With Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League the next offering from Rocksteady Games, many fans are less than impressed. The closed Alpha testing saw somewhat mixed reviews from players, and the overall opinions from many in the community are not as favorable as the developers would have hoped. Despite taking to Discord for a recent Q&A, Rocksteady seems to be fighting a losing battle to get players onside.
The game, which has been in development since 2017, is due for release on February 2 with early access on January 30 and is described as the direct sequel to 2015’s Batman: Arkham Knight. The difference with this title is that it features live service compared to previous titles, which have been open-world single-player games, and this fact alone has split the crowd.
Will Rocksteady Regret Making Suicide Squad a Live-Service Game?
What’s clear from the controversial decision to make SS live service is that it may ultimately be the first and last time that Rocksteady chooses to do this. While there may have been pressure from board members or senior executives to make the game more financially rewarding for the company, the backlash it may receive from fans may be quite telling.
If this is an experiment from Rocksteady to test the waters of live-service gameplay, then hopefully it will see sense and realize that this doesn’t work and that it can be seen that live-service games are slowly dying. Many other single-player game developers have gone out of their comfort zones and have had to backtrack on their decisions.
The Suicide Squad is notably DC’s favorite group of anti-heroes, and given the success of the 2021 movie of the same name, it makes sense that Rocksteady would follow up on this with the latest installment of the Arkhamverse games. However, many fans would rather that the latest offering be in the same vein as previous titles.
For a developer who has such a legacy of producing amazing open-world single-player games, it appears that the decision for this game is sadly based on little more than financial gain. What makes matters worse is that this game is the last to feature Kevin Conroy as Batman, as he sadly passed away in November 2022, and what should have been a dedication to his legacy will no doubt be remembered less than fondly.
Judging by the comments on the developer’s social media, many fans are dismayed at the live-service aspect of the game and would rather it be offline. Despite the developers making several promises about new content and an offline mode post-launch, it has done little to appease fans dismay at the SS title.
The upcoming SS game has split the crowd, with many in the community not expecting much from the latest Rocksteady offering. With such a rich heritage of making epic superhero games, it would certainly be a fall from grace to see this game fail, given how successful it has been in the past. However, this could force Rocksteady to go back to basics, and that may not be a bad thing.
It may be that this could be seen as a blessing in disguise for many of the other companies that are trying to develop live-service games. Live service appears to have been a failed experiment, and hopefully, it is only a matter of time before we see it used less and less in gaming. Rocksteady should stick to what it is best at: crafting amazing open-world single-player games.
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