Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a superhero recreation saddled with an uncommon quantity of luggage. It could be the follow-up to 2015’s much-loved Batman: Arkham Knight, but it surely’s additionally a recreation that’s been topic to quite a few delays and considerations over its dwell service parts and gameplay selections. It additionally occurs to be the ultimate DC recreation that includes the voice of Kevin Conroy as Batman. Now that the sport is lastly out within the wild, one factor has turn into abundantly clear This isn’t the sendoff Rocksteady’s Darkish Knight deserved.
Why does Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League miss the mark the place Batman is anxious? Let’s take a deep dive into the place the sport goes so incorrect, however watch out for full spoilers forward for the brand new Suicide Squad recreation!
Preventing the Darkish Knight
First off, to handle the bat-elephant within the room – they killed Kevin Conroy’s Batman off right here, they usually do it in a reasonably lame method. We’re going to dig into that in a second, however first let’s discuss in regards to the missed alternative of the gameplay itself.
A part of the enchantment with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is that it promised to flip the script the place Batman is anxious. Rocksteady’s earlier DC video games put gamers squarely in Batman’s armored footwear. As Batman, we soared via the skies of Gotham Metropolis, stalked criminals throughout alleyways and rooftops and unleashed Batman’s full arsenal of devices and weapons. By no means earlier than has a recreation collection been so profitable in making gamers really feel just like the Darkish Knight himself.
In Suicide Squad, all of a sudden the script is flipped. We’re enjoying because the criminals, and Batman is the enemy. That opens up a whole lot of potential for the sport’s inevitable Batman boss battle. What’s it wish to be on the receiving finish of the Caped Crusader’s wrath? What’s it wish to stumble via the darkness, understanding that each ledge or perch is likely to be hiding a crazed vigilante ready to kick your face in?
In a greater recreation, the Batman boss battle would have performed out like a survival horror mission. It ought to be terrifying going up in opposition to this deranged billionaire and his lethal toys. Superman could also be invulnerable, however at the very least he gives a goal to shoot at. Batman is the enemy that may’t be seen till he’s able to convey the ache.
The sport’s two Batman encounters are nothing greater than tedious, poorly lit impediment programs.
However relatively than being a nerve-wracking lesson in what it’s wish to be Batman’s prey, the sport’s two Batman encounters are nothing greater than tedious, poorly lit impediment programs. When it comes time for the precise Batman boss battle, you aren’t combating the Darkish Knight a lot as grappling with the results of Scarecrow’s worry toxin. This face-off has you stumble via the darkness and activate a collection of buttons to fabricate extra worry toxin. Alongside the way in which, you shoot at a unending collection of Bat-like wraiths and dodge Batman’s explosive gel. It’s repetitive, boring and something however the thrilling motion sequence we might have anticipated.
This boss battle does lastly culminate in an precise battle, however hardly one worthy of the Darkish Knight. The Squad merely jumps and shoots at an outsized Batman monster in a scene that looks like a riff on one of many nightmare sequences from the unique Arkham Asylum. After which it’s throughout. By no means does the sport truly faucet into the joys of combating Batman. By no means does it channel the worry of combating the last word ninja warrior in his prime ingredient.
After all, squandering the chance for a superb Batman boss battle is one factor, however the actual downside begins after the combat is over. It’s how the sport offers Rocksteady’s Batman his closing sendoff that issues actually go incorrect for Suicide Squad.
The Unhappy Finish of the Arkham Saga
By no means let it’s stated that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League doesn’t dwell as much as its title. You do certainly kill the Justice League all through the sport, choosing off Earth’s biggest superhero defenders one after the other earlier than finally confronting Brainiac. Even the mighty Batman is introduced down by Harley Quinn and her crew. Harley accomplishes what her puddin’ by no means did, taking pictures Bats level clean within the head and luring Superman into the open.
It’s a surprisingly ignominious finish for a personality as beloved as Batman. And possibly that was the entire level. We will virtually respect Suicide Squad chopping via the mystique and killing off Batman in such an unceremonious style.
However the issue is that this isn’t simply any model of Batman; it’s the Batman from Rocksteady’s Arkham video games. Suicide Squad is technically a sequel to 2015’s Arkham Knight. The sport contains sufficient references to the ending of Arkham Knight, the demise of Poison Ivy and the truth that Batman’s secret id is understood to the world at massive to substantiate the connection.
It is a model of the character followers have bonded with over the course of a number of lengthy adventures. The Arkham trilogy showcases three of the worst nights of Batman’s lengthy profession, nights the place he pushes himself to his bodily and psychological limits with a view to save his metropolis. Significantly in Arkham Knight, Batman is damaged right down to his core and emerges the opposite aspect stronger and extra resilient than ever. For some, these video games supply the definitive incarnation of Batman.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League exhibits no regard for the legacy of the Arkham video games. It will be one factor if the sport have been set in its personal, self-contained universe. Then, it is likely to be simpler to understand the black humor within the thought of Batman being gunned down like a standard prison. However the recreation goes out of its method to set up its place within the Arkham canon. It transforms that Batman right into a brainwashed killer, cheapening the reminiscence of a hero who goes out of his manner within the Arkham video games to by no means take a life, even Joker’s. This isn’t the ending Rocksteady’s Batman deserved.
It’s definitely not the follow-up we hoped for or anticipated in mild of Arkham Knight’s ambiguous ending. That recreation concludes with Batman activating the Knightfall protocols and destroying his life as Bruce Wayne. What turns into of him after that time? Does he attempt to discover happiness in anonymity, like Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne in The Darkish Knight Rises? Does he commit himself totally to his struggle on crime, a la the Batman of The Darkish Knight Returns? And the way do the varied members of the Bat-family soldier on with out their chief?
There’s much more story that might have been advised with this model of the Batman character. However Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League settles for probably the most boring reply. It seems that Batman continues to be Batman, even after every thing that occurred in Arkham Knight. He’s simply hanging out with the Justice League till he turns into a pawn of Brainiac. The hero players have spent dozens, if not lots of, of hours enjoying as is handled as little greater than a disposable plot system. All of the potential left on the desk with Arkham Knight is wasted for the sake of an inexpensive snigger.
All of the potential left on the desk with Arkham Knight is wasted for the sake of an inexpensive snigger.
To be truthful, there’s all the time an opportunity Rocksteady isn’t fairly carried out with Batman. As definitive as his demise scene appears to be, the Batman comics have definitely discovered outlandish methods of bringing lifeless characters again into the fold. There’s additionally the truth that the sport dabbles within the DC multiverse by the tip, providing gamers the chance to seek out 12 extra variations of Brainiac through DLC campaigns. If a model of Joker is being introduced in as a playable character, who’s to say Batman received’t return as effectively? However will it’s the identical Batman? And can he nonetheless be voiced by Kevin Conroy? If not, does Batman’s return even matter?
The silver lining right here is that whereas Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a poor sendoff for Rocksteady’s Batman, at the very least it isn’t Conroy’s closing outing because the Darkish Knight. IGN has realized that Conroy will reprise his Batman: The Animated Sequence position within the animated film Justice League: Disaster on Infinite Earths, Half 3. Optimistically, that film can provide Conroy’s Batman the sendoff he deserves. Arkham followers aren’t so fortunate, sadly.
For extra on the sport, try IGN’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League evaluation in progress.
Jesse is a mild-mannered employees author for IGN. Permit him to lend a machete to your mental thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.