In Defence Of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League has a few problems, but is ultimately a fun enough experience to play through at least once. Although there is a severe lack of decent side content in-between main missions. So much of this game requires you to attack the same enemy bases over and over to level up, this usually pits us against a battle tank roaming Metropolis, a giant turret that needs destroying or a gang of aliens that you can take out. There are also riddler challenges (the most fun) where you collect green trophies, solve riddles by pointing at the building Riddler is hinting at, and my favourite are the riddler races where you fly through hoops (like Superman 64 except actually fun!) to unlock new outfits for your squad, playing virtual dress up is always fun and makes for a cool distraction. The side missions mostly consist of surviving waves of enemies while defending either a tower or moving vehicle. Unfortunately that's all there really is to do outside of the main story missions. It may sound like a lot after reading all that, but after a few hours you find yourself repeating a lot of the same tasks over and over again. I can say the gameplay is a lot of fun to experience though, especially giving the fact there are four different characters to play and level up (8 altogether if you count season 2+ characters). This makes the gameplay just that little bit more refreshing as they all play different from each other. Captain Boomerang has access to the speed force; allowing him to teleport with his boomerang and run super speed like the Flash himself, his melee is ranged as he uses his boomerangs to hit enemies from afar. King Shark basically has super strength and plays like the Hulk; that being ground slams, powerful close range melee and super jumping across the city. Harley Quinn plays like Spiderman! She uses Batman's grappling hook to swing around the city and has a baseball bat that can send enemies flying. My favourite by far, is Deadshot; not only does he have the best shooting accuracy, but can also fly (like superman!) using a jet pack that can rocket you across Metropolis, his melee is the most ranged too, as he uses his wrist guns to fight enemies. Graphically the game is worthy of being Next Gen too, you can see every character's individual hair strands, eye lashes, teeth, even their eyes dilate and facial muscles express intricate emotions. It is all very well done and gorgeous to look at, especially when it is raining, the city really glows at night in a thunderstorm with rain and puddles reflecting Metropolis. Story wise the game is very hit and miss (with the most abrupt and unsatisfying ending I've seen for a long time!). The writers forced some unnecessary politics into the story, which can be completely immersion breaking at times. I won't go too much into this as it is a icky topic, personally it is something that always makes me feel a little uncomfortable discussing, but what I will say is that it doesn't really belong in a super hero (or more accurately super villain) game like this and it ultimately dulls the edge that make the Suicide Squad comics so appealing and mature. If you want a good story in this series, I recommend picking up a few of the classic comics, because this game, plays things a little too safe. The highlight of the game is facing the Justice League themselves though and this game does exactly what it says on the tin; Kill The Justice League! The boss battles with Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, Superman and finally Brainiac (as he has controlled the JL into being evil, which is why we're here to stop them) are all fun and interesting fights, that I honestly loved playing through. They are actually challenging (especially Batman's scarecrow themed horror boss fight, that felt scary and most difficult too, as Nightmare Batman becomes a giant bat monster!). This ultimately made the game for me, as a big fan of DC Comics fighting these super hero legends was a weird dream I didn't know I had until I got to play this game. Metropolis is really cool if you're obsessed with the comics too, seeing all the lore accurate buildings, locations and scenes in a 4k video game that almost looks like real life, it is simply incredible. However, the city does feel a little too small and considering this is a game where we can run super speed, teleport, fly and super jump around the map, this small size is very disappointing, especially for a next gen game!

Before going into Suicide Squad, I was aware that it was hated among fans of the Arkham games and DC readers in general, mostly due to the politics in the game (which I hesitate to discuss). In my opinion, these issues were only slightly distracting, but didn't take away from the fun I ultimately had from the diverse gameplay, fun yet difficult boss battles, interesting traversal and satisfying combat. I wanted to defend the game completely upon the first hours of play, because it honestly starts off strong, but eventually the tiny map and repetitive mission objectives-both main and side content; just results in a very irritating gameplay loop. The game's last hours after defeating Superman feels like a neverending epilogue, as he have to repeat 6 side objects in order to get to fight Brainiac who basically copies the Flash so even his battle felt very rinse & repeat. After finally beating him, Amanda Waller informs us that we also need to kill him again in 12 more multiverses, then the game actually ends with us only beating world 1 Brainiac and then the credits roll to indicate the main story is over. After this the game becomes this weird thing where you essentially repeat the last hour of the game 12 times to finally defeat all Brainiacs for good and that's when I quit! Once the credits rolled after beating him once, I considered the game over and went on with my life. I believe this was done to turn the game into some sort of grindy online thing that I really hate. I played the game offline (which I strongly recommend), as playing online likes to force micro transaction filth down your neck at every turn! So at least single player turns off this predatory gaming practice, only then can you enjoy it as a story driven game that certainly has it's flaws but has gameplay fun enough to keep you entertained. I may even return to the game, just to try out the new characters such as Joker and Death Stroke. This game isn't the worst thing ever, it just isn't perfect and unfortunately that means a lot of hate and little love. It is a 7/10 game in my opinion. So it's simply good fun, nothing revolutionary and it certainly gets repetitive, but if you want a bit of fun and like a good boss battle, the game can provide that in-between the busywork.