The writing is seemingly on the wall for Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League, as the ill-fated looter shooter is the subject of a new report on Rocksteady’s alleged inner turmoil. With a lack of clear direction misguiding Kill the Justice League behind the scenes, claims surrounding cut content for an entire vehicle system now make it clear why Gizmo’s cars were one of Suicide Squad’s weakest elements.
Metropolis is a big place in Rocksteady’s latest open world game, and traversing it, while fun, isn’t always a quick endeavor. The appearance of Gizmo’s bombastic vehicles in the game’s side missions gave me hope they’d become part of Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League’s gameplay loop, but as we know, this never came to be. Bloomberg’s new report claims that former Rocksteady co-founder Sefton Hill “pitched an elaborate system of vehicles that would allow players to deck out cars with weapons and navigate through the game’s alien-infested streets.”
However, as the DC Comics-themed co-op game already featured various traversal methods like Deadshot’s Jetpack or Captain Boomerang’s Speed Force gauntlet, Hill’s suggestion was scrapped “after months of experimentation and prototyping, the vehicle system was scrapped.” Kill the Justice League may have plenty of shortfalls, but the lack of this feature feels like an oversight given how Arkham Knight laid the foundations for solid car-based gameplay. With Suicide Squad fully leaning into its multiplayer game premise, a vehicle to roam around in with my fellow squad members would have been an excellent addition to add some kinetic energy to Metropolis’ near-empty streets.
Furthermore, Hill’s strive for perfectionism allegedly “slowed development”, as Rocksteady employees supposedly “waited weeks or months” for their work to be reviewed by Hill. Kill the Justice League is a huge genre leap for Rocksteady, having cut their teeth with primarily action-based single player experiences with the Batman Arkham series. Because of this unfamiliar ground for the studio, the report purports that the Rocksteady co-founder “scrapped big chunks of the script and struggled to convey his evolving ideas […] confessing that he hadn’t spent much time with competing games such as Destiny.”
As a fan of the game (yes, we do exist), it is frustrating to see Suicide Squad’s potential immensely squandered. The bones of a solid superhero shooter are there, with frantic combat, inspired character designs, and best-in-class animations shining bright when the game is at its creative peak. Leaks for future seasonal content like Deathstroke only serve to increase the seemingly inevitable sunsetting of the game, like its main point of comparison – Marvel’s Avengers. The all-but-confirmed return of the Justice League may never happen, despite teases alluding to Batman’s resurrection.
Additional claims from prominent Suicide Squad leaker Ross Miller suggest that Hill was heavily inspired by the narrative arcs of Avengers Infinity War and Endgame. “Rocksteady developers I’ve spoken to characterized themselves as ‘begging’ him to leave more clues regarding the Justice League’s inevitable return to help stymie some of the predictable backlash,” Miller alleges in a recent social media post. So what does all this mean for the game’s future?
With the game clearly falling extremely short of Warner Brothers’ reputedly lofty goal of making Suicide Squad a “billion dollar” franchise, per Bloomberg’s report, reaching Season 4 is all that Kill the Justice League has left. Previous rumors detailed a potential Season 5, which would arrive early 2025, going by the game’s current content cadence.
However, it is more likely that any future seasonal updates will be condensed in size, especially as it is claimed that Rocksteady’s staff is now assisting Avalanche Software on a brand-new Hogwarts Legacy Director’s Cut.
In other gaming news, Concord’s PS Store description sheds light on its exciting game modes, and Xbox exclusive Contraband could face a huge delay going forward.