This Metropolis holds up admirably to just wandering around, marveling at all the detail and attention and atmosphere and hey, look, they have a Blaze Comics and there’s a Taco Whiz and whoa, that’s what the airport is like? Much like Dark Knight’s Gotham. Take your time, the scenery is well worth it. But unlike Gotham, this Metropolis isn’t static. Forces will sweep back-and-forth, the invasion underway can change and take a different course, and in some cases neighborhoods might not look the way they did when you were playing yesterday. Like the massive mechanical tentacles looming over the city, occasionally swooping in to tidy something up or position a piece, Rocksteady will constantly massage and adapt this Metropolis to the game you’re playing. It’s not a living breathing city in that quixotic Grand Theft Auto tradition (Cyberpunk 2077 is still tilting at that particular windmill), but it is a living breathing city in the more reasonable sense that it’s built to be a videogame’s support structure instead of a tech demo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But don’t let looks or graphics card options deceive you; this Metropolis is built for speed. And getting around is a true joy, as it should be in any design leaning so heavily on traversal. Suicide Squad is one of those rare games where I never groaned at a distant waypoint, because moving through the city is arguably the point. If I dread getting there from here, the developers did something wrong and they might as well just add fast travel (only available in Suicide Squad if you need to hurry back to base to craft something). Instead, Suicide Squad captures, nurtures, and sustains that deliriously joyous feeling when I first discovered Crackdown’s dream-like jump soaring, except the difference is Suicide Squad contains the equivalent of four Crackdowns. King Shark, one of four available characters, recalls Crackdown’s gravity-defying leaps. Deadshot’s wonderfully twitchy retro Rocketeer rocket-pack is basically Electronic Arts’ Anthem put into a better game. Harley Quinn’s bastardization of Spider-Man’s web slinging and Batman’s grappling hook combines being wildly out of control with wildly in control. Fellow Agents of Mayhem fans might recognize Scheherazade in Captain Boomerang’s “fuckit, imma just teleport there” shenanigans. Four distinct ways to get around is almost like four distinct cities, four unique playgrounds, four ways to get from A to B, and each one rewards practice. Because if there’s one thing more gratifying that gingerly touching down on the precise tippy-top of a skyscraper, it’s gingerly touching down on the precise tippy-top of a skyscraper while letting rip with a massive autocannon. Speaking of…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. The Combat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe second reason this is obviously a Rocksteady joint is the combat. Each of the four characters has a dramatically different moveset, which isn’t just a way to get to the next mission, but a gameplay element tightly threaded into how that character fights. Like Sunset Overdrive, the Ratchet & Clank without Ratchet & Clank, this is a game where combat is supposed to be fought on the move, and not just to avoid getting hit, but as an element of how your character plays. But there’s a reason there aren’t many games like Sunset Overdrive (Insomniac eventually got it right with Spider-Man). No one wants to play Tony Hawk while having a gunfight or playing a brawler. You have to sneak the Tony Hawkness into your game when the player isn’t paying attention. Rocksteady does this slowly, gradually, almost glacially, over the excruciatingly long-term. You might not even notice. I probably shouldn’t have told you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suicide Squad feels built from the ground up to integrate combat and traversal, as if Rocksteady knew they had to craft a dramatically different kind of gameplay from their Batman games and they had to do it carefully. This new gameplay, this new combat, which they will have to trick you into learning over the long-term, needed 1) unfettered flying\/superleaping, and 2) guns, neither of which Batman had. For these two reasons, Suicide Squad’s combat couldn’t be bound up in Batman-sized arenas. Instead, almost every battle in Suicide Squad ranges as far and wide as it wants, across rooftops, through alleys, into tunnels, along highways, around skyscrapers, into different neighborhoods, up, down, and all kinds of sideways. Suicide Squad hates invisible walls worse than it hates the Justice League. It will not have its battles bounded up in a nutshell. Suicide Squad, like chaos, demands to be free.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSo Metropolis isn’t just the setting for the story, it’s the expansive playground for every battle. There are occasional efforts to focus and sometimes limit a battle, but they’re always in service of some scripting. As an overall design mandate, the combat in Suicide Squad is an epic sprawl across Metropolis. The team that carefully parceled out Batman’s fury and gadgets now takes a cue from the dizzying freedom of Spider-Man, but lending it gunplay and grenades and helicopters and explosions and everything else that goes into a good Saints Row game, and furthermore tasked with going the extra mile to give it something different from those other games. And they did indeed give it something different, starting with this amazing Metropolis as its basic setting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So given the expansiveness of the setting, what were they to do with their relatively cozy Batman combo combat? What good is a scoring multiplier in an open-world game? Now that they were introducing gunplay, would their combo-based combat be like Rebellion’s Strange Brigade and then Zombie Army, where it was a scoring multiplier in a game that tried to get you to care about score? Or would they do something else?