Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League advance review
10 min read
Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League advance review
Rocksteady Studio, which has worked on the ” Batman : Arkham ” series, will release “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League”, the sequel to ” Batman: Arkham Knight “, on February 2, 2024 on PlayStation 5 (PS5). ), Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Unlike the “Batman: Arkham” series, which has been made with fists, this is a third-person action shooter game where you shoot guns.
A demo session for “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” was held for the media at Warner Bros. headquarters in Los Angeles, USA. Since I was able to actually play it, I would like to share with you the charm of this work.
A gameplay video is also available. Please check them out as well.
A crazy world where “the villain is the main character” and “the main character is the villain”
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League'' is set in Metropolis five years after Batman: Arkham Knight ”.
The main characters are the “Suicide Squad,” a team of four villains Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark .
The enemy villains are Batman, Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, and the Justice League, allies of justice. In other words, this game is not about playing the role of a villain and destroying the city and defeating the allies of justice who protect humanity…
The Justice League in this film are all brainwashed by an alien called “Brainiac” and have become enemies of humanity. Even Batman, who believes in non-killing, is so brainwashed that he ends up killing ordinary people.
In order to break out of this crazy situation, “Amanda Waller” releases the four villains from Arkham Asylum on the condition that they kill the Justice League. The title of the game is “Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League.”
Furthermore, bombs are firmly attached to the four people for obedience, and if they disobey, they will die. There are no human rights.
Harley Quinn uses Batman’s gadgets in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth tactic. Use high technology to fight superhumans
All members of the Justice League, except Batman, are superhumans with supernatural powers. On the other hand, in Suicide Squad, the three members other than King Shark are just humans, so there is no way they can fight on equal terms.
Therefore, in this work, each of the four people is given a firearm and a special gadget , giving them special abilities to fight against metahumans. To summarize, each character has special attacks and a means of movement called “traversal”, and the types of guns they can equip are also determined. The characteristics of each are as follows.
harley quinn
Equipment: SMG, pistol, heavy gun
Melee weapon: bat
Special ability: Ability to grapple and move using Batman’s gadgets.
dead shot
Equipment: pistol, sniper rifle, assault rifle
Melee weapon: gun on arm
Special ability: Can fly in the sky using a jet pack
captain boomerang
Equipment: shotgun, SMG, sniper rifle
Melee weapon: boomerang
Special ability: Can teleport using a gauntlet that recreates the Flash’s Speed Force.
king shark
Equipment: Equipped with shotgun, heavy gun, and assault rifle.
Melee weapon: knife
Special abilities: Originally like a superhuman, he has no gadgets, but can do big jumps and slams.
In addition, all members can equip “grenades”, “shield MOD” for defense power, and “traversal MOD” for movement.
There are two more MOD slots that will be unlocked after Chapter 4, but although I wasn’t able to try them out during this demo, they seem to further strengthen the characteristics of each character.
Each character also has a skill tree. The tree is divided into three main types, and skills are unlocked with the points you receive as you level up.
In addition to an explanation of the effect, each skill also includes information on what playstyles and builds it is compatible with. This is a great feature for beginners.
Use your skills to run through the huge city
During the demo play, the first thing that struck me was the vastness of Metropolis. However, to be honest, I don’t think Metropolis is that big just in terms of width. Still, the reason why it felt so vast was the difference in elevation.
This work focuses on the traversal movement gimmick. Each building is huge, so jumping from high places and using traversal abilities to move three-dimensionally is key , making the map feel larger than it appears.
Each character’s traversal abilities are completely different, so it takes some getting used to. The author mainly used Captain Boomerang. He’s a goofball who can do tricky moves with his boomerang teleport and speed force dash. He felt that the controls were a bit quirky, but easy to get used to.
Deadshot’s jetpack is the most intuitive to operate, making it perfect for beginners. Despite the King Shark’s large size, its movements such as big jumps seem straightforward and it gives the impression that it is easy to handle.
In comparison, Harley Quinn’s traversal grappling was just so difficult. Other members of the media also agreed that Harley was the most difficult.
However, when the developers showed him the controls, the movements were on a completely different level, and producer Jack Hackett himself said that this is the character with the most depth. He’s probably a character for advanced players.
Melee attack that is not a decoration
Brainiac’s minions roam Metropolis. Those who were originally humans have been transformed. If he was an ally of justice, he would be conflicted about subjugating him, but Susuk is a villain, so it doesn’t matter.
Let’s explain some of the unique combat in this game.
Third-person TPS. Attack the enemy’s weak point and deal critical damage. HP and armor for the player. So far it’s been normal, but the armor doesn’t recover over time during battle .
To restore armor, you must shoot an enemy in the leg and then hit them with a melee attack . It’s common in TPS action games to hide and recover when you’re in danger, but this game takes the exact opposite approach.
This is illustrated by Amanda’s convincing line of threat: “I released you to fight, and if you hide I’ll detonate a bomb.” After all, there are no human rights.
In addition, melee attacks can be used to launch enemies into the air and follow them up with guns, and mid-level bosses can cancel powerful attacks, so you’ll want to actively use them.
