Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a superhero sport saddled with an uncommon quantity of bags. It might be the follow-up to 2015’s much-loved Batman: Arkham Knight, nevertheless it’s additionally a sport that’s been topic to quite a few delays and considerations over its stay service parts and gameplay decisions. It additionally occurs to be the ultimate DC sport that includes the voice of Kevin Conroy as Batman. Now that the sport is lastly out within the wild, one factor has turn out to be 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 unsuitable, however watch out for full spoilers forward for the brand new Suicide Squad sport!
Preventing the Darkish Knight
First off, to handle the bat-elephant within the room – they killed Kevin Conroy’s Batman off right here, and so they do it in a fairly lame method. We’re going to dig into that in a second, however first let’s speak in regards to the missed alternative of the gameplay itself.
A part of the attraction 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 sneakers. As Batman, we soared by means of 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 sport collection been so profitable in making gamers really feel just like the Darkish Knight himself.
In Suicide Squad, instantly the script is flipped. We’re enjoying because the criminals, and Batman is the enemy. That opens up loads 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 by means of the darkness, understanding that each ledge or perch could be hiding a crazed vigilante ready to kick your face in?
In a greater sport, the Batman boss battle would have performed out like a survival horror mission. It ought to be terrifying going up towards this deranged billionaire and his lethal toys. Superman could also be invulnerable, however not less than he gives a goal to shoot at. Batman is the enemy that may’t be seen till he’s able to carry 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 preventing the Darkish Knight a lot as grappling with the results of Scarecrow’s worry toxin. This face-off has you stumble by means of the darkness and activate a collection of buttons to fabricate extra worry toxin. Alongside the best way, you shoot at a unending collection of Bat-like wraiths and dodge Batman’s explosive gel. It’s repetitive, uninteresting 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 preventing Batman. By no means does it channel the worry of preventing the last word ninja warrior in his prime component.
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 provides Rocksteady’s Batman his closing sendoff that issues actually go unsuitable for Suicide Squad.
The Unhappy Finish of the Arkham Saga
By no means let or not it’s stated that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League doesn’t stay as much as its title. You do certainly kill the Justice League all through the sport, choosing off Earth’s best superhero defenders one after the other earlier than finally confronting Brainiac. Even the mighty Batman is introduced down by Harley Quinn and her staff. Harley accomplishes what her puddin’ by no means did, capturing 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 perhaps that was the entire level. We will virtually respect Suicide Squad reducing by means of 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 consists of sufficient references to the ending of Arkham Knight, the demise of Poison Ivy and the truth that Batman’s secret identification is thought to the world at massive to verify 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 as a way to save his metropolis. Notably 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 could be simpler to understand the black humor within the concept of Batman being gunned down like a standard legal. However the sport goes out of its option 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 means 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 actually not the follow-up we hoped for or anticipated in mild of Arkham Knight’s ambiguous ending. That sport 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 absolutely to his conflict on crime, a la the Batman of The Darkish Knight Returns? And the way do the assorted members of the Bat-family soldier on with out their chief?
There’s much more story that might have been informed 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 a whole bunch, 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 affordable snort.
All of the potential left on the desk with Arkham Knight is wasted for the sake of an affordable snort.
To be honest, there’s at all times an opportunity Rocksteady isn’t fairly completed with Batman. As definitive as his demise scene appears to be, the Batman comics have actually 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 top, providing gamers the chance to search out 12 extra variations of Brainiac by way of DLC campaigns. If a model of Joker is being introduced in as a playable character, who’s to say Batman received’t return as nicely? However will or not 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, not less than it isn’t Conroy’s closing outing because the Darkish Knight. IGN has discovered that Conroy will reprise his Batman: The Animated Sequence function within the animated film Justice League: Disaster on Infinite Earths, Half 3. Optimistically, that film may give 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 assessment in progress.
Jesse is a mild-mannered workers author for IGN. Permit him to lend a machete to your mental thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.