Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Preview - A flickering light in Arkham's overwhelming shadow

Metropolis lies in ruins. The normally bustling city is eerily quiet and most of its inhabitants have been turned into ashen statues. As if that wasn't bad enough, the few remaining survivors aren't getting much help either, as the city's usual protectors, the Justice League, have been brainwashed by the supervillain Braniac. It's a situation so grim and tragic that even Batman might struggle to find a suitably tragic expression.

However, our four anti-heroes from The Suicide Squad don't care one bit. They may be here to save the city - by killing Braniac and the Justice League - but they couldn't care less about its inhabitants. Released from prison by the efficient but cynical Amanda Waller, they're treating the tragic situation as nothing short of an rollercoaster ride of death and destruction, and when they are attacked by a group of bloodthirsty aliens shortly after their arrival, snappy dialogue and one-liners fly almost as fast as bullets - and with surprising accuracy to boot.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League makes an explosive first impression. It looks truly spectacular watching King Shark hammer his fists into the ground and sending defenceless enemies into the air before filling them with lead. Or seeing Captain Boomerang throw his boomerang and seemingly miss, only to appear behind the unsuspecting alien the next moment with an explosive surprise. Even better, it plays great too. The controls are tight and precise, and although the screen is at times overflowing with UI indicators, enemies, explosions and lighting effects, our PlayStation 5 has no trouble keeping up on this December day in London as we tried out Rocksteady's long-awaited AAA game.

But while the impression is mostly positive, there's a shadow hanging over Metropolis that's far more menacing than the sci-fi monsters slowly tearing the city apart in the horizon.

We are of course talking about Batman, and specifically the Arkham games. The trilogy consists of some of the best superhero games, well, maybe some of the best action games ever, and their meticulous design, rhythmic combat system and unrivalled presentation cemented Rocksteady's reputation as one of the best AAA developers. The British studio has every reason to be proud of their earlier work, and it seems they are. The small part of their office that our preview takes place in is like a slightly narcissistic Bat Cave filled with figures of the Dark Knight, a mural of the Joker, and even a poster from Arkham City plastered with so many autographs that has to be a reference to that game's infamous GOTY edition.

Yet the success has a flipside. Ever since its announcement back in 2020, comparisons to the Arkham games have, for better or worse, characterised the reception of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The live service title is set in the same universe as the exceptional trilogy, but the games are far apart in terms of design. Even before launch, this has made it difficult to manage expectations, and it was probably the main reason why the game had to go into hiding after the criticised presentation at PlayStation's State of Play back in February last year.

Judging by the four or so hours I spent with the Suicide Squad, playing co-op with two Dutch games journalists and one of the game's environment designers, I'm not convinced that the game will top or even compare to the developer's previous efforts. But that's also a tall order, and judged on it's own merit the game does show a lot of promise.

Our adventure begins in The Justice League Museum, which will later serve as our base of operations. The museum is just one of many examples of how the bright and futuristic Metropolis is a very different place from the rain-soaked and gloomy Arkham, explains game director Alex Rydby. "The main difference with Metropolis compared to Gotham is a visual difference in terms of style, but there is also more hope in Metropolis. Metropolis is a brighter place. Or was a brighter place before Braniac ruined it. But you can still see that Metropolis sort of embraced these heroes, you can see statues of Superman, billboards of Wonder Woman. And Gotham never really celebrated Batman. He was in the shadow, where as in Metropolis everything is out in the light."

Unsurprisingly, our anti-heroes ignore the basic rule of all museums - look but don't touch - and borrow from the exhibits a number of smart gadgets that allow them to get around efficiently - a good idea as delays in public transport might occur due to the near total destruction of the city. Movement is the first pleasant surprise in Suicide Squad, as each character has their own unique and satisfying way of traversing Metropolis' towering cityscape. Deadshot uses a jetpack, King Shark hilariously swims through the air, while Captain Boomerang, as previously mentioned, teleports to his boomerang. Harley Quinn is probably the one whose movement most closely resembles what we know from the Arkham games. With a grappling hook, she swings from buildings or the small drone that follows her everywhere. Whichever character you choose, you have the ability to move at lightning speed in all directions, and timing jumps or landings gives you an extra boost.

The fast movement is key to the game's design. While the enemies in the Arkham games danced around Batman, the purple and (so far) rather identical aliens laying siege to Metropolis prefer to attack from a distance. You need to be constantly on the move to avoid their shots and get close enough to deal damage yourself. Simply keeping the trigger down is rarely effective - at least not with our initial weapons. The vast majority of enemies have some sort of shield or are resistant to certain types of ammunition, so it's often necessary to weaken them first with a melee attack or a specific status effect in order to deal any substantial damage. This makes the combat system a hectic affair - not unlike what we know from other looter shooters.

Initially, the movement itself - and the so-called Traversal Attacks - are actually our most potent weapon. Rydby explains that this is deliberate design choice, as the developer wants the player to master the all-important movement before new systems are introduced. "As you progress through the game your characters starts evolving both with your talents and with your gear, but also how you interplay your traversal into gunplay and melee. We introduce other enemy types, which means that you start thinking about how you use traversal to get around their pros and cons, and we introduce different mission types that means you have to think about how you use traversal in different ways."

