Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League aims to restore your faith in villains

Suicide Squad’s journey has been an extremely long one, and one that has left some fans with doubts. Not so much that it’s their fault, but that other games that promised a similar gameplay structure were overtaken by the hype they brought with them, causing the Rocksteady team to make changes that set the game back. However, the secret card that Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League up its sleeve is the studio’s approach and experience with storytelling. Prior to its release, we had the opportunity to play a 3-hour session of this upcoming installment and begin to unlock the files that the title holds.

An impossible (and absurd) mission

Part of the preview we had was a presentation with Jack Hackett, Production Manager of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, who explained a lot of what’s behind the studio’s plans for the game.

If there was one thing that defined the studio with the Batman Arkham trilogy, it was the care that was taken with the characters to tell a story and how they all interacted with each other. For Hackett, even though this title moves away from certain aspects of their previous titles, the studio’s DNA is maintained as they continue to take characters and build a game around them. Something else he mentioned is that they’re trying to break the stereotypes of superhero games, as they all seem to be about “the perfect person for the job taking on the challenge,” whereas Suicide Squad is about “the only people available. In addition, there are aspects that will be contrasted throughout the narrative, with bad characters being forced to be good and good characters being forced to be bad, as well as a constant of absurd situations colliding with a threat that threatens to end the world.

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4 flawed characters against the world

Once we got into the gameplay session, it was divided into 3 aspects of the story: the tutorial, the missions and why it is called Kill The Justice League. The first stage is quite general and allowed us to learn the general movements of the 4 characters to choose from: Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark and Captain Boomerang. Just as each of them has their own personality, they also have their own way of moving around the stage. Although each character jumps in a very similar way, the way the player can move is different. While Deadshot uses a jetpack or King Shark uses his own impulse, Captain Boomerang uses a device that gives him Speed Fore abilities that allow him to teleport, while Harley can hang from a drone and even swing for a bigger boost. In addition, each of the characters has special abilities that will be filled depending on the enemies we eliminate.

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During our play session, we had the opportunity to take on King Shark, who is known for his great strength and huge jumps. The story took us through a Metropolis devastated by Brainiac’s invasion, starting with the legendary Hall of Justice, which as we progressed began to take its place as a meeting place for some new faces as well as some familiar ones from the Batman Arkham trilogy. The city also has its iconic locations, and one of those we visited was the Daily Planet itself, but even though we did not see it, we heard from one of the Batman Arkham trilogy’s favorite characters once again.

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As for the missions, Waller and the Resistance in the Hall of Justice will give us new objectives to complete throughout the city. At the end of the missions, we will be given all the information about our team and we will be able to choose the team leader for each mission, just like an MVP. In addition, we will receive experience points that can be used to unlock skills and a new weapon for our character. With these items we will also unlock some RPG mechanics, where the combination of these weapons will generate bonuses in certain actions, such as attacks, use of grenades or even in the same transversal movement.

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Multiplayer and single player at the same time

In some games, the social component is criticized as an imposition on titles that could very well be designed for a solo experience. Even more so when a studio’s titles come from a high pedigree of being narrative single-player games to become a multiplayer experience. While Suicide Squad: Kills the Justice League falls squarely into this category, one of the aspects we were told was that the game could be played from start to finish by a single player, with the AI taking the place of the other squad members.

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One of the details that we found interesting is that you can play with the squad version of your friends without having to play with them at the same time. If one of your friends in your list has the game and is already advanced, you can borrow the configuration of any of the members of his squad, taking the customization, talents, weapons and others to use it in your team. Once your friend logs in to play, you will also receive the rewards you have earned with their character.

A post-launch plan

As part of the presentation, Jack Hackett said that Rocksteady already has plans to expand the Suicide Squad experience after the game’s release. This will include the addition of new missions, cinematics, weapons, in-game events and locations, as well as expanding the number of playable characters. Something that was emphasized in this regard is that these characters will not be simple reskins of the original 4, but will have their own identities. Although not many details were given about how this roadmap will be, it was mentioned that this content will be completely free.

For now, we’re left intrigued by the story and gameplay mechanics, but also want to know more about how the single-player experience can be maintained in a multiplayer world. Fortunately, time is running out for those doubts to be answered, as Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League will arrive next February 2, 2024 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC.