Rocksteady Studios used to be the gold standard. When they dropped the Arkham trilogy, they didn't just make good superhero games; they redefined how third-person combat felt across the entire industry. So, when everyone finally got their hands on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the collective "huh?" from the gaming community was loud. It wasn't just a shift in tone. It was a complete DNA transplant. We went from the moody, tactile shadows of Gotham to a bright, neon-soaked Metropolis where everyone has a jetpack and a submachine gun.
Honestly, the fallout was messy.
Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels eventually admitted during an earnings call that the game had "fallen short of our expectations." That's corporate-speak for a massive financial headache. But if you look past the stock prices and the live-service controversy, there’s a much weirder, more interesting game buried under the loot drops. It’s a story about a studio trying to outrun its own legacy while handcuffed to a business model that was already starting to sour by the time the game launched in early 2024.
The Metropolis Problem: Why Kill the Justice League felt so different
If you played Arkham Knight, you remember the weight of Batman. Every punch felt like it had physics behind it. In Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, that weight is gone. Instead, you have King Shark—a literal demigod—using a combat shotgun because the game needs you to engage with its "looter-shooter" mechanics. It’s a jarring shift. You’re playing as villains who are supposed to be scrappy underdogs, yet they’re all flying around like Iron Man clones.
The narrative is actually the strongest part, which makes the gameplay loop even more frustrating. Writing-wise, Rocksteady still has the magic. The banter between Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark is genuinely funny. It’s mean-spirited in the way a Suicide Squad story should be. But then the cutscene ends, and you’re back to shooting purple weak points on a generic alien tank.
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People expected a successor to Arkham. What they got was something closer to Destiny 2 or The Division, but with a DC coat of paint. It’s not that the shooting is bad—it’s actually quite fluid—but it feels anonymous.
Realities of the Live Service Grind
The game was designed to keep you coming back forever. That’s the "Live Service" trap. You have seasons, battle passes, and incremental stat increases on your gear.
- Season 1 introduced an alternate-universe Joker.
- Season 2 brought in Mrs. Freeze.
- Post-launch content has been... divisive, to put it lightly.
The problem is that the "endgame" content largely consists of repeating the same few mission types in slightly different environments. For a studio known for handcrafted, meticulous level design, this felt like a step backward. Players noticed. SteamDB charts showed player counts dropping faster than many expected, often dipping below the numbers of the decade-old Arkham games. It's a tough pill to swallow when your shiny new $70 game is being outperformed by its grandfather.
What happened to the Rocksteady "Magic"?
There is a theory among fans that the Rocksteady we knew left the building years ago. While it’s true that co-founders Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker departed the studio to form Hundred Star Games, they were present for most of the development of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. This wasn't a case of a new team ruining an old one's work. It was a conscious decision to chase a trend.
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The industry moved.
When development started, "Games as a Service" (GaaS) was the holy grail of publishing. Every executive wanted their own Fortnite. By the time the game actually came out, players were exhausted. We call it "Live Service Fatigue." You only have so many hours in a week, and you can't commit to three different games that all want to be your second job. Rocksteady found themselves launching a marathon-style game into a market that just wanted a brisk walk.
The controversy of killing icons
Let's talk about the title. You actually do it. You Kill the Justice League. Seeing Batman, voiced by the late, legendary Kevin Conroy in his final performance, treated the way he is in this game... it stung for a lot of people. It felt disrespectful to some. To others, it was a bold narrative choice that finally gave the "bad guys" a win.
There is a specific scene on a park bench involving Batman that sparked weeks of discourse on X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit. It was brutal. It was controversial. But honestly? It was the most "Suicide Squad" thing in the whole game. The problem wasn't the story beat itself; it was that the game didn't always earn the emotional weight required to pull off killing a god.
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Is it worth playing now?
Surprisingly, yeah. If you can catch it on a deep sale.
Once you strip away the expectation of it being Arkham 4, there is a decent 10-to-12-hour campaign here. The facial animations are some of the best in the business. Seriously, the way the characters express fear or sarcasm is top-tier tech. If you treat it as a weekend rental rather than a lifestyle hobby, the sting of the microtransactions fades away.
But the future is murky. Warner Bros. has signaled a pivot back to "core" experiences, but they also mentioned doubling down on mobile and free-to-play. It’s a confusing time for DC fans. We have Hogwarts Legacy proving that massive, single-player, microtransaction-light games make billions, and then we have the Suicide Squad struggle.
Actionable steps for the frustrated DC fan
If you're looking at Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and wondering where to go from here, don't just stare at the Steam "Negative" reviews. There are ways to engage with this world without feeling burned.
- Play the campaign, ignore the grind: Focus strictly on the story missions. The cinematic quality is genuinely high, and the voice acting is superb. Once the credits roll, feel free to uninstall. You don't need those legendary grenades.
- Revisit the Arkham Collection: If the combat in Metropolis feels too floaty, go back to Arkham Asylum. It’s a reminder of how tight level design can change everything.
- Watch the "Elseworlds" updates: Rocksteady is still technically supporting the game with seasonal content. You don't have to play it to see the new lore; plenty of creators archive the cutscenes on YouTube.
- Adjust your settings: If you do play, turn off the cluttered UI. The game puts way too many numbers and icons on the screen by default. Stripping it down makes it feel significantly more like a "real" game and less like a spreadsheet.
The legacy of this title won't be the gameplay. It will be the lesson it taught the industry: even the best developers in the world can't force a "service" model onto a story-driven fan base without friction. It’s a gorgeous, well-written, fundamentally confused piece of media that marks the end of an era for Rocksteady. Whether they can pivot back to the shadows remains to be seen.