Review In Progress: Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League

The issue with an always-online game is that we can’t review it until the servers are switched on. Then, it’s a case of finding the time to sink into it, to ensure it’s given a fair decision that isn’t just rushed through for clicks. I’ve played only 12 hours of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, so far, and wanted to get my opinion out before too many people have bought the game.

As a comic book fan, I’ve of course played through the Batman: Arkham series, which this is a sequel to by the same developer, Rocksteady Studios, so expect some spoilers for those three games! Kill The Justice League is set five years later, in the city of Metropolis where things are not going well, as several days prior a giant skull ship appeared in the sky, and the League went missing while investigating. Put in the shoes of Task Force X (AKA the Suicide Squad), through happenstance you’re thrust into a fight against aliens and, of course, the Justice League. Deadshot, Harley Quinn, King Shark, and Captain Boomerang facing off against Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman — seems like a fair fight to me.

The actual game can be played co-op with up to four players, or solo with you switching between members of the Squad (so long as you’re out of combat). While playing solo, it’s easy to compare this to Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, except every character can use the exact same weapons; and has an almost identical skill tree. The Squad is outmatched, against overwhelming odds, and the game is hilarious. You’ve got the jetpack guy, the girl, the strong guy, and the monster. No, King Shark isn’t those last two, I’m taking a shot at Boomerang, ya drongo!

Honestly, much like Guardians, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League really shines in the writing department. Since I’ve not hit the credits I don’t know who wrote the script, but kudos to them! It’s been a while since I’ve even seen this term used, but Captain Boomerang fits the term butt-monkey to a tee, and yet despite being the butt of everyone’s jokes he still has some of my favourite exchanges. That’s not to say he’s better than anyone else, because the others are equally amazing, but I was a part of his large, (disappointingly) male fan base even before this.

Each member of the Squad has their own unique method of traversal, which makes getting around Metropolis more fun. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, the weapons are all interchangeable, so if you want to play King Shark as a sniper and Deadshot as a minigunner, there’s no reason not to. Though, I highly recommend equipping different weapons across the team, because there are daily challenges (it’s a live game…) that might require a shotgun or a type of elemental damage to complete.

For the most part, the graphics are great. The range of facial expressions in cutscenes are a particular highlight, but apart from occasional pop-in the only real negative I’ve noticed is when some smoke was blocky. The city itself is well designed and bright, and sometimes reminds me of how BioShock Infinite looks in how bright and “futurey” it can look.

The only thing that I don’t actually like in Kill The Justice League are the side missions. You don’t have to complete them, obviously, but doing so improves the services your base camp can offer. But while there are only a few types of them, each one has a proviso such as damage from one type of attack only damaging enemies. The whole deal of “critical hits” are that you can’t really control when you do them, so having a mission where only critical hits count just becomes very frustrating.

Oh, and I should mention the unskippable mission summaries which provide you with random equipment before allowing you to continue. Those are pretty annoying, too.

So, anyway, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is looking like a big game because while I’m doing all of the side stuff too, I’ve only actually killed one Justice Leaguer. I’m about to face the second of what I assume will be five (obviously I can’t see curve balls coming), so even if it becomes a boss rush, I’m going to be hitting 20 hours before I’m done. Then there’s the endgame stuff, which promises frequent updates and new characters, with one already announced for next month!

Come back for my full review, whenever I manage to write it, but based on what I’ve played it’s going to be pretty favourable. As a comic book fan who enjoys a good laugh (I keep pausing this game to laugh!), I can only imagine that co-op will make this more fun, and the daily challenges certainly keep things interesting.

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is out now for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.