Suicide Squad isn’t a bad game – it’s just boring

Shoot, upgrade weapons, shoot. That’s pretty much all I did for fifteen or so hours while playing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. In terms of gameplay, the new game from developer studio Rocksteady has little to nothing to do with the acclaimed Batman: Arkham trilogy. Instead of sneaking around with Batman and clobbering opponents with my fists, in Suicide Squad I shoot my way through mindless alien hordes with futuristic weapons. Unlike in the Arkham games, I don’t do this alone; I can play online with up to three others.

The result of this new gameplay mix is a repetitive experience that will bore even the most hardcore DC comic fans over time.

Kill the Justice League

Suicide Squad is set in the same universe as the Arkham games and takes place several years after the last edition in the series. The famous city of Metropolis from the Superman comics is besieged by aliens. Most of the inhabitants were either killed or turned into disgusting alien monsters during the enemy takeover.

Members of the Justice League were brainwashed by the aliens. Superman, Batman and their friends now fight alongside the killer aliens. And now, the only way to stop the former superheroes is to kill them. A task force of convicts from the Arkham prison, dubbed the Suicide Squad, is put together for this very mission. DC fans will be familiar with the story’s starting point.

Don’t expect exciting characters, a story with depth or unexpected plot twists. The story merely serves as pretext for the shooter gameplay. Nevertheless, the cutscenes are beautifully staged and complemented by fantastic character models.

A tough start

On my killing mission, I fight my way through the open game world of Metropolis in search of the Justice League. I can take control of all four members of the Suicide Squad. The criminal anti-heroes control themselves differently but can cover a lot of distance in a short time – both horizontally and vertically.

To start with, I don’t really warm to any of the characters. The controls are a far cry from those in the smooth and intuitive Spider Man 2. This is particularly noticeable with Harley Quinn. When she swings through the city with a grappling hook, it’s more of a flop than a feat. In addition, the game bombards me non-stop with tutorials and new button combinations in the first few hours. I quickly lose track of things. And the desire to continue playing.

Build your hero

After a few hours of playing, I did end up making friends with the controls for two of the characters: King Shark and Deadshot. What’s more, the shock of the over-the-top tutorial is a thing of the past and controlling the two anti-heroes is even fun. Deadshot pelts through Metropolis with his jetpack and King Shark leaps metres into the air thanks to his divine abilities. Amazing!

It’s perfect that these are the two characters I like the most because they couldn’t be more different in terms of skills and weapons. The well-armoured Shark attacks enemies with huge handguns, shotguns and sabres, while the agile Deadshot fires at enemies from a distance with sniper rifles.

All the characters have their own weapons, special attacks and skill trees. As the game progresses, I unlock weapon arsenals that make my deadly instruments even deadlier. The elemental powers I can assign to my weapons are particularly cool. These let me freeze ugly alien beasts with close combat or set them alight with a fire grenade.

The possible combinations for builds are almost endless. Because the cost of trying out new skill and weapon combos is relatively low, the game encourages me to explore as many approaches as possible.

Boredom despite many options

Essentially, the shooter gameplay in Suicide Squad works well and is fun. The mobility of the game characters often means I find myself in the air during battles. Headshotting aliens during a daring jetpack manoeuvre is pretty damn cool. Unfortunately, the monotonous mission structure in this sparse open world quickly leads to boredom.

Both in the main mission and side quests, I constantly have to shoot the same alien creatures and am rewarded with loot and XP. I search in vain for original mission objectives and exciting twists. But it’s limited to defending bases, escorting civilians or simply shooting all the enemies away. Only the rare boss battles against the former heroes of the Justice League bring a breath of fresh air to the looter-shooter routine. This is when I have to switch on my brain and am rewarded with exciting game mechanics and spectacular staging.

Similarly, the different characters fail to provide any lasting variety. No matter which I choose and which build I follow, at the end of the day I’m jumping, flying or teleporting around and shooting down mindless alien hordes. Over and over again. Why can’t at least one character do something without a huge gun?

Even the flexible upgrade and skill system fails to pique my interest. A lot of skill upgrades only provide incremental improvements. In other words, a fraction more damage here, a few seconds longer in special attacks there. When it comes to the menus, I get so overwhelmed by figures and statistics that I end up ignoring them. Often I can’t even estimate what impact a specific upgrade will have in battle.

Even during fights, the game constantly bombards me with numbers and information. It’s exhausting, aesthetically unpleasant and annoying.

Online pressure and live service promise

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was primarily designed as a co-op multiplayer game. But you can also play alone with bots. There’s no real offline mode. Even when playing alone, you always need to have the game connected to online servers. When testing it out, I was kicked out of a cutscene several times due to server problems. Very annoying.

When the servers are up and running, shooting with real players is much more fun. For this review, I only play with strangers without voice chat. This works perfectly despite the lack of communication. With reasonably competent team members, the battles feel much more dynamic and are over a lot quicker. While the gameplay loop is still repetitive, this makes it a lot more bearable. Apart from server problems, the online sessions are usually stable. Twice I’m forced to restart the game completely due to strange bugs.

Rocksteady hails Suicide Squad as a live service game. New seasons and battle passes are meant to be added on an ongoing basis. All Battle Pass content will be of a cosmetic nature and permanently available. You can purchase individual cosmetic items for real money in the in-game store at launch.

The game studio also promises new characters, storylines and locations. A playable joker from a parallel dimension has already been announced. It’s not yet known how expensive the live service content will be.

Verdict: only brief spells of fun

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League isn’t the total failure that many Rocksteady fans feared. It’s not a bad game, just a boring one.

What starts as a solid shooter gameplay quickly deteriorates into a monotonous chore. This is mainly due to the uninteresting missions, incremental upgrades and lack of gameplay variation between the characters. Monotonous shooting is more fun with real team members. However, if you prefer to play the game alone, its online constraint is annoying.

The new content announced sounds good on the face of it. But I’ve had enough for now after finishing the main story. Unless the new characters and locations fundamentally change the game mechanics, I won’t be returning to Metropolis any time soon.

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