Rocksteady's newest game looks weird, but let's get into it! (Suicide Squad Kills the Justice League first impressions!)

 Friends, this is actually a very exciting day for me, as there has not been a time that I've ever been able to talk about something before it has come out in this capacity before. I have been very carefully holding my tongue for the last several weeks, but the NDA has been partially lifted for something that I was able to help out with in some small way. I recently was able to play the Suicide Squad Kills the Justice League closed beta and while I can't use any footage from my playtest, I can at least talk about the experience! I really hope I'll be able to do some justice to this game, because honestly, while it's not perfect, I think Rocksteady has made a really fun game that people will hopefully like. Before we get started, I first of all can't recommend this for any younger players. It is pretty violent (as is the whole premise of the Suicide Squad), and the language is definitely more geared towards older folks. I will also say that yes, this game definitely reminds me a bit of the Avengers game that came out a few years ago, but I mean that in a good way, since I thought that game was pretty fun. I especially liked how all of the characters played so differently, and this game has that same sort of feeling! Let's get into it, friends. It's time to enter into the destroyed city of Metropolis.

An interesting continuation to the Batman: Arkham storyline!

    When this game and Gotham Knights were both announced at the same time (I think even during the same presentation), I was really confused when they said that Gotham Knights wasn't continuing the story from Arkham Knight, but Suicide Squad Kills the Justice League was going to do that. The whole premise of that game that came out a few years ago was talking about the death of Bruce Wayne and who would inherit the role of Batman now that he was gone. In the end of Batman: Arkham Knight, Bruce goes into Wayne Manor after his identity is exposed to the world, and then the building explodes with him in it, seemingly killing him. I thought it made perfect sense that the two storylines would be connected, though I see now how it works. This new game that focuses on the Suicide Squad (since the full title is so long, I'll probably just abbreviate it like this from here on) is definitely the continuation point for the Arkham-verse, and there were many ways that I didn't even think about, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

    This game follows four famous DC super-villains who have to work together to achieve an impossible task. It's up to Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark to kill the iconic Justice League, most of the members of which have already been mind controlled by Brainiac who invaded Metropolis. What I didn't think about at all though was that in the Batman: Arkham games, Harley Quinn was already a major character, and this version is the very same one from those games, with all of the firsthand experience of being in the middle of a lot of the nonsense. Interestingly, Deadshot had a sidequest in Batman: Arkham City, but this is not the same version of Deadshot as that one. Captain Boomerang even makes a comment whenever they first meet, saying, "Isn't Deadshot supposed to be white?" At first, I thought this was just a weird and off-color comment (which would be pretty fitting for Captain Boomerang), but then I realized that he was referring to the version from that older game, who was white. The banter between these four characters I think is really strong, and definitely fits the authentic personality of how these characters would really interact, it's all pretty funny, and Harley I think especially steals the show, voiced by Tara Strong. There's something special about her in this game, even though you were almost always against her in the Arkham games, there's definitely a shared history between Batman and Harley. 

    Speaking of Batman, it would be wrong for me to gloss over that this game marks the final performance of Kevin Conroy, the most well known voice actor for Batman who tragically lost his life to cancer back in 2022. If you don't know, Mr. Conroy voiced the Dark Knight in the 80's "Batman: The Animated Series", the 2000's "Justice League" and "Justice League Unlimited" shows, and all of the Batman: Arkham games other than Arkham Origins. He had many other roles as Batman, but those are the most iconic for me in particular. It's so interesting that this is the last time that we'll hear him as Batman, since this version of the character is very different, as he's mind controlled by Brainiac and talking about how he's going to do whatever it takes to help out Brainiac's cause. A bold choice, but there's something kind of hilarious and also tragic about him being a villain this time around. It makes sense though, with the tone of the game involving everything turning on its head and making the villains the heroes of this story. I don't want to spoil everything that the story has in store, especially since a few of the moments in the closed beta left me cheering due to the surprises that were waiting around a few of the corners, but I will say that this game pays homage to the Arkham games really well, treating the games with respect and rewarding people that played those games in a great way. I'm also still very interested in a few mysteries that were held over from the Arkham series, and I'm really excited in the thought of some of those being answered during this game.

It feels good to be bad!

    Of course, I need to talk some about how this game plays, as the story doesn't matter a lot of times if the gameplay isn't around to make it interesting. I'm happy to report that this game has excitement in spades. The gunplay feels like it's going to take some getting used to, it somewhat reminds me of Sunset Overdrive, if you've played that, since you're constantly jumping around and sliding over the terrain of the destroyed city of Metropolis. The traversal options are also really cool, as all of the characters have different ways of moving around. Deadshot uses Gizmo's jetpack to fly around the city, which really feels great, Captain Boomerang uses a Speed Force Gauntlet connected to a boomerang which allows him to basically teleport around, King Shark has the ability to jump really high and swim through the air, which I don't think is really explained, but it's still a lot of fun to use, and Harley uses a Bat-glider thing and a grappling hook, allowing her to swing through the air like she's on a trapeze, which is super fitting, but also a bit harder to use than the rest. All of them work really well, and it's great to have Harley feeling a lot like Batman in the Arkham games in terms of how she gets around. The combat abilities have been somewhat controversial as more and more information has been rolled out, but I think they make sense for the story, and they all worked pretty well as far as I could tell in my limited time. Each character can use three different types of weapons, and while I can't remember which character can use which ones exactly, all of the different weapon types were pretty cool I thought. It still follows the same general color-coded gun classifications that are used in Destiny or Borderlands, and it's always nice to get a new weapon to use. My favorite was a sniper rifle with an extra explosive kick that I had for Deadshot. It felt good to be able to hover in the air with his jetpack and get some headshots while slowly descending. Along with the guns, we have the Character specialty weapons, which mostly exist as a melee attack, such as Harley's bat or hammer or whatever she has equipped. Captain Boomerang has his boomerang, as you would expect, which is a bit more ranged, and as you would expect as well, Deadshot's special is even more ranged than that. There's a lot of customizability to be had with how you build your characters. As I mentioned, Harley can have a bat or a hammer, and that's because the specialty weapons can also be changed based on the stats of whatever you're using. On top of that, there's a leveling system similar to Borderlands that lets you choose which type of skill you want, which definitely adds to the customizability for each of the four characters. I also feel like I need to mention that the developers are talking about adding more characters later down the line, so I'm very excited just speculating what kinds of characters we might get somewhere down the line. Personally, I would love to play as Condiment King, I think that would be hilarious.

    I really enjoyed the time that I had with this game a few weeks ago, I actually played through it about three times, the first time by myself, then partially with a friend, and then I played through the whole thing again with another friend. It is such a cool feeling to know that the ally that just did something cool that you see off in the distance is someone that you are talking to and can talk about the experience with. I'm really excited for this game to come out on February 2nd, because I've already made plans to play it with my friend who was also really into the Batman Arkham games, and also has much more knowledge in the DC Universe than I do. It's going to be a great time and I really can't wait! I hope you'll consider trying it out for yourself as well. I know there has been some negative press along the way, but to me, it's very least worth keeping your eye on.

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends! It was so exciting to be one of the first people to get to play this game that Rocksteady has been working on for so long, so I want to give a big thank you to WB Games and Rocksteady for allowing me to be included in the closed beta test, and I hope that something that I wrote here today resonated with you all in some small way. I really can't wait to see what lies in wait in the "Arkham-verse" to surprise us all! I hope you all have a great week friends, and thanks again for all of the support! Until next time, I'm Jonathan, a Self-Proclaimed do-gooder, and I'll talk to you again soon!