Nearly nine years after Batman: Arkham Knight, Rocksteady Studios and the Arkhamverse have finally returned with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, a multiplayer loot shooter starring Deadshot (Bumper Robinson), Harley Quinn (Tara Strong), Captain Boomerang (Daniel Lapaine), and King Shark (Samoa Joe). Set five years after the final Arkham game, it sees Amanda Waller (Debra Wilson) order Task Force X to liberate Metropolis from Brainiac (Jason Isaacs), who has brainwashed most of the Justice League — Batman (Kevin Conroy), Superman (Nolan North), Wonder Woman (Zehra Fazal), Green Lantern (Dan White) and the Flash (Scott Porter) — into doing his bidding.
It’s been a long and controversial road, with all the usual criticisms of these types of live-service games, how they play, and how they’re monetized, as well as a general dissatisfaction over the direction the Arkhamverse has been taken in, which turned into outright hostility as more and more of the game was revealed and leaked. The idea of using the Suicide Squad to explore the wider DC Universe was an understandble one, even if I would’ve personally preferred it if Rocksteady had made a Superman game, and for Gotham Knights to have been part of the Arkhamverse. Anyway, let’s unpack it all, shall we? Spoilers…

1. Oh my God, They Really Did It… or Did They?
So when the game was announced, here’s how I expected events to unfold: TFX would struggle to kill the League, until Batman would reveal himself as not having died at the end of Arkham Knight, and help them contain or break the brainwashing on his former teammates. Barry Allen and the Green Lantern would be killed or sacrifice themselves, because there’s always more GLs and Flashes, while Wonder Woman and Superman would live to redeem themselves, and essentially act as air support in the final battle. Batman’s supporting cast, particularly Red Hood, would also show up to help save the day.
That’s not what happens at all.
By the end of the game, all of the League are dead, shot to death with the help of TFX’s allies, except Diana (the only one not possessed), who goes out trying to subdue Clark with kryptonite, only to discover Brainiac has enhanced him to the point the good ol’ green variety doesn’t work anymore. It’s a really bleak and nihilistic story, and as if 99 percent of Metropolis getting turned into Brainiac’s army wasn’t enough, Tim Drake is apparently murdered by his mentor offscreen. What’s weird is how funny the game actually is — I frequently cracked a smile at King Shark and Captain Boomerang’s dialogue — which made the shock and disbelief that sank in even worse: was this really how Rocksteady decided to continue their universe?
But then I started to think about it: Brainiac is revealed to be in cahoots with 12 other versions of himself, staging a conquest of the whole multiverse. This means variants of the League could replace the ones we lost over the course of the four seasons of DLC we’re going to get, something the game does with Lex Luthor (Corey Burton) at launch: he’s murdered by Flash early on, only to be replaced by his Earth-2 counterpart after the Squad accidentally makes their way there. A significant part early on also involves Poison Ivy (Darcy Rose Byrnes) pulling a Baby Groot after her demise in Arkham Knight; heck, remember the Joker/Clayface twist in Arkham City? Or how Rocksteady made us believe Barbara Gordon had killed herself for most of Knight? So don’t be surprised if the League are all back from the dead, or turn out to still be alive within a year.
2. But There is Salt in the Wound
Regardless of whether the League come back via alternate universes, time travel, or the “it was a clone all along!” gambit, it still stings one of the last times we’ll ever hear Kevin Conroy is during the scene Harley Quinn point-blank executes his Batman to lure out Superman. During development, I had hoped Conroy’s fellow DCAU stars — Tim Daly or George Newbern, Susan Eisenberg, Phil LaMarr, Michael Rosenbaum, Clancy Brown, CCH Pounder, and Dana Delany — would reprise their roles with him, and while it would’ve been pretty thankless work, it would’ve made the bitter medicine go down better knowing they all got pulled into it – say what you will about what about he had to perform, but Conroy seemed to have really enjoyed playing an evil Batman, luxuriating in every syllable of directing Brainiac’s forces, and taunting the Squad.
Continued belowAnd that speaks to the problem of a live-service game, where you’ve essentially dropped half the story in the hope you’ll sell enough copies, battle passes and cosmetics to finish it in an episodic series of DLC. I’m sure Conroy loved the idea of shocking fans with Batman finally breaking bad and getting killed before returning from the dead, but did he even record his dialogue far enough in advance for the latter part? Rocksteady were already playing with fire having Arkham’s version of Bruce apparently die like this, now they’re dealing with the backlash over Conroy’s time with the character ending on such an unpleasant note – and I’m not sure that’s something you can come back from, even if you cast another actor to guarantee a happy ending for his interpretation of the part.
3. Is it Fun to Play at Least? Er…
When Rocksteady announced the game, they described it as “classic Arkham gameplay with guns.” Which is funny, because unlike those games, melee is restricted to one button: it really is a shooter, first and foremost, to the point some melee weapons (annoyingly) have a cooldown. 95 percent of the time you’ll be shooting bad guys, occasionally interacting with a button or having to shoot an object, but it’s still a gunplay game where you jump around a lot, no matter who you’re playing as: it’s no wonder the Riddler (Wally Wingert)’s side activities were brought back from the previous games, because they offer the only gameplay variety in the deserted open-world Metropolis.
