Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Season 1 review: The jokes on Rocksteady

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s first season has launched, bringing in plenty of new content and a host of new issues.

The game launched in early February to mixed reviews. Many cited it’s abundant bugs and controversial story as reasons not to play it.

But, people like myself pushed through the complaints and were met with great characters and fun game play.

However, the issues out weighed the good in many ways. Progression after the story was locked for many players, including myself. This issue was fixed last week, over six weeks after the games launch.

Going into the new season, many were excited. Rocksteady announced a road map for the changes coming to the game. A new character, new weapons, new gear and new places to zip around.

On the day of the update, the game was pulled and became unplayable as Rocksteady worked on “Maintenance”. This lasted more than eight hours. Not a great look to start off.

When the maintenance finally ended, many players were locked out as the servers couldn’t handle the amount of people trying to join all at once.

“That ain’t the Joker, that’s the Giggler”

Image credit: gamerant.com

Getting into the game after over nine hours of waiting, players are met with a stylised comicbook-esque cut scene introducing this version of the Joker and how he fits into this universe. It’s fun and works well with the tone set in the main game.

Once game finally becomes playable, players aren’t given immediate access to the Jokers, instead you have to level up the new battle pass! You must reach level thirty five before fighting Brainiac to obtain the Joker.

But, since Warner Brothers is dying to make as much money as possible from this game. You can unlock him early, if you fork over seven pounds.

Locking content like new characters, behind either a pay wall or an artificially long grind isn’t anything new for the current gaming landscape. Overwatch 2 was known for incorporating this practice until very recently.

The issue stems from this game being full price, not free to play and Rocksteady’s false promise that the only micro transactions would be cosmetics.

After suffering through the gruelling task that is levelling up the battle pass thirty five times, players are able to earn the Joker. There’s just one catch, you have to fight Green Lantern but he’s Brainiac.

It’s almost the exact same fight that happens in the story but Green Lantern is slightly purple this time round. Its lazy and doesn’t add anything except another roadblock in the way of earning the Joker.

Once the fight is over, players are given a short cut scene and the Joker as a new playable character. There’s no story content or anything new after this.

This is quiet frankly disappointing as in the announcement video for the Joker, it showed a number of cut scenes that were not present in the game.

“That ain’t the Joker, that’s the Prankster”

Image credit: gameinformer.com

The online discourse surrounding this games interpretation of the Joker has been hilarious.

Much of the criticism comes from the Batman: Arkham fans. The Arkham games had an almost perfect version of the Joker and, as this game follows those games, many expected the same Joker.

This Joker is from another world and is far younger than his Arkham counterpart. Taking on a jester persona, rather than the typical clown crime lord fans were used to.

His design and story fits in well with the tone the game has set, however he doesn’t hold a candle to Arkham Joker.

He plays like a combination of other squad members. He has Harley’s ability to stay in the air for long periods of time, whilst having other aerial abilities similar to Deadshot, allowing the Joker to rapidly traverse the sky with his umbrella.

When it comes to combat he uses; shotguns, pistol and assault rifles.

He is chaotic and unpredictable to play, flying and floating around reining bombs and bullets as he goes. It’s a lot of fun but he doesn’t bring enough changes to make him stand out against the rest of the squad.

“That ain’t the Joker, that’s the Trickster”

Image credit: Screenrant.com

Overall, the first season of Suicide Squad doesn’t bring enough new content to keep the player base satisfied.

The new guns, gear and equipment is great but the lack of new missions or a short story, prevents the game from reaching the heights it is capable of.

As someone who really enjoys the game, I was disappointed and expected more. With frequent updates and better community support, the game can succeed, only time will tell if Rocksteady listens to the criticism.

Featured image credit: screenrant.com