Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League review: Shallow, uninspired, and occasionally fun

Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League is one of the most conflicting superhero games that I've ever played. The opening few hours of the game had me genuinely invested in the story, the characters, and the setting. I mean, it's not every day that you get a game about an evil Justice League and step into the shoes of some of DC's most iconic villains.

Unfortunately, after the first couple of hours, my enthusiasm and any shred of interest I had in the game quickly evaporated. While I wasn't expecting a Batman Arkham-like experience with an engaging storytelling and combat system, I was hoping for a somewhat competent and fun looter-shooter experience with a comic boom skin.

Alas, what I got is a shallow, uninspired, and only occasionally fun third-person shooter that sells itself on the back of what is admittedly one of the best superhero video game franchises out there.

While I did enjoy my time with Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League, I was ultimately left unimpressed with the follow-up to the Arkham Trilogy.

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Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League: A generic run-of-the-mill looter-shooter disguised as an open-world superhero game

Excellent visuals, presentation, and audio

Starting with the positives, the graphical presentation of Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League is genuinely impressive, even if it might look a tad bit too generic at times. The highlights of the game's presentation are the character models and the facial animations, which look almost on the same level as something you'd see in a Naughty Dog title.

Unlike another superhero looter-shooter that got delisted from online storefronts last year, i.e., Square Enix's Marvel's Avengers, the character models in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League never felt like Rocksteady was trying too hard to imitate the movie counterparts. Instead, every character features an original design.

Apart from the character designs, I also found myself very impressed by the sheer scale and graphical splendor of the Metropolis itself. Say what you will about Rocksteady, but it is one of the best developers when it comes to creating atmospheric and visually impressive open-world settings.

Much like the Gotham City of Batman Arkham Knight and Batman Arkham City, Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League's Metropolis is a visual treat, especially during nighttime, with a drizzle of rain and the game's settings cranked to their maximum on PC. However, the visuals are only skin-deep, with closer inspection easily showing the cracks in the art style.

Character models in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League are top-notch (Image via Rocksteady Studios)

Lastly, it would be a disservice not to mention the incredible voice acting, especially for the lead characters. Captain Boomerang and Harley Quinn are easily the most standout characters in this regard due to how authentic they sound. I also liked the portrayal of Amanda Waller by Debra Wilson, as well as Samoa Joe's King Shark.

Moment-to-moment gameplay and quest design

Like any other looter shooter on the market, the general moment-to-moment gameplay of Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League involves you completing a handful of quests, getting rewarded with randomized loot, watching a cutscene, rinsing and repeating until you reach a boss fight, and then going through the entire cycle for multiple times till credits roll.

The opening section featuring Batman is a great way to introduce the Caped Crusader, but it is something that's never topped throughout the rest of the game (Image via Rocksteady Studios)

However, the first few hours of the game are incredibly fun, especially if you're someone like me, who has very limited experience with looter shooters. I did have a good few hundred hours on Destiny 2, but it's not something that I regularly go back to. In fact, the last time I played the title was way before Elden Ring's release.

As such, the snappy third-person shooting and the melee combos all felt incredibly satisfying, especially when I eventually got the hang of the controls. However, unlike the Arkham games, the combat in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League does lose its luster right when you start getting to grips with your chosen character.

On the flip side of the game's combat system, I did enjoy the traversal system for each of the characters. The traversal is easily the best aspect of gameplay in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League. The controls do take a bit of getting used to, but once you do get to grips with them, the traversal becomes one of the most fun parts of the game.

Harley Quinn is easily the best character to play as in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League (Image via Rocksteady Studios)

Each of the characters has their own unique traversal tool: Harley uses a grappling hook, Deadshot has access to a jetpack, Captain Boomerang uses boomerangs imbued with Flash's speed force, and King Shark, well, he's a god, so he basically channels his Atlantean powers, making him akin to something like Hulk.

I do applaud Rocksteady for being quite upfront about the game and the genre it aims to tackle despite getting heavy pushback from fans. It's certainly not easy to develop a game that you know will be met with resistance and might not be equally as successful as your previous ventures, especially if your previous projects include the Arkhamverse.

It certainly would've been easy for Rocksteady to make another action-adventure game and call it a day. However, the studio's willingness to step out of its comfort zone and create something that it still thinks can be a fun experience for both newcomers and fans is genuinely commendable.

While the setting is quite interesting, the missions in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League never capitalize on it (Image via Rocksteady Studios)

However, Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League does not make for a fun experience. In fact, it's quite tedious to get through, with the only saving grace being the traversal system. Although the gameplay can occasionally be fun, it quickly becomes boring and repetitive after the first few hours.

Combat system and skill progression

The combat system in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League is something that felt incredibly satisfying at first, but once I got into the groove of chaining combos, it quickly lost its luster. When I started playing the game, I was somewhat impressed by the combat system. Stringing melee combos and combining them with ranged attacks all felt really satisfying.

Combat in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League usually boils down to using your traversal and ranged abilities in tandem (Image via Rocksteady Studios)

After the prologue, I decided to play as Harley Quinn for my first playthrough since her traversal abilities felt the most apt for an Arkhamverse game. However, I did switch to King Shark after around the halfway point and never looked back.

Unfortunately, the combat system is quite shallow, lacking any substantial depth. You see, apart from gaining new gear with randomized number-based perks, there's barely any depth to the combat system in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League.

