Review — Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

Rocksteady Studios on a potential suicide mission to build a live-service game. Can they transfer the success of the Arkham games to a complete new franchise?

Nearly a decade since Rocksteady Studios captivated us with their Arkham series, they’ve ventured into the ambitious but turbulent waters of live-service games with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. This game, brimming with potential, walks a tightrope between leveraging DC’s rich lore and navigating the pitfalls of its chosen genre.

😁 The Wonderful

• The game shines brightest in its character interactions, bringing the Suicide Squad’s anarchic spirit to life. The voice cast delivers performances that range from hilariously irreverent to surprisingly poignant, particularly Samoa Joe’s King Shark and Tara Strong’s Harley Quinn.

🙂 The Good

• Rocksteady’s flair for graphical excellence hasn’t dimmed. Metropolis is a visual feast, from the detailed character models to the sprawling urban landscapes that invite exploration.
• At its peak, the combat is exhilarating. The integration of distinct abilities for each character and the chaotic, fast-paced skirmishes can, at times, elevate the gameplay to something genuinely engaging.
• The storyline, while fragmented, contains sparks of intrigue and depth, particularly in its portrayal of iconic villains and anti-heroes. Rocksteady’s knack for storytelling, though constrained by the game’s structure, occasionally breaks through.

😒 The Bad

• The game’s ambition as a live-service experience becomes its Achilles’ heel, with mission design quickly devolving into a monotonous loop of uninspired objectives that fail to captivate or challenge in meaningful ways.
• For all its visual appeal, Metropolis feels lifeless and underexplored, lacking dynamic interactions or engaging activities outside the main quest line, making the world feel more like a backdrop than an integral part of the experience.
• The shift to a shooter-centric gameplay, while ambitious, often clashes with the characters’ traditional combat styles, leading to a disjointed experience that lacks the finesse of Rocksteady’s previous melee-focused engagements.

🫣 The Ugly

• The game’s HUD and interface are cluttered to the point of distraction, bombarding players with an excess of information and icons that detract from the overall experience.
• Despite Rocksteady’s reputation for polish, “Suicide Squad” suffers from server instability, performance dips, and bugs that mar the experience, especially in its early days post-launch.

Conclusion

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League stands at the crossroads of Rocksteady’s illustrious past and its uncomfortable toe-dipping into the live-service model. While the game dazzles with its character work and moments of genuine fun, it’s weighed down by very repetitive gameplay and a lack of innovative mission design.

Ultimately, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a game that, with time and updates, could evolve into something more cohesive. For now, it remains a flawed yet still fascinating addition to the superhero genre.

2.5/5

Reviewed on Xbox Series X.
Downlad code provided by the publisher and PR agency.