Each character also has a super powerful technique called “Suicide Strike”. It’s a special attack with a special cut-in, and it’s a surefire kill for small fry, and it deals huge damage for boss-class attacks, but this attack is also treated as a derivative of melee attacks. There is also a “traversal attack” that deals heavy damage to all enemies within range, so it is important to use it properly depending on the situation.
In many TPS games, melee attacks are a bonus, but in this game they have an important meaning. It’s an interesting approach that feels connected to the combat in the Batman: Arkham series.
multiplayer elements
This work uses a method in which the main story progresses chapter by chapter. You can cooperate in multiplayer from start to finish, so you can run through the story with your friends.
Each chapter has a main mission, but Metropolis is also dotted with side missions and mini-events.
Once you clear a mission, you can play it as many times as you like. Missions can be played solo or by inviting friends or online users. When playing solo, the AI will manage the characters you have not selected. Characters can be switched at any time, and it seems possible to overlap characters in multiplayer, but this was not confirmed in the demo version.
During multiplayer, the damage score ranking is always displayed on the side of the screen. This may be an unpleasant element for some people.
Also, while the player is offline, Character Data can play with other users online and receive the rewards that Data has collected when they come back online.
When you clear a mission, equipment such as weapons and armor will drop randomly. In fact, this game also has hack and slash elements , and each piece of equipment is given a rarity, perk, etc. This is the driving force behind repeating the mission over and over again. In addition to dropping equipment, you can also craft, purchase, and upgrade equipment.
The point that I personally liked was that it had all the essential items for a hack and slash game , such as saving loadout presets for equipment , registering items as favorites, and dismantling them . Even though it is a hack and slash game, there are surprisingly few games that are able to protect this aspect properly at the time of release.
On the equipment screen, characters speak and animations flow every time you change weapons. When Captain Boomerang was given a sniper rifle, his innocence was pushed to the limit and I laughed.
crazy commitment
“Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” has a concept of time. Therefore, even if you start a mission in daylight, it may be pitch dark outside by the time you finish.
At this point, I heard something a bit unbelievable from the development staff. It seems that the time during the mission is not set in particular by the developer. In other words, the same mission can be done in the morning and at night. There’s nothing particularly strange up to this point.
However, movie scenes are heavily introduced into the main mission of this work. Most game movie scenes have a fixed time. However, in this work, the time of the mission is not specified. In other words, there is a possibility that the morning movie will be played during the night mission. This reduces the sense of immersion.
So Rocksteady came up with a crazy idea.
“Let’s create a movie scene for each time”
In other words, if the mission is in the morning, it’s a morning movie. If it’s daytime, it’s a daytime movie. At night, night movies are played. Normally, one movie would have been enough, but he intentionally added more work to the project.
According to the staff, the person in charge said, “The material of the movie doesn’t change, so we just change the lighting and effects depending on the time.” Although it sounds simple, the actual work is not easy. It’s an incredible commitment to art.
Defeat the Justice League
At the end of the demo play, I was finally able to experience the boss battle against “Flash”. The time has come to fulfill the purpose for which the Suicide Squad was founded: to defeat the Justice League.
In the comics, Flash is able to move faster than anyone else thanks to the Speed Force. Utilizing its speed, it can create tornadoes, send out electric shocks, and transform itself into clones. You can even go back in time and change history.
That strength is clearly reproduced in the game. After all, it must be said that it is quite difficult for ordinary people to fight metahumans.
However, this Flash has been weakened before the battle begins, and instead of having normal human hair, he can fight with Suicide Squad members who have thick, bushy hair. Still, the flash is strong. As expected from the Justice League.
The battle with Flash is divided into three parts, and as the part progresses, Flash becomes more furious and the tornado becomes even bigger. In the end, most of the battle area was covered in tornadoes, and it was like a major disaster.
The demo play ended after I defeated Flash with much effort. My group was able to clear the game by reviving each other even though we were knocked down several times, but there were several groups that were wiped out. That’s how intense the Flash battle was.
Even with this, the Justice League has only defeated one out of the four. It’s like, “Kukuku…he’s the weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings…”. What will happen in battle with other Justice League members? I can’t help but look forward to it now.
Currently, there are five members of the Justice League: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern, but it is unknown whether Wonder Woman will also be brainwashed and become an enemy. It is also unclear whether Aquaman'' or Martian Manhunter” will appear.
It seems that additional stories will be distributed after the release of this work through free DLC, etc. Maybe then we’ll see the rest of the Justice League or Suicide Squad members like Deathstroke join in.
As a side note, the English version is a posthumous work by Kevin Conroy, who was the voice of the animated Batman for many years and passed away in 2022. We want fans to play not only the Japanese version but also the English version.
After fighting the Flash, Bruce Wayne witnesses the battle between Superman and General Zod in the movie “ Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice ,” and can understand Bruce Wayne’s feelings when he comes to the idea that Superman must be eliminated. . It’s fine as long as the metahuman protects humanity, but how dangerous will it be if the brunt of his power is directed at humanity? In this work, that situation is clearly expressed and entertained.
There are about three weeks left until the game’s release on February 2nd, so you should be able to enjoy the game even more if you review the Arkham series or watch DC movies and dramas while you can. Get ready to defeat the Justice League.