The way you start the game is how you end it, albeit with a slightly better loadout of guns and melee weapons. This is in stark contrast to how the Batman Arkham games treated their combat system.

The biggest sin the title commits is making the skill trees for each character basically redundant. Every skill essentially boils down to either additional damage, better affinity with afflictions (elemental damage types), or a percentage modifier for defense and other such rudimentary attributes. This is also a massive departure from the Batman Arkham skill trees.

While the boss fights are spectacular, they lack the engagement factor necessary to make them fun (Image via Rocksteady Studios)

I also found Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League to be a bit too easy for my taste, but that's something I don't hold against it since I jumped into the game right after having spent more than 200 hours playing Gunfire Games' Remnant 2. I do recommend players who are familiar with this genre to stick to the higher difficulties for a better experience.

Gameplay progression and the broken loot economy

In terms of progression, Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League basically relies on the old-school number-crunching system. You essentially get new gear as you play through various missions, complete quests, and do side jobs. This new gear and the skills you unlock via the previously explained skill trees define your character's power level.

With legendary gear being available almost immediately after reaching the second act of the story, the loot distribution feels quite jarring (Image via Rocksteady Studios)

Apart from a few gear drops that are of the legendary tier and are rewarded for defeating the Justice League members, every loot in the game is randomized. This isn't anything new, especially in the current age of live service and looter-shooter titles. However, the progression here is borderline busted, thanks to the way the game doles out weapons.

You see, I never intended to grind to max level or complete end-game content to unlock the most powerful weapons and perks. However, Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League seems to be way too generous in the way it dishes out new weapons, that too higher-tier ones, without you ever getting anywhere close to completing the main campaign, let alone the end-game challenges.

By the time I defeated Green Lantern and the Flash, I already had a loadout that carried me to the end game without ever requiring me to make any significant changes. This was a blessing in disguise for me, considering I was genuinely getting bored of playing the game, but it isn't something that's okay for a title that markets itself as a live-service offering.

Apart from the cosmetic unlocks, the live-service elements aren't doing any favor to Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League (Image via Rocksteady Studios)

If there's no incentive for players to do optional content (beyond the urge to get all the trophies) and engage with the end-game content Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League has to offer, then what's even the point of it being a live-service title in the first place? Even if I was willing to sink time into doing side content in the game, I wouldn't be rewarded for doing so.

While this does mean that the title won't artificially lock you out of the campaign if you don't meet a certain level threshold, like some other releases (I'm looking at you, Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Origins), it also takes away from the fun of progressing in a game of this ilk.

Story and my gripes with it

Now, for the juiciest parts of the review: the story and the boss battles against the Justice League. The Batman Arkham series is something that players like me and many others hold very dear to their hearts, not only because of the stellar gameplay but also the story. Batman Arkham Knight, in particular, is something that's very dear to me.

The introduction of the evil Justice League members is quite well-handled despite the story being underwhelming (Image via Rocksteady Studios)

I remember playing that game to 100% completion, just so I could spend more time within its world and also get to the true ending of the Batman Arkham Trilogy. Ever since I finished that title back in 2016, I always wanted to see what Rocskteady could deliver next within their Arkhamverse storyline.

While I did get my wish fulfilled with Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League, it wasn't the way I wanted it to be. Although the game serves as the next chapter in the Arkhamverse, taking place five years after the ending of Batman Arkham Knight, it never feels like something that I'd want to associate with the saga.

While I genuinely adored the banter between the Suicide Squad members, owing to the stellar voice acting, I never once felt engaged with the story the game was trying to convey. Batman Arkham Knight ended on a somber note, giving a rather fitting farewell to the Caped Crusader. However, Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League somehow disregards all that and brings Batman back from the dead.

The Hall of Justice has been turned into a glorified museum (Image via Rocksteady Studios)

The title tries to justify how Bruce survives the Knightfall Protocol in the previous entry and ends up joining the Justice League. However, the explanation is even more awkward and lazy than the game itself.

There are also parts of the story where Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League blatantly disregards the pre-established DC lore. And if that's not all, most of the game's cutscenes usually end up being exposition-heavy, with very little being of substance to the overarching plot itself.

Making matters worse is the overreliance on audio logs to explain crucial plot details, which should've been a cutscene or, better, a playable set-piece.

And lastly, if you do somehow manage to trudge through the campaign, you'll eventually find yourself face-to-face with an ending that doesn't even feel like a definitive ending. The game has a very weird pacing issue. Despite starting strong, it never manages to get its footing right when it comes to concluding any of the chapters.

Batman's return from the dead after Batman Arkham Knight is one of the worst explained aspects of Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League's story (Image via Rocksteady Studios)

At its best, Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League's story feels like a boring Sunday morning cartoon, and at its worst, an incomplete script of a long-canceled DCEU movie. I mean, there's only so much you can expect from a game where a group of lesser-known villains manage to take down the likes of Green Lantern and Superman with nothing more than just bullets.

In conclusion

Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League feels like a game that's nothing more than an amalgamation of different ideas that never gel with one another. It tries to do a lot of things at once but manages to deliver very little.

The title does have its positive aspects, particularly the traversal system, as well as the excellent presentation and voice acting. However, those are the only things that make it a somewhat tolerable experience since every other aspect of what makes a game really "fun" seems to be absent.

Coming from Rocksteady Studios, the pioneers of modern superhero games, this does feel quite jarring. While Rocksteady had a great run with its Arkham series, this just ain't it, chief.