Progression through loot and levels is obviously key in live service titles, where players are expected to stick around long after the credits roll. But Rocksteady also manages to contextualise our hero's development through the game's story. Just minutes after our first gunfight in the ruined streets of Metropolis, the Green Lantern appears and locks us in with a magical chain - a humiliating scenario for our heroes who have only tasted a few minutes of freedom after being released from the maximum security prison Arkham Asylum. A few hours later, we meet another of the Justice League's fallen heroes, The Flash. We are now given the opportunity to fight back, but the lightning-fast hero has no problem dodging our attacks. It's not until the very end of the preview that we finally face a fallen hero on equal terms - but we won't reveal their identity and fate here.

The fact that we go from being punching bags to being able to take on the almost invincible Justice League in such a short time is not only due to Rocksteady letting us skip some parts of the story during the preview. It's also thanks to our new weapons. Far more than our somewhat withered skill tree, weapons are what makes us stronger and expands our tactical options. In addition to the weapons' countless attributes, we can also add so-called Afflictions by visiting a certain green-thumbed villain in our base. During the preview, we got to try out Deep Freeze, which in addition to making enemies immobile, also makes them extra vulnerable to shots and falls from great heights. On the other hand, our melee attacks do almost no damage to frozen enemies. Such abilities obviously open the door to combo attacks and tactical play, but that's not to say that Suicide Squad necessarily lends itself to harmonious cooperation.

Our four anti-heroes are as much rivals as they are friends. During each mission you are awarded points for your performance, and at the end a winner of the round is announced. The design makes sense, but it quickly becomes a bit embarrassing for this particular writer, as my Dutch colleagues manage to thoroughly outscore me. However, a switch from Deadshot to Captain Boomerang works wonders, and even though it's not quite enough to secure me first place in the internal rankings, it convinces me that the four characters are very different - something that Warner Bros. Montreal's Gotham Knights never quite managed to pull off.

My impressions of Suicide Squad so far have been quite positive, but I also played under optimal conditions with three other people, one of whom could act as team leader and guide the rest of us. My guess is that many people will play the game solo, which Rocksteady has taken into account. In addition to announcing an upcoming offline mode at The Game Awards, Rydby says that there are two unique mechanics that are only available in single player. One is called Combat Flair, which rewards you for a varied play style. The other mechanic is tied to the story and incentivises you to switch between characters. "If you play solo, narratively there will be a tie-in, for example when you recruit Penguin, when you play that mission solo, Boomerang is super psyched up for that mission. He is like, 'Oh, I worked with Penguin before, I can't wait to see him, he's gonna remember me.' And of course Penguin has no recollection of him - poor guy. But still, when you're psyched up your character is more powerful and you earn better rewards."

Perhaps solo play is also a way for players to get a bit of breathing room, for my time with Suicide Squad did at time feel quite hectic. When asked about this, Rydby points to side missions and Riddler Challenges (a series of hidden puzzles that also existed in the Arkham trilogy) as a way for the player to control the pacing. Yet, the one side activity I tried was about blowing up aliens with flying armoured vehicles, and when I stopped at one point to try my hand at a Riddler puzzle, a 30-second timer suddenly started. One of my fellow players had activated a mission, and if you don't get to its marker before time runs out, you'll meet an explosive end thanks to a collar installed by Amanda Waller to control the unruly team. Suicide Squad rarely slows down the pace, which makes me worry about whether it will run out of steam down the line.

The most important point for solo players, however, will probably be the story and atmosphere. When I spoke to other games journalists and content creators, opinions were divided on the quality of the game, but one thing that was common was an enthusiasm for the story. Personally, I don't quite share this impression. Several cutscenes seemed stiff and expository, and it was striking how many times superheroes and/or villains appeared out of nowhere during my limited preview in an attempt to artificially inject some life into the rather dull happenings. Perhaps tellingly, the funniest scene during the preview consists entirely of audio, as our heroes are locked in a dark container and experience several hilarious escapades before escaping.

On the other hand, the interaction between our four mismatched heroes is quite entertaining. Their dialogue elicited more laughs than dismissive snorts (which is a rarity these days) and there seems to be more depth than you might initially expect behind their ironic and slightly psychopathic exteriors. The interaction between the characters is also what game director Rydby emphasises when asked about the story. "When you put that squad together, that's when you get that magic of them being able to play of each other, not only in cutscenes, but also in gameplay. That's what we really liked about making the story. Their interplay is so nice, and it's worth calling out all facial capture we got from our wonderful actors. It's so good. In a lot of scenes no one is really talking, but you can see their reactions, and we couldn't have done that just from a single perspective."

In the end, my four hours with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League left me with almost as many questions as there are Riddler trophies scattered across the massive map. Is the variety good enough in the long run? Does Rocksteady strike the right balance between offline and online play? Does the game's central gameplay loop manage to evolve along the way? I'm fairly optimistic that most answers will be positive, but the biggest question - what the story actually ends with - I dare not predict. Surely, the Suicide Squad can't kill the Justice League, right? But if they do, and especially if they manage to bury Batman himself, it will be quite fitting, because it seems clear that Rocksteady is trying to escape the iconic hero's intimidating shadow with this game. We'll see if they succeed on February 2, when Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League releases for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X and PC.