Rocksteady Studios, the creators of the Batman Arkham series, recently released their newest game; “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League”. This game is an incredibly unique third-person shooter featuring the Suicide Squad: Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark, and Captain Boomerang, taking on the impossible task of killing the Justice League. This band of misfit criminals goes against the heroes of the DC Universe as the alien Brainiac has corrupted the Justice League, turning them into evil versions of themselves.
Coming out at around 10-12 hours, the story is relatively short. The plot is fairly self-explanatory through the title, following the Suicide Squad taking out corrupted versions of the Justice League and then Brainiac himself. Despite the story being short, the game is seasonal, meaning they’ll add more content to the game each season. Fans initially had low expectations for this, yet there is a theory going around fans absolutely love. The theory involves the Justice League returning in later seasons, which will allow for the Suicide Squad to save them from their corrupted state and return order to the Arkhamverse.
Combat is similar to the other Rocksteady games such as the Arkham series in that it’s in a third-person style, however, this game is not melee combat-focused, it’s shooter-focused with some melee aspects. Players were skeptical about the game being a third-person shooter, due to it being so different from the other games, but truthfully the combat is a drastic improvement from the previous game, Gotham Knights, which had lackluster combat.
Each character has their own unique playstyle, corresponding with the item they get at the beginning of the game. Deadshot mainly uses his sniper and jetpack, allowing him to take out a lot of enemies instantly. King Shark follows the stereotypical brute playstyle, using heavy weapons such as a minigun and heavy melee strikes. Captain Boomerang uses a speed force gauntlet granting him similar abilities to the Flash, being able to run incredibly quick and teleport with his boomerang using mainly melee attacks. Finally, the fan-favorite, Harley Quinn, uses explosives along with Batman’s bat drone to get around and take out enemies. Each of these characters has ranged and melee options, yet they are all vastly different that it makes each worthy of their own playthrough.
Once the campaign is completed, the player is presented with a whole new world of things to do. These include finite crisis levels, mastery levels, and multiple unique incursion missions. Completing incursion levels will allow the player to increase their finite crisis and mastery levels by playing on higher difficulties. These missions and levels will also allow them to unlock new gear depending on the difficulty level, which eventually will let them unlock notorious and infamy sets. These sets are based on DC villains and are extremely powerful in the game.
The customization in this game is good. Each character has multiple different customization options including but not limited to outfits, weapons, and buffs for certain abilities. The game will feature a battle pass each season, which will allow players to unlock new customization options for each character. Also, because the game is seasonal, customization will only get better as time goes on.
With the passing of Kevin Conroy in late 2022, the game will be Conroy’s final video game performance. Conroy had been voicing Batman for over 30 years. He began his start from voicing Batman in “Batman: The Animated Series” and began to continue voicing him in different movies, shows and video games. While his voice work and performance in the game were astounding (like all of his other roles), fans were not pleased with the conclusion of the Arkhamverse’s version of Batman. Of course, no one is going to be happy when one of their favorite characters dies off, but the hate this game received for it was unreal.
Even though the Arkhamverse Batman arc came to a close, this won’t be the last time we will see Kevin Conroy in the role of Batman. His final voice work will be in the animated film “Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Three” where he will be portraying his version of Batman from “Batman: The Animated Series.”
In comparison, the Batman Arkham games which consist of “Batman: Arkham Asylum,” “Batman: Arkham City,” “Batman: Arkham Origins” and “Batman: Arkham Knight.” All four of the games consisted of a darker and grounded take on Batman and his famous rogues gallery. With “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League,” the game is set in a brighter and more light hearted tone than anything that was set in the Arkhamverse before. The Suicide Squad at its core tend to me more flashy and visually appealing both with each members skill sets and characterizations. The game still manages to keep the tone of Batman darker that fits with where he was last seen at the end of “Batman: Arkham Knight.”
Despite the backlash that it received in its initial release, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is setting itself up to be one of the best Arkhamverse game. With a solid story, great customization, interesting new seasons with new characters, and phenomenal post game content that’ll keep you occupied for hours on end, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will not be dying out anytime soon.
