Game review: Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (PS5)

Developer Rocksteady Studios became a household name in the gaming industry thanks to its excellent Batman Arkham trilogy of video games. Aside from Insomniac's Spider-Man video games, no other superhero franchise has been more popular than the Batman Arkham series. 

The last game the studio released was Batman: Arkham Knight, which came out for the PS4 and Xbox One generation back in 2015. For nine years now, many fans were excited to see what the next game from the studio would be. 
 
Sadly, Rocksteady Studios did not develop a new Superman game or even a Justice League title. Instead, the studio went left field and has now released Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. 

The premise of this game is that the Superman villain Brainiac has taken control of Metropolis and has infected the minds of most of the current Justice League members. Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and The Flash are all under Brainiac's control. 

Only Wonder Woman isn't affected, although she wants to try her best to save her friends without killing them. Knowing that saving them isn't a viable option, A.R.G.U.S's Amanda Waller recruits villains from Arkham Asylum to kill the Justice League instead. This team is called Task Force X, and they are comprised of Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Boomerang, and King Shark.

To ensure the villains do what they are told, all members of Task Force X have a bomb injected into their brains. If they disobey any orders or even try to leave Metropolis, Amanda Waller will blow their brains out. People may remember this is a similar storyline to the recently released Suicide Squad movies. 

For anyone that is asking, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League actually takes place many years after the events of Batman: Arkham Knight. Sadly, we don't get to see Batman joining the Justice League because, in this game, we only get to see their downfall. 

Graphically, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has some realistic-looking facial animation, but the area of Metropolis looks ugly and empty compared to New York in the Spider-Man games. The ugly aesthetic is done on purpose though because Brainiac wants to terraform Earth and Metropolis is empty because 99% of the population is either dead or turned into Brainiac's alien henchmen.

Task Force X isn't allowed to drive any vehicles in this game, but they get to steal some technology from the Justice League to easily traverse Metropolis. Deadshot is my favourite character to play because he can somewhat fly around the city using a jetpack. My second favourite is Harley Quinn, as she has a grapple gun and can swing around like Spider-Man. 

King Shark is a strong dude, and he can jump really high and far to get around places. Boomerang, on the other hand, steals some tech that allows him to run around the city as fast as The Flash. What I like most about this game is that every character is playable, so you're not stuck with one choice throughout the entire time!

The only downside is that you can only change characters before you undertake a mission or side quest. In the middle of a mission, you cannot change to another character, which is slightly annoying. If you're playing by yourself, the AI controls the other three characters, although you can play online to co-op with real people instead. 

Another downside to this game is that the members of Task Force X don't have real superpowers of their own. Due to this, all members of the team are just armed with guns. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League isn't a superhero game, as it's mostly from the looter shooter genre. Guns are the only way you can kill things in this game, which is a bit of a shame. 

As you progress through the missions, you will get better equipment to abilities to kill Brainiac's minions. Some special missions also unlock items that will help you battle against the Justice League members. Doing these missions is essential because Task Force X is unable to fight the Justice League members with just normal guns. I won't spoil too many details, but Lex Luthor is helpful in supplying gear for Task Force X to kill the Justice League members. 

Probably one of the game's biggest flaws is that many of the missions feel boring and repetitive. For example, there are lots of escort missions, saving humans missions, and even missions where you have to take out Brainiac's huge cannons. Not to mention, the enemy variety is lacking because you're shooting at the same type of monsters all of the time! Shooting similar enemies and doing the same missions gets tedious after a while. 

While the gameplay grind is repetitive, I think the most controversial aspect of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is its story. You would think that after the excellent Arkham trilogy, this would have led to a Superman or Justice League game. Here, we get a game where we have to kill the Justice League while we play as B-list villains. 

Imagine if Disney and Marvel made three solo Iron Man movies, which did not lead to an Avengers film. Let's imagine that instead of an Avengers movie, we get a Kill the Avengers movie instead. This is what this game feels like. Marvel would never make a game or movie where your goal was to kill off Spider-Man and Iron Man!

While I enjoyed Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League more than Far Cry 6 and Ubisoft's Avatar game, this does not change the fact that it has many glaring flaws. The story, as aforementioned, is controversial, and the gameplay loop is repetitive. I would only recommend playing this game if it's on sale. 
 
Verdict: 6.0/10