Reviewed on Playstation 5
The Furore Behind Rocksteady’s Highly Anticipated Game
How can a studio which changed the landscape of Superhero games forever start getting its latest IP “Review Bombed” before launch? Is this new game really that bad in terms of content, visuals, gameplay? Is the fact that this being a pivot from an offline Action-Adventure Beat-em-up to Looter-Shooter-Games-As-A-Service the culprit?
While I tackle all these questions since they have controlled the narrative around the games launch, we should also consider how to remain objective amidst such discourse and it’s impact. I paid extra attention to doing “Justice” (Superman & Batman be proud) especially since I am not the biggest fan of live service games but rather a massive DC comic fan.
The game code was provided on the day of its launch, and I too had difficulties in the first 2-3 days with a couple of server disconnects daily that would force me to have to close it and reopen. Thankfully, since the save data is stored in the online servers which the game connects to as soon as you launch it, I did not have to repeat missions, although it was annoying but also understandable due to the nature of always online.
After the first 4 days, I did not experience any more disconnections and would also point out that the loading times were super quick. I do hope they would include an offline mode for people not wanting to play with other players or friends as I would imagine it would be a more seamless experience.
Story
The Suicide Squad (Also Known As Task Force X) takes center stage this time when it comes to the story. Taking a leaf out of Netherrealms’ hugely well received Injustice storyline where the Justice League has gone rogue, in KTJL The New 52 Brainiac’s logic, where the collective psionic power of possessed superheroes can be enough to alter reality, rebuild Colu, and ‘bring new order’ to the world, is his motivation.
The anti-heroes that is the Suicide Squad are tasked with protecting earth by Amanda Waller who is played to near perfection by Debra Wilson. The menacing and calculating Amanda Waller who is ready to take risks that would deem unforgivable by the justice league is capture quite well in the story’s 10-15 hours campaign. Her manipulation of the Task Force X is perfectly encapsulated in the game.
The plot has already confirmed that the justice league will be killed or at least most members so while these sequences happen, the impact somehow does not seem to hit with what we have been accustomed to the stellar Arkham games by Rocksteady. For me the story of the game is what kept me engaged to further the plot and there are loads of side missions with supporting cast such as The Penguin, Toyman, Poison Ivy and more that help to flesh out more of their motivations in this post apocalypse world while also helping you the Suicide Squad in tackling members of the Justice League, Brainiac and the baddies thrown at you.
From a narrative perspective, the plot is interesting and engaging and the driving force in pushing players to finish the game. There are various audio tapes littered across the map which provide backstories for Justice League members to some lesser-known characters which add more depth to the plot. It is clear that Rocksteady put the due diligence and time into establishing the mythos of a lot of the characters and also how the world has reshaped since Brainiac has come over to take over and re-imagine it in his quest for New World Order.
After the campaign is over as since this is a ‘GaaS’ (Game As a Service) genre, there is a teaser already of Season 1 where the Joker from Elseworlds has been announced and without spoiling, the players have incentives to further delve into multiverses to further enhance their skill set, weapons and various other items.
So from a story perspective, you can expect post game to discover more but only time can tell how rich it is to keep players engaged or for them to move onto another game. One thing Rocksteady have an advantage over other game devs, is the decades’ worth of content they could create thanks to comic storylines that span since the 1940’s.
To summarize the plot I will say it was fun to see Justice league go all evil especially Batman who normally is the only sane one alive, especially his tactician demeanor even when enraged as a minion of Brainiac. While the deaths of Justice League might seem a bit outrageous to some but it’s a different take that helps the Rag Tag Suicide Squad to shine in a role reversal that does not happen that often.
Rocksteady have an opportunity to further flourish the plot by supporting the game through more seasons and including more robust and interesting characters I would hope because the way the plot ends, they have left it open for a lot of multiverse opportunities, exciting times for fans.
Gameplay
Here comes the most important aspect of this game, the reason why there is so much debate and the biggest shift from what Rocksteady in the past, cemented as their crowning jewel to the seemingly generic shooter elements of most Live Service Games.
KTJL spans around the usual looter shooter aspect, go from A to B, shoot enemies, use a few abilities and traverse. The focus is to clear out the map while also destroying hordes of enemies which tends to get repetitive as one would imagine from such gameplay.
KTJL as a game does introduce new mechanics that aid in your combat, so depending on each character you can either utilise a rocket jet for Deadshot to swinging on a bat grapple device for Harley which mind you is the most cumbersome and a steep learning curve. Boomerang has the coolest thanks to a flash inspired ability using the speedforce which looks and feels awesome.
The gameplay intertwines your traversal with gameplay by rewarding you for being more athletic or stylish in your swinging/jet boosting to fill in a meter which when full rewards a super move ultimately vying for you the player to aim for these jump boosting, sliding and staying more airborne while shooting to decimate your opponents while also opening up more ways of destruction.
Added is also more abilities as you progress in the game in the form of an AI in the game that further opens up three branches to suit your style. You could be more of a sharpshooter or a gun runner or explosive expert. As you unlock more XP in the game via main missions to side missions there is much more depth in unlocking or changing your play style.