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rather than relying on pinball nerds like me to buy into a scoring gimmick, they did something that reminds me of the killstreaks in a Call of Duty game. There’s still what looks like a scoring multiplier, but is no such thing. Instead, it’s the number of kills you’ve gotten. As this number goes up, you hit thresholds at 5, 10, 20, 30, and 50. What happens at these thresholds? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, nothing at first. It’s just a number to the side of the screen. But it’s a fundamental part of the new combat thanks to how characters progress. Characters are basically a mix of three things: 1) their unique traversal abilities, as mentioned above, 2) the gear they’ve equipped, and 3) their talents. “Stats” like hit points and damage are a function of gear, whereas talents are where leveling comes into play. Every time you level up, you get a talent point. And that’s it. No additional hit points, no ability to equip better weapons, no higher level skills, no unlocked new areas, no enemies start conning green, nothing like that. A level is only ever a talent point. Stripped of gear, my level 25 Deadshot and your level 1 Deadshot are only distinguished by the number of talent points they can spend. In every other respect, they are identical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The talent screen is visually similar to the Borderlands character screens and the points you spend are doled out similarly, one per level. See for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt’s not immediately obvious (I think it worked similarly in Borderlands?), but when you earn a point, it must be spent in one of the “boxes” in sequence, like so:<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis is a level 25 Deadshot, but I’ve numbered the first ten “boxes” with red numbers. Because you can’t enable multiple talents from within one box, a tenth-level Deadshot will always reach the red number 10 I’ve slapped onto that image. In each box, he picks one talent. In some boxes, he has no choice, so he’ll always have that specific talent at that level. For instance, a first-level Deadshot will always have the Sniper talent. In other boxes, he has a choice. The second row in Tools of the Trade has three different talents, only one of which can be active at a time. Deadshot has to make a choice, which will partly determine how his character plays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So far, so Borderlands. The first difference is that you can reconfigure a character’s talents at any time. Feel free to try a different choice in one of the boxes whenever you feel like it. In fact, get crazy and try ’em all. Or maybe you found a cool pistol to replace your assault rifle and now you don’t need that talent that boosts assault rifle damage. Easy peasy: a click on the talent screen and you’ve enabled the pistol boosting skill instead! You can even save loadouts comprised of your choice of gear and talents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the main difference from Borderlands is the presence of all those combo thresholds. As I mentioned, these are a fundamental part of combat. Every character’s talent tree is littered with powers that are triggered when you hit the 5, 10, 20, 30, and 50 kill thresholds (technically, the numbers are called “combos” because they can be triggered ways other than kills, but killing enemies is the most reliable way to raise your combo).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Notice that some talents are “mandatory” at certain levels, in that they will always<\/em> be active when the character hits that level. Here, for instance, is my 25th-level Deadshot again. Notice that the circled talents and the 50X talents outlined in red, all combo thresholds, are the sole choices in their boxes and will therefore be enabled for every Deadshot build at high enough levels. <\/p>\n\n\n\nEvery Deadshot will trip these specific talents at these specific kill counts. The talent tree gives you a lot of latitude for different character builds, but certain points are fixed like guideposts, always in effect, always tripping when that character reaches that kill threshold, partly defining how that character plays. So like Batman building up his combo in Arkham Knight, the four members of the Suicide Squad build up their combo counters as the battle progresses, each coming into their more considerable powers over time. Each battle is a microcosm of character leveling, a mini-drama of powering up from everyday to overpowered, from mere mortal to invulnerable god, easing you into an upwardly spiraling combat loop that reaches absurd heights. The 50X zone is a very real thing. I’ve been there. I’ve lived it. I’ve felt it flowing through my veins. I may have even uttered a catch phrase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s the combat model Suicide Squad offers. Where once you plunged into Batman’s skill-based punch arenas, now you’re let loose into a dizzyingly city-wide skills-based kill-count-a-thon that eschews scoring in favor of something even more fun: escalation. That’s the combat Rocksteady crafted for Suicide Squad. It begins carefully enough, with a few enemies to take on, and it builds and builds and before you realize what’s happening, you’re an overwhelming whirlwind of righteous superheroic devastation tearing your way through a post-apocalyptic Metropolis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ve played plenty of shooters and action RPGs, and it’s not easy to describe where Suicide Squad’s combat model fits, or even how it feels. I suspect a lot of players will grapple with the similarities to Borderlands, but Gearbox never had this kind of systems-based insight. I was struck by how much it resembles Outriders for developer People Can Fly’s ability to do gunplay without just doing gunplay; Outriders and Suicide Squad both manage some really hearty gunplay…and then almost marginalize it by piling on other meaningful systems. Neither game is the shooter it resembles.