Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Review (PC)

Do you want to see your favorite DC superheroes die? Nobody does, probably, unless you’re a villain in the making. But that doesn’t stop Rocksteady Studios from doing just that. The Suicide Squad is out to kill the Justice League, and with good cause (?).

There’s a looming giant skull hovering over the skies of Metropolis, and Amanda Waller took it upon herself to hire whoever she can, and in this case, four prisoners to thwart the otherworldly threat that the Justice League seems to have failed to defeat. How will they do that? With bullets. A lot of them.

Shoot ’em Up!

As opposed to previous entries in the Arkham games, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League plays more of a third person shooter instead of the usual beat ‘em up we’ve been seeing from the same company. And it plays great for the most part. The gunplay feels quite fluid, especially when you’re chaining them with melee attacks. Counterattacking feels intuitive as well, with visual cues that let you know when to do them. It does require accuracy, so I can’t exactly fault the game whenever it doesn’t connect since there are times when I had to flick the analog stick and hope that my poor aim from that will hit the mark. The overall gameplay feels really good and fluid.

What it does lack is the ability to switch between characters in missions, especially when you want to change your playing style on the fly by using a different character. Sure, this is likely a reservation for multiplayer, but for instances during a single player campaign, having that feature would have been welcomed.

On the other hand, the game’s problem comes from the boss fight mechanics. While all the Justice League members-turned-enemies require you to utilize counterattacking, the whole fight feels floaty and tedious. Just as an example to avoid major spoilers, the fight with The Flash drags on longer than it should. The Flash literally just scatters and runs around, zooming across the area, winding up over nothing. The scene is chaotic and all, adding up to the tension and distraction, and with all that he chooses not to punch through each of the Suicide Squad members hearts and get it over with? It’s hard to suspend disbelief and segregate gameplay and story, but this happens more than it should over the course of the game. It’s rinse and repeat, sort of.

It’s hard to suspend disbelief especially when the narrative builds up the Justice League members as ultra-powerful characters that were took down by the villain somehow. That’s the word – “somehow.” Because if a group with the most powerful being, the world’s greatest detective with unlimited resources, the fastest man alive, a man who can shape anything with his will, and a super heroine goddess princess were unable to, can you really expect a band of misfits do just that?

Zooming Across Metropolis

Traversing Metropolis gets fun with the Suicide Squad members.  This will be your main method of traveling across the open world setting of the game. Deadshot’s jetpack boosts over the skies, even a bit limited, gives a kick of adrenaline, Boomerang’s Speed Force dashing through the city feels snappy, and Harley’s Grappling Hook lets you swing across and zip through to your destination in a jiff gives some more technicalities in traveling. Our main man shark doesn’t exactly shine here. Of course, this may be different to some depending on their playstyle.

Initially, you’ll find that this gets a bit tedious jumping from Point A to Point B to get on with the quests, but the open world setting gives you room for instances and encounters that can be fun and challenging as you progress through the story. Also, not sure if it’s just me, but I do hear some Mega Man sound effects from time to time during battles. Interesting tidbit just in case you noticed it, too.

All Comical

Perhaps the crowning glory of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League are the banters. You can’t get enough of the squad members talking smack at each other. The simple conversations alone are more entertaining than the actual gameplay, and that’s not to diss the gameplay, mind you. There’s chemistry among the squad members.

Sure, the dialogue can get over the top at times, but it’s within the overall theme the game sets. It’s always fun to hear King Shark take a shot at humor, or whenever Boomerang tries to be witty and brave but ends up as laughing stock. This can be the entire focus of the game and I wouldn’t be mad about it.

Striking Visuals

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a great looking game on its own. The character models are well designed, no complaints here. The facial animations feel natural as well, it’s fun to see Boomerang contort his face whenever he winces in agony or whenever King Shark’s devilishly handsome smile and puppy eyes make their way on to the screen.

This review was also played on PC equipped with past gen hardware such as a Ryzen 5 3600X and a GeForce GTX 1080. With the right settings and FSR thrown in, the game does play with pretty great frame rates albeit with some dips from time to time.

Keep the Content Coming

Now, I’m not sure how you’re going to take this one, but Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a live service game that’s locked behind an entry price of a very expensive $69.99. And as it happens, if you’re in it for the story, the scope of the initial launch covers very little of the conclusion of the current game. More of an introduction, to be honest. To avoid major spoilers, at the end of it, you’ll fight one of the 13 final bosses of the game during the conclusion. It’s a bit anticlimactic, given how it’s more of a reskin than an actual new boss fight.

You can finish the game in about 12 hours if you’re just doing the main quests with a bit of side missions while you’re at it. It’s a fairly short game that has plenty of moments to make it enjoyable for what it is at the moment. Beautiful visuals and character design, fun and tight gunplay, awesome character interaction, and plenty more in store. With that said, Rocksteady did outline its roadmap so we can have an idea on the future of the game.

For the Free Seasonal Content that will be available in March, The Joker will be added in the roster. New boss variants and enemy variants will also be included, as well as a new playable environment, weapons and gear, Riddler content, activities, and two episodes featuring Two-Face and Scarecrow. Past that in further seasons, there will be 3 new playable characters, more weapons, gears, environments, activities and updates.