I admit, it’s not bad, even though I’m not a shooter fan, and the traversal is fun once you get the hang of it, although it also sadly involves a cooldown mechanic. (Except Harley’s, which is overly complicated.) But it’s disappointing all there is to the mission design is whether Brainiac’s goons can only be damaged by using vehicles, harvesting shields, countering their moves, and so on: it’s a game designed for you to kick back and half-concentrate on while chatting with friends on your headset. It’s as if Arkham Knight had a sequel that cut out all the stealth and melee, while doubling down on the Batmobile, which was the single weakest part of the that game: if you’re not into shooters or have no one to play with, then this is the absolute definition of a game you could just watch the cutscenes from on YouTube.
4. Why Brainiac?
Despite a delicious performance from voice actor Jason Isaacs, the Arkhamverse’s Brainiac proves to be lackluster: you don’t hear from him until after the League’s demise, in stark contrast to Joker and Scarecrow’s constant presence in the previous games, and when it comes to his backstory, design and powers, he’s incredibly nebulous: is he 13 Brainiacs united by a single cause? Or one who is many? If so, why can’t he make more bodies? He could’ve been any old alien warlord: conquering the multiverse? Terraforming Earth? Turning Superman evil? Assimilating humans into an army of monsters who worship him like a god? Who are you, and what have you done with the Collector of Worlds?

It’s very likely Brainiac — who somehow still hasn’t appeared on the big screen — was chosen as the villain because Zack Snyder earmarked Darkseid for the role of big bad in the DC Extended Universe, when Rocksteady was in early development on the game. (Oddly enough, I felt Snyder was rushing things using the New Gods of Apokolips as his Justice League villains instead of Brainiac.) The endgame feels very cynical as a result, because instead of designing new (no pun intended) boss battles for the DLC, they can just have Brainiacs who use the powers of Flash, Batman, Green Lantern and/or Superman, even though you can replay the fights with them in the main menu (sigh: good thing the DLC’s gonna be free.)
5. Aquaman Drowned on the Way Back to Atlantis
I thought Snyder’s JL was small, but the quintet here really are the bare minimum before you have to rename them the Fantastic Four. King Shark brings up Aquaman, and there’s at least two instances of Black Manta graffiti, so it’s really strange that he and other beloved longtime members like Green Arrow aren’t involved. I imagine it came down to budgetary issues, namely having four playable characters, and four boss designs (Flash/Brainiac with Flash’s DNA, Green Lantern, Batman and Superman.) I couldn’t help but wonder if the DLC will feature a Brainiac using the DNA of other heroes from their universes, but if the game flops, then forget about it: they will just continue to rely on reusing old assets.
Bonus Thoughts:
– The slow-mo freeze frames at the start were a genuinely clever way to emulate the movement of a comic.
– The post-credits scene, where Lois Lane (Seychelle Gabriel) gives a meta eulogy for Bruce and Conroy, is lovely, but it is odd we’re not seeing her tribute to the whole League, or the World’s Greatest Superhero (and her boyfriend.)
– While the audio files do an intriguing job of suggesting why Deadshot had a white impostor in the previous games, the game makes no such attempt at reconciling with the animated movie Batman: Assault on Arkham, rendering it completely non-canon.
– It’s amusing Corey Burton voices Lex Luthor, given he was the DCAU’s Brainiac. Speaking of Lex, the Earth-2 version’s cheekbones, coupled with Burton’s voice, resembles the Hitman franchise’s Agent 47 so much it’s no wonder some outlets misreported David Bateson (47’s voice) played the part.
– Wonder Woman actually comes across worst in the game, because her uncharacteristically terse and condescending attitude towards the Squad is not the result of being possessed by Brainiac. It’s a shame, because from the recordings of everyone else, the writers largely nailed the League: heck, even Evil Superman is as much of a cornball as his regular old self.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has fantastic dialogue, acting and animation. There are numerous Captain Boomerang moments that will live rent-free in my head, and Samoa Joe’s wholesome, erudite King Shark is my favorite version of the character yet – I just wish they starred in something with compelling gameplay or a complete story. Now, while it has been thoroughly debunked that Rocksteady ever pitched a Superman game, this project does feel like a product of overthinking that idea, something YouTuber Troyoboyo17 does a great job of dismantling here:
I mean, Wonder Woman is just as powerful as Superman, and Monolith are developing a game starring her. In a world where James Gunn has moved onto Superman and Supergirl movies, while relegating the Squad to Max, this game feels even more outdated than it already does. Do you know what the kicker to all this was? Remembering the Injustice games also had the multiverse, DCAU cast members, Evil Superman, and Brainiac. And like that series, I’ll probably watch someone else play Suicide Squad’s DLC online – I am literally and figuratively tired of Rocksteady’s games.