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd I don’t say “meaningful systems” lightly, because it should be chaos. At times, when there’s so much happening onscreen, my attention remains squarely on the objective without being overwhelmed, without lapsing into senselessness, without losing my focus. I’m seeing the chaos, I’m seeing into the chaos, I’m seeing through the chaos to the other side. It reminds me of the early days discovering Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank games for how smartly they could engineer what could have been visual noise. How was I going to manage to shoot anything through that crazy cloud of nuts and bolts and visual effects that I never thought possible on a Playstation 2? I love how much Suicide Squad recalls that feeling. Combat as chaos management, with all these splendid tools to wrangle it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ve done this before. There’s a straight line from Sega’s The Club, through Rebellion’s Strange Brigade and Zombie Army, directly into Suicide Squad, based on using multipliers to encourage attentiveness, to show the player how well he’s doing, to simultaneously encourage for how far he’s come and to goad him to go further. These are developers trying to harness the chaos of a shooter, trying to throw a rope around it so players can ride it a little smarter, with an awareness of the beast instead of just clutching the saddle horn for dear life. This is for players who want to understand and analyze, who want to finesse it, who want to master it and show it off and ride at the vanguard. This is the meeting of transportation, utility, and showmanship. This is what Rocksteady has learned from its years of making games and messing around with a combo counter. This is Suicide Squad and it’s going to extend far beyond the storyline, which is really just the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. The Characters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSo to get back down in the weeds of character builds, when you look into Deadshot’s talent screen, you can see that he has certain scripted beats in battle. Some of them are optional based on whether you’ve chosen them in the talent tree, but some of them are innate because you will always have to choose them. For instance, after his fifth kill, Deadshot’s weapons get a 25% damage boost. That’s his Sniper talent, and only Deadshot has it, but every single Deadshot has it because it’s unlocked at first level. It’s an early lesson: hey, if you’re playing Deadshot, after five kills, be aware your guns get better!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(There’s another 5X enabled on my talent tree, but it’s optional. Under the Locked and Loaded column, the first box has three talents, and I’ve selected one that gives Deadshot a 25% damage reduction at 5X, or five kills. Note that’s not a 25% boost to shields; that’s a straight-up 25% damage reduction. Pretty awesome, but it only kicks in when I get five kills. From that box, I could have instead added a bleed effect to my melee attacks or a 75% damage reduction to melee’d enemies. And both of those would have always<\/em> been in effect, regardless of my kill count. So, hmm, what’s an action RPGer to do? These are the kinds of quandaries the talent trees force into your character builds.)<\/p>\n\n\n\nContinuing along Deadshot’s talent tree, we can see what mandatory talents kick in at what kill counts, which gives us a look at how Deadshots play. At 10 kills, a Deadshot’s jetpack hovers longer during combat and his shield harvesting is more effective to keep him alive longer (Suicide Squad has a latter-day Doom flow to its combat, with an “economy” of ammo, shields, and grenades). At 20 kills, a Deadshot gets extra critical hits that do even more damage, and another jetpack boost. At 30 kills, attacking while airborne can inflict up to double damage, and a Deadshot’s dirty bombs turn enemies into explosives. And at 50 kills…well, I’ll let you know when I get there on the talent tree. It sounds pretty impressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(As a sidenote, having maxed Deadshot’s level since writing that, I can assure you that it’s only the beginning. Suicide Squad has a lot more in common with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 than you’d think!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, then there are all the talents that I can pick and choose as I work my way along the tree. This is clearly the team that loaded up Batman’s utility belt, but now they’re working with a larger canvas for a wider range of personalities. This is where Rocksteady really pours the character into the character builds. Captain Boomerang’s Boomer-Con pops off a party with balloons and confetti in celebration of himself, while Harley Quinn’s Arkham Special giggles madly in its marked up cell. King Shark flexes in the surf. As if there were ever any doubt, Rocksteady clearly loves these characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese talent trees are only one part of a character build. There’s also gear. Which again feels like such a quintessentially Rocksteady creation for how it’s broken up and doled out across the game’s deeply ingrained DC Comics mythology. I won’t go into the systems here, because they’re threaded carefully and sometimes ironically into the narrative. This is a game where story and gameplay are shrewdly enough married that I’d just as soon let Rocksteady explain it all.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suffice it to say, the gear chase has all the bells and whistles an action RPG could want, and then some. And since the superheroes in this game are no such thing, there’s none of the cognitive dissonance of finding a +2 Mjolnir or upgrading Wolverine with an unobtanium skeleton. What’s more, the gear is independent of any leveling. It’s astonishing to me how much of the loot remains relevant, regardless of how far you’ve gotten into the game. In fact, it’s astonishing to me what kind of loot chