The Game Awards have now come and gone, leaving gamers with a series of exciting updates and world premieres for the games of the future.Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguemade up one of the many showings during the event, and this time around, the team at Rocksteady finally gave a taste of what gameplay will look like in the highly anticipated title. While fans have been waiting a long time for a preview ofSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s gameplay, the newest trailer sure didn’t disappoint with its extensive look at how each member of Task Force X will function.
Looking at the team-based action inSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, it brings to mind another team-based comic book game that has had its own struggles with some mechanics.Marvel’s Avengers, while not as colorfully loud asSuicide Squad, has the same basic premise of getting multiple comic characters together to take out bad guys. WhereSuicide Squadalready seems to excel, however, is in its movement systems, an area whichMarvel’s Avengershas struggled with since launch. ConsideringSuicide Squadstill doesn’t have a solid release date, it’s worth looking at how it already fixesone ofAvengers' biggest problems.
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One of the many issues withMarvel’s Avengershas beenhow it characterizes Marvel’s biggest heroes. While things like the characters' physical appearances have been poured over more than enough times, there is also a certain shortcoming in how each hero moves. While there is some personality in characters like Kamala Khan or the Hulk, Captain America and Hawkeye seem generic by comparison. Running and jumping animations can be rather forgettable, and they often don’t convey the sense of personality behind many of the game’s heroes.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s movement is in stark contrast toMarvel’s Avengers, as it seems conveying personality through movement was at the top of the game’s list. In almost everything each member of Task Force X does, there is a reflection of their unique proclivities and comic history. From Harley Quinn’s headfirst dive off of buildings, toKing Shark’s beastly charge towards enemies, all of it combines to make each character feel unique from one another. Gamers will be able to fully embody whoever they play, instead of going between varying Avengers with one unique weapon and a different coat of paint.
At the center ofMarvel’s Avengers' movement issues is how the game is laid out to begin with. Much of its levels are made up of either closed environments, or natural areas that are only made up of forests or generally rocky terrain. As a result, there isn’t much verticality to the overall game, and getting from point A to point B doesn’t take much effort other than moving a hero forward. If it couldn’t get worse, whenAvengersdoes try to add some speed or verticality to its movement, like with theSpider-Man DLC, the systems in place have no sense of momentum and just feel clunky.
As far asSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leagueis concerned, it already seems like it has figured out a clear sense of speed and verticality to its movement. The setting of Metropolis is a great help towards accomplishing this, as the tight city blocks allow characters like Deadshot to scale buildings quickly with his jetpack, and weave through alleyways to take outBrainiac’s minions. Each ofSuicide Squad’s characters seem built around fluid, responsive movement, built to perfectly suit the dense environment that Rocksteady has created.
While the combat inMarvel’s Avengerscan be satisfying, there is often a clear disconnect between the game’s movement and combat mechanics. Aside from the run of the mill sprint attack, much of the game’s fighting consists of players running up to enemies and beating on them till their health drops to zero. There’s a real lack of fluidity compared to other Marvel games likeInsomniac’sSpider-Manfranchise, and it leaves little room for players to mix up gameplay by combining dynamic movement with overall combat.
When it comes toSuicide Squad’s immediate combat impressions, it seems that players will never stop moving when in any given fight. Rocksteady seems to have taken a clear approach towards making the traversal work hand in hand with combat to ensure every scenario is as engaging as possible.Captain Boomerangin particular seems like a character that is meant to speed around combat arenas using a variety of teleports and slides, allowing players to chain together unique moves with their attacks. With such a wide range of combat and traversal possibilities, it seems players would be hard pressed to run out of new ways to play.
After so much time spent under wraps,Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguehas truly impressed with its first gameplay trailer. All of the dynamic action that Rocksteady is known for can be seen throughout, and there is a clear sense of the frenetic action that the game is going for.Marvel’s Avengershas certainly been a cautionary tale for many games within the greater industry, and when it comes to creating engaging traversal, it seems thatSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguehas thoroughly learned from that lesson.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguereleases in 2022 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
