal, it is likely to be too one-sided for my style. There’s an equilibrium that must be maintained. Hopefully, we are going to get slower-paced parts of the sport as nicely, the place you may wind down and take within the environment.
Lastly – and that is probably my most necessary level – any ‘video games as a service’ aspect needs to be as unobtrusive as doable. When the sport was first launched, the presence of GAAS parts, together with a battle cross, the ‘all the time on-line’ web requirement, and co-op-multiplayer, sparked some backlash from these hoping for a deep and fascinating single-player recreation, extra consistent with what the studio has launched earlier than.
Only recently, nonetheless, Rocksteady revealed that an offline mode will likely be out there finally, however the battle cross and co-op multiplayer are nonetheless there. The GAAS mannequin shouldn’t be perfect – not least following Gotham Knights – however I’ve to carry out hope that it’s not overbearing, grindy, and dangerous to the narrative. I take little concern with beauty add-ons, however we all know the GAAS mannequin infects each aspect of a recreation’s design at this level, no matter how irritating the microtransactions might or might not be.
Fingers crossed Rocksteady will knock it out of the park, however with such a robust heritage, there’s loads at stake. The studio’s humorousness and a focus to element seem like intact, and it’s going to be fascinating to see the outcomes of such a protracted growth cycle. I, for one, can not wait to sink my tooth into what is going to hopefully be among the best new PC video games of 2024.
