So far, I'm not impressed with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

As we hope is pretty clear from the text here, this is based on just over seven hours of playtime with the final version of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League in its current live form. We've defeated half of the game's central bosses and have done a lot of open-world activities, but of course we haven't experienced the game's endgame. What follows are some first impressions, which we will eventually mould into a final review that also comments on the game's long-term potential. Therefore, there is no score.

A while back, I published an article proclaiming rather dramatically that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League makes me sad. There were many reasons why I used that particular word, as I felt that developer Rocksteady wasn't just following Arkane, Crystal Dynamics, BioWare and Platinum off the live service plank, even though it demonstrably failed miserably for all of the above studios, it was because by positioning Kill the Justice League as a sort of pseudo-sequel to Batman: Arkham Knight, Rocksteady has not only robbed us of the fantastic ending to an outstanding trilogy of games, they've also completely botched the introduction of characters that were only subtly alluded to in Arkham. They have, in retrospect, frayed the edges of their own Batman universe, and they didn't need to.

Anyway, the point of that paragraph was to illustrate that I've already taken the time to complain about the more philosophical aspects of the key design decision Rocksteady (and possibly Warner Bros.) made that has brought us to the launch of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, so these first impressions are going to be more centred around more pragmatic things, in other words, more traditional. Because at the end of the day, Rocksteady needs to be given a chance.

And there are wins here, make no mistake about it. First and foremost, Rocksteady continues to show us that they are extremely adept at capturing the soul of a specific location and presenting a coherent vision for it. No, Metropolis is not Gotham, nor does this more frenetic gameplay model allow for the more introspective, detail-orientated exploration that made the Arkham series so memorable. But that doesn't mean there isn't artistic cohesion between districts, plenty of narrative detail and a sense that this... well, metropolis, was alive and well as a bustling metropolis just a few weeks ago. Furthermore, Rocksteady is also adept at both creating a solid visual framework for their game universes, and nailing the technical performance behind the curtain as well. All characters are accurately brought to life, all are detailed and beautifully realised, and the voice acting across the board is downright excellent.

There are even positive aspects of the game's core looter shooter gameplay loop to point out. Moving around in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is fundamentally quite fun. It's the only way the four heroes mechanically stand out from each other, but they also feel distinct, and it remains the central reason you switch between them across a playthrough, because it's fun to see just how fluidly you can maintain your journey across the rooftops of Metropolis.

But there are problems here, so many problems, and even though I haven't finished the game, it's hard to imagine that these won't either stick in your mind or even grow and become more noticeable as the hours roll by. There are so many, in fact, that it's hard to know where to start, so to maintain that these are first impressions for now, here they are in a relatively disorganised stream.

While moving is entertaining, a good portion of the overall combat loop consists of moving to where the enemies are, and because Metropolis is so vertically designed and enemies will almost always teleport to an elevated position, you spend a lot of time doing things that have nothing to do with your weapons, which doesn't seem particularly intuitive when the desire to constantly get better loot is a pretty crucial part of... yes, a looter shooter with a tiered loot system (by which we mean the classic colour-coded qualities of all the game's gear). Furthermore, these enemies are endlessly anonymous and boring to shoot, and have yet to produce a single exciting variation. There are regular purple monster aliens, sniper purple monster aliens, heavy purple monster aliens and let's not forget tanks and helicopters possessed by purple monster aliens. They're never scary or exciting, and are just as fun to fight as the myriad of A.I.M. robots you smashed to bits in Marvel's Avengers.

The interface is busy to say the least, and by busy I mean cluttered, and by cluttered I mean the exact opposite of streamlined and precisely designed to give you the information you absolutely need while keeping an overview of what's happening on the battlefield. There's a communication interface on the right side, a Gears of War-style active reload system in the centre, state modifiers on the left side, cooldowns at the bottom, an active combo in the upper left corner and I could go on. Of course, you learn to direct your attention where it's needed, but it's disjointed to say the least as it stands right now.

Most activities, besides the core missions that, according to journalists and content creators who have already completed the campaign, last about 10 hours if you hurry, consist of fairly generic setups that involve you defending a given point, rescuing Rick Flagg's soldiers in some sort of time trial or smashing enemy strongholds. As far as I can tell, besides Riddler challenges (which are still pretty fun, I admit), there are no dedicated sets of side missions that introduce meaningful characters or ask you to tackle a specific villain, like in Arkham City and Arkham Knight.

Much like Anthem, the loot in this looter shooter is jaw-droppingly boring. During the first hour I was served two Legendary weapons, and these offered little more than major stat increases and status effects, such as setting enemies on fire or even turning them to ice. While this may indeed change in the game's endgame, it's not very promising for a game that is, in part, designed to hold your attention far longer than just until the end credits roll on the campaign.

I could go on, I really could, because while the entertainment factor may be relatively high, there are fundamental issues that Rocksteady simply doesn't manage to address in a satisfactory way. We're talking basic things like encounter design, combat loops, topography that allows for varied combat, missions that are diverse and offer multi-faceted narrative approaches and... well, loot you actually bother to look at and work hard to get your hands on.

Make no mistake, right now I'm enjoying Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League because Rocksteady basically has a fun idea for a different DC story, and they're telling it with enough flair and with great visuals and solid voice acting. But it might last another 10 hours, if not less, and then it's all about mechanics, encounter design, and the way the open world is structurally built to hold my attention. I just don't think Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League can maintain that, but I'll keep giving it GAAS (get it?), and will return in a week or so with a more complete judgement.