Since you have four characters to choose from who have different styles there is always choice in how you tackle every gun fight and while that seems exciting and Rocksteady seemingly have put in the effort, the question of whether this appeals to the majority of players experience KTJL; I feel is far from the truth after my 10 hours into the game. Gameplay did get repetitive for me once I had clocked 22 total gameplay hours.
So the gameplay is the meat and bones of such a game and both Rocksteady and WB seem to have included a lot of room for upgrades and variety due to the massive amount of guns, attachments, grenades and also afflictions which affect combat for instance you have freeze grenades which might have zero damage but allow you to shatter frozen enemies with a sniper rifle making quick work of annoying smaller baddies.
As much as I did not want to compare this to the Arkham series due to the nature of the plot and setting being the DC universe, it is nigh impossible. As different as they are gameplay wise I did miss the grapple and free flowing combat of the yesteryears and sadly as varied as the combat might seem thanks to Rocksteady’s attention to detail in KTJL, it does get repetitive after the first 12-15 hours, begging one to question will this game have the longevity it’s genre demands or expects?
Visuals
KTJL is a visually stunning games at times, you can clearly see it’s a next gen game especially since Rocksteady have done an amazing job of Fan-service to fans of its previous games or any DC fan to be honest. From booting up the game in the beginning I was quite amazed at the detail and polygon count of the main cast, especially it’s cutscenes which were quite beautiful
Once the map starts opening up and the traversal began I was almost constantly on a regular basis greeted with banners, pop up balloons, mannequins and so many different areas of fan service exquisitely inserted in almost every nook and corner of the map, for this the Devs should be commended immensely.
There are moments during gameplay when you would see some stutter especially within the first week of launch but I’m happy to confirm the jitter is absolutely minimal and what worked best for me personally was to lower chromatic aberration and motion blur to low.
The display settings have the option of adjusting HDR settings for brightness both in game and also for the HUD while not presenting an option of choosing performance or quality settings which I was a bit surprised, but I believe this was left out for better optimization. The resolution jumps between 4K and 1440p delivering a good performance most of the time.
I did feel the game usually was running at 60 Fps with occasional judder and bumps when the screen was populated with a lot of baddies, quite rare to be frank and I can expect it to become negligible as more patches are pushed.
Audio
The game presents decent soundtracks which match the pace of the game. Boss battles have great audio sensory tracks and I like the sound of guns whether it’s an SMG to A Pistol or Deadshot’s Sniper Rifle shots that echo well when running down the sights and on the point of impact.
Environment destruction sounds well overall the audio design fits good with the combat and weapons. Since the game has a lot of weapons especially the larger heavy weapons it’s a blast rampaging through smaller enemies. There are a lot of abilities and special grenades which sound different for each affliction whether is flame or Ice. The sound enemies make when afflicted is pretty neat.
What I didn’t like
The gameplay while quite varied and a lot of upgrade paths to be taken coupled with the fact you have Four different characters with their unique abilities and playstyles in it’s current state, do get repetitive and same after 10-ish hours into the game. This can present a problem for fans if they find it stale in that time frame due to the nature of the game as it is meant to be enjoyed in the long run.
The traversal can get janky and there is a steep learning curve for characters such as Harley Quinn which can be a put off for some players. On the other hand, this can be viewed as more dynamic since the game does not want you to have easy almost zero effort swinging you would find in games such as Spiderman.
Visually the game overall looks great but there is loss of detail when you start looking at the environment and in its current state there are jitters when a lot of enemies populate the screen. It does not in any way take you away from your gameplay experience but there is room for improvement. There are also some character models which seem quite bland, for instance the facial design of Wonder Woman and especially Lex Luthor who in my opinion as pivotal as they are could have been more detailed and outstanding as to what we received.
What I liked
The graphical fidelity for such an open world gaming is detailed and great. The billboards especially are a perfect use of fan service littered across the game. There is also an in-game option of viewing characters models and bio’s in details where you can also move the camera around to view from all angles, this showcases how much effort has been put by the devs into the game and the amount of sheer research and detail they have put into it. There is room for so much more content and that is great stuff that should help with the longevity of the game hopefully.
The cutscenes are rendered quite beautifully throughout the game and the plot while not reaching the high’s I would have wanted surely does deliver a memorable ending which is still open to so many possibilities that could be explored if the game is supported and expanded.
An interesting discovery I made was the sheer amount of dialogue written for every interactable NPC you can see in the game. For instance, if you are in the Hall Of Justice and there are 20 personnel every one of them have at least 7-8 different dialogue lines written, this shows the sheer volume of script.
Final Thoughts
Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League is a bold new direction Rocksteady have taken differently from their previous games and exists in a space where most gamers will find discourse. The ‘Games As A Service’ debate is rampant and while KTJL falls in this category its greatest hurdle is its fans itself who have tasted perfection with the studio’s previous games and now measure this IP with that benchmark.
The game features crisp visuals, tight gameplay mechanics for its genre and has variety, an exciting plot where the roles are reversed and the concept of good and evil explored – but falling short in creating a riveting story and gameplay that might feel stale for some after the first 10 hours. Does this entice gamers to come back and replay with friends or solo is only to be found as more experience Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League.
