When I saw that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was on sale for only five dollars, it was the first time I considered buying it since the first gameplay dropped years ago during DC’s Fandome event. Way back then, I thought the gameplay looked odd and completely out of character for Rocksteady. I wondered why Warner Brothers was so focused on pushing the Suicide Squad over characters that would make for much better games like Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Arrow, or more Batman. Over the years, months, and weeks that led to the game’s release, I grew less and less enthusiastic. I remember when it was announced that it would be a live service game with a battle pass, I sighed and thought to myself, “Well, I’m definitely not buying that now.”
When the game finally dropped, it went about as I expected it to. Within hours of the game’s release, the servers almost entirely went down and people who paid for early access couldn’t even play the game. That being said, very few people bought the game to begin with. Part of me hoped that would teach studios a lesson about forcing live service elements on gamers, but, as a die hard DC fan, I was saddened. Ultimately, I want all things DC to succeed, but studios need to put out games that are good.
I was finally convinced to buy the game when it went on sale for only five dollars. That’s a ninety five percent discount which is massive. The deluxe edition was on sale for eight! Even though the game seems not great, it has to be worth only eight dollars, right?
I loaded into the game for the first time and was met with a screen saying I was logging in to WB online services. Then, hilariously, the game crashed. When I opened it back up, I was met with a different default loading screen, several company’s logos, then the screen that told me I was logging into online services. From there, I was introduced to the Squad starting with Deadshot. The controls for his jetpack felt a little wonky at first, but I got the hang of it and all the other controls before switching to King Shark who I immediately disliked. His dialogue is poorly written, his traversal method makes no sense, and his melee attacks are boring. Then, I was transported into the body of Captain Boomerang. The dialogue for Captain Boomerang is somewhat annoying, but I found the gameplay to be way more fun as this character. Lastly, I was forced to play as Harley Quinn who’s voice makes me want to mute my TV. To put it lightly, her voice is grotesque. She sounds like a Rugrats character jammed into Gotham. Her traversal method was also weird and not the least bit fun. I figured I would like one of the members of the Squad more than others, so I decided Boomerang would be my go to.
SPOILERS if you care below.
The design for all Squad members is quite good, but this is in contrast with the design for Metropolis which reminds me of Crackdown released in 2019. The Justice League all have pretty good designs as well with the exception of Superman. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is about his design, but he frequently looks like he’s made out of rubber.
As I progressed through the game, I found myself liking it but never loving it. Boomerang’s movement is actually quite fun, but his combat is somewhat boring and repetitive. Then, as I played the game even more, I liked it less and less. Movement with Boomerang is definitely fun and frequently changing the guns I used helped with the repetitiveness, but not much. Every mission plays exactly the same as every other mission. Melee once or twice, shoot. Melee once or twice, shoot. That’s pretty much it. It would help if the rooftops were a little bit bigger as I can only take down two to four enemies per rooftop before I have to zip around again. If there were more like twenty enemies per rooftop, I feel like I could get into a groove that would actually make the repetitiveness fun. I found it helped to switch to a different squad member occasionally to change things up, but I genuinely do not enjoy playing as Harley or Shark, so my options are limited.
There are a few other technical issues holding the game back. The first is definitely the game’s fault. Quick resume does not work at all. The game forces you to be connected to the internet at all times even though it’s obviously meant to be played solo. Yes, there’s the option to play with other people in your squad, but how many people do you know that actually bought this game and still play it? This means that every single time I want to play the game, I have to load up everything and connect to WB’s online service which takes way too long. The second technical issue isn’t exactly the fault of the game. The fan on my Xbox has been malfunctioning and some games cause it to overheat and make some noise. However, I bought an external cooling fan that pretty much solves the problem, but not when it comes to this game. This game makes my Xbox scream. I even set up a tower fan behind the Xbox with the external fan attached to it, and the game still makes it overheat to the point where I cannot play it for more than an hour at a time. I bought a replacement internal fan, so we’ll see if that fixes it.
Overall, the game certainly isn’t good. It isn’t a horrible game, but it isn’t good. The gameplay is very repetitive, the “comedy” is entirely unfunny, and most of the characters are annoying. The only saving graces are the traversal methods of Boomerang and Deadshot and the ability to switch between the two. I haven’t touched the deluxe edition content at all, so maybe that will help. At this point, I give the game an okay 6/10.