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After a couple of delays and a whole lot of uneasiness, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is about to release. You might be considering preordering it. Whether the characters appeal to you, you like DC Comics, or you have fond memories of the Batman: Arkham games, you might be tempted to fork over your well-earned dollar for preorder skins and some early access. But, there have been too many red flags to justify gamers paying for the game to play it this week. Regardless of the reason, you shouldn’t preorder Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the upcoming title by Rocksteady Studios.
Why You Shouldn’t Preorder Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Firstly, you don’t need to preorder any game. Always wait for The Nerd Stash review (shameless plug)! But in all seriousness, you absolutely won’t need to preorder this one. It’s a licensed game, so your local store isn’t likely to run out of physical copies. If you want to preorder digitally, all you’ll be getting for Suicide Squad are some costumes for the four main characters. If you get the Deluxe Edition you’ll get to play the game 72 hours earlier than everybody else, with snazzier costumes.
That 72 hours has already started. But, people can’t play the title because the live-service game has proven buggy on arrival, and it’s down for maintenance after players had “full story completion” after logging in. Suicide Squad being a live-service title might be the biggest reason not to preorder the game, while simultaneously being one of the reasons you might want to. It isn’t uncommon for a live-service title to be buggy at launch like Anthem or Marvel’s Avengers. So, if you’re willing to wait a few months you might end up with a more pleasurable experience.
However, with each passing week, live service games are being taken offline and/or delisted. So, even though Rocksteady Studios might have several future content drops planned, who knows how long it will end up lasting? We could be talking about Suicide Squad being delisted within the next couple of years. So, it’s understandable if you want a copy of it before it disappears, but even then you could wait a month and still have it for yourself.
The Review Situation
Ordinarily, if you’re waiting to see if the game is for you, you could wait until reviews and then make your decision. But, it seems that most sites – including ours – aren’t getting early codes of the game until it releases, if at all. So, we won’t know if it launches as a buggy mess, if the story falls apart in the third act, or if the final gameplay is bland and repetitive, until after the early access period. Of course, if you’re willing to pay extra for the Deluxe Edition, you can take the risk and try it for yourself.
It’s also worth noting that Warner Bros. Games has announced that there will be Twitch Drops for the title. So, instead of giving codes to reviewers, WB Games could be passing along codes to streamers to promote the title when the game comes out later this week. You’ll probably find out what your favorite streamer thinks of Suicide Squad far sooner than your favorite reviewer. It’ll be up to you to trust in those opinions as streamers are regularly paid to play titles on stream.
Even though sites weren’t given early copies of Suicide Squad, there was a preview cycle, and players were able to sign up for the Closed Alpha which consisted of the first two chapters of the game. The Closed Alpha was under an NDA until earlier this month, so let’s talk about what I played and why you might not want to preorder Suicide Squad. The four characters you play as all feel distinct, with Harley, King Shark, Deadshot, and Captain Boomerang moving around the open-world Metropolis differently. Yet, they all feel clunky and not that much fun to play.
The Gameplay
The opening has the player going from area to area taking out Brainiac’s mindless drones. Comparing the gunplay, each character feels too similar as you take out the bullet sponge enemies one after the other. Yet, despite those negatives, the character interactions and the cutscenes are well done. Suicide Squad’s opening is written well, and that is a great sign for the rest of the title. However, those moments take place in cutscenes or in diorama-like interactable locations that force you to pay attention. Stopping the action is fine when the gameplay is a reward to go back to, but that isn’t the case here.
So, if the game itself isn’t fun, is Suicide Squad worth preordering? Fun can be subjective, but I wasn’t having fun anytime I was tasked to journey through Metropolis or attack the meaningless waves of enemies. Based on my experience with the Closed Alpha, the game shines in the cutscenes and performances. If you liked the Batman: Arkham games and don’t want the story in this one spoiled for you, by all means, pick it up on day one. But, if gameplay is an important part of why you tend to enjoy gaming then wait until it goes on sale.
There have been more than enough red flags for anyone looking to enjoy a quality superhero title to give this one a pass. Or at least not to preorder it. If we keep preordering titles that sell broken early access with some subpar gameplay, won’t that just encourage publishers to keep pushing the bar on what they can offer the average gamer? Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League releases on February 2, 2024. Will you be preordering it?
