Rocksteady Studios was all set to reveal more about Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League at Sony’s February 2023 State of Play, a game that was still shrouded in mystery despite only being three months from release. The team came through like it promised and ended up explaining its story and showing off quite a bit of gameplay.
The stream broke down each hero. Harley Quinn is the most acrobatic, as she can swing and continually keep her momentum going with her Spider-Man-like grappling hook. Deadshot can hover around with his jetpack and uses sniper rifles, assault rifles, and pistols to “fit the fantasy” of the character. King Shark is a brutish tank that take more damage and has the fastest melee attacks. Captain Boomerang has speed force gauntlets that allow him to zip around, which works with his boomerang and lets him move around quickly. Players are meant to use the movement in tandem with the combat in order to always be moving around while killing. A lot of this is shown in the above gameplay video, but explained in the developer diary below.
There are also different types of gear and weapons (shotguns, miniguns, pistols, assault rifles, SMGs, and sniper rifles) and RPG and gear score systems, which all confirms the live service elements that were previously hinted at. The gear sets are also themed around villains, and the example given was the Bane set that gives players buffs inspired by the big brute. Weapons even have different manufacturers that likely alter how they play.
Players can earn all sorts of gear and constantly upgrade them. A higher gear score means users can tackle harder missions. These more challenging missions are likely built more around co-op, as every mission supports up to four people, but they can all be played solo, as well. Bots will sub in for the other three heroes, but solo users can swap between them. However, it wasn’t clear if that can be done during a mission.
Rocksteady also committed to supporting the game far after launch with new characters, missions, and weapons. There’s also a battle pass with only cosmetic items.
Penguin is also in the game, as the arm’s dealer and it sounds like Nolan North has reprised his role from the Batman: Arkham games. There are also new characters like Hack, a digital ghost that can help the characters navigate the world and “upgrade their neck bombs;” Toy Man, a person who can augment the Suicide Squad’s gear, and Gizmo, the vehicle creator. The gameplay trailer also had a cameo from Wonder Woman, who has not been warped by Brainiac. She uses her Lasso of Truth to get a shocking revelation from the corrupted version of The Flash.
All of this seems like it is consistent with the leaked user interface images from January that showed multiple live service elements. Many were critical of the image, but it remains to be seen how the extra context from this State of Play will change that notion.
