‘Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League’ review: heroic yet muddled

After a long road to release, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is finally here. Set in the city of Metropolis, anti-heroes Captain Boomerang, Harley Quinn, King Shark, and Deadshot – collectively known as Task Force X – have been called in to take down the Justice League. Superman and his do-gooder allies have been corrupted by the villainous Brainiac, which means it’s up to our hapless batch of baddies to save the day.

• READ MORE: Is ‘Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League’ coming to Game Pass?

Made by Rocksteady, the same studio behind the excellent Batman Arkham games, Suicide Squad places you right in the center of the DC Universe. The team is no stranger to crafting excellent campaigns with memorable characters, and right from the get-go, the same is true here.

The Flash is darting around everywhere. The all-powerful Green Lantern can show up at any moment. Batman stalks you from the moment you set foot in Metropolis. There is a sense of being on a big DC-themed rollercoaster in this 10-hour campaign, which meshes well with the fantastic performances from the Justice League as they spout devilishly evil monologues. Each member of the Suicide Squad also has some great one-liners and moments as they come to terms with the fact they are being asked to kill the Justice League, despite the anti-heroes being way out of their… well, league.

Though you are severely outmatched going up against these fabled DC heroes, witty writing, well-timed jokes, and comedic camera work make their underdog story incredibly entertaining from beginning to end. While everyone here delivers fantastic performances from the stern and takes-no-shit manager Waller to the slightly unhinged teenage iteration of Poison Ivy, characters outside of the Justice League feel like window dressing within this world – vendors to craft you guns, rather than people with compelling backstories. Suicide Squad has some great at general world-building, but it’s sorely missing the intimate moments with its heroes and villains that Rocksteady is known for.

One area where the game does allow you to get up and close in is combat, as, in tandem with solid gunplay, you’re encouraged to pummel enemies with abilities and melee attacks. Battlles are fast-paced, and most importantly, feel fantastic. Jumping from building to building, slamming into enemies, and watching as explosions light up the screen is gratifying, and chaining all of this together is incredibly fluid. But, besides one or two unique abilities for each character, the focus on gunplay means they all feel virtually identical – especially compared to a game like Marvel’s Avengers, where each hero had a unique playstyle.

Additionally, there isn’t much going on with Suicide Squad’s open world. Repetitive side missions boil down to “defend this area”, “kill these enemies”, or “save these civilians” along with a bunch of Riddler collectibles to hunt down. But the game is painfully lacking in terms of quests and side activities, and their rewards – guns, grenades and abilities – feel bland and uninspired. Beyond a brief colour change or slightly different camo, weapons within every category all look the same. Once you have seen one assault rifle or pistol, you have largely seen them all, even if they are of a different rarity, element, and archetype.

Collecting this gear simply isn’t worthwhile. Some novel weapon and gear perks can make for some interesting builds, but there isn’t any progression or gear score tied to the armour and weapons you find, so it feels like scooping up a bunch of guns only to dismantle them when something new comes along. Likewise, synergising your perks to get bonus effects from your gear isn’t worth it because it requires unlocking a grind-y perk with very little impact. Modifying weapons through allies at the Hall of Justice also feels like wasting materials, as those weapons are often worse than the weapons you already have.

The endgame chase for loot is just as dull. While there are around a dozen or so Bane-themed weapons during the ongoing pre-season, they all have the exact same perk which feels like wasted potential. You can get stat bonuses by equipping several items themed around a villain, but these aren’t going to fundamentally change the way the game plays. At the end of the day, you are still completing the same missions (or a repeat boss fight set in a different arena) that you completed during the main campaign. This all means that beyond its excellent story, Kill The Justice League is repetitive and banal.

After 25 hours with Rocksteady’s latest, it feels like several games have been smashed together. A fantastic campaign is hindered by repetitive missions that feel like they have stumbled out of 2015. Fun combat is marred by uninspired gear and a barren open world. Almost everything in Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is incongruent with its other parts. Unlike Task Force X’s jumbled team, which can pull together and complete its mission, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League fails to do the same.

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. This review was played on PS5. 

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