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Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a superhero recreation saddled with an uncommon quantity of bags. 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 components and gameplay decisions. 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 change 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 flawed, 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, 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 concerning 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 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 sequence been so profitable in making gamers really feel just like the Darkish Knight himself.
In Suicide Squad, out of the blue the script is flipped. We’re taking part in because the criminals, and Batman is the enemy. That opens up quite a lot of potential for the sport’s inevitable Batman boss battle. What’s it prefer to be on the receiving finish of the Caped Crusader’s wrath? What’s it prefer to stumble via the darkness, figuring out that each ledge or perch is perhaps 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 needs to be terrifying going up towards this deranged billionaire and his lethal toys. Superman could also be invulnerable, however at the least he gives a goal to shoot at. Batman is the enemy that may’t be seen till he’s able to deliver the ache.
The sport’s two Batman encounters are nothing greater than tedious, poorly lit impediment programs.
However quite than being a nerve-wracking lesson in what it’s prefer 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 via the darkness and activate a sequence of buttons to fabricate extra worry toxin. Alongside the way in which, you shoot at a endless sequence of Bat-like wraiths and dodge Batman’s explosive gel. It’s repetitive, boring and something however the thrilling motion sequence we’d 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 really 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 great Batman boss battle is one factor, however the actual downside begins after the battle is over. It’s how the sport offers Rocksteady’s Batman his closing sendoff that issues actually go flawed for Suicide Squad.
The Unhappy Finish of the Arkham Saga
By no means let or not it’s mentioned that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League doesn’t dwell as much as its identify. 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 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 are able to virtually respect Suicide Squad reducing via the mystique and killing off Batman in such an unceremonious vogue.
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 loss of life of Poison Ivy and the truth that Batman’s secret id is thought to the world at giant 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 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 provide the definitive incarnation of Batman.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League exhibits no regard for the legacy of the Arkham video games. It could be one factor if the sport have been set in its personal, self-contained universe. Then, it is perhaps 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 solution 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 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 absolutely to his warfare 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 instructed 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 part 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 tons of, of hours taking part in as is handled as little greater than a disposable plot gadget. All of the potential left on the desk with Arkham Knight is wasted for the sake of an inexpensive snort.
All of the potential left on the desk with Arkham Knight is wasted for the sake of an inexpensive snort.
To be honest, there’s at all times an opportunity Rocksteady isn’t fairly accomplished with Batman. As definitive as his loss of life 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 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 effectively? 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, at the least it isn’t Conroy’s closing outing because the Darkish Knight. IGN has discovered that Conroy will reprise his Batman: The Animated Collection function within the animated film Justice League: Disaster on Infinite Earths, Half 3. With a bit of luck, that film may give Conroy’s Batman the sendoff he deserves. Arkham followers aren’t so fortunate, sadly.
For extra on the sport, take a look at IGN’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League overview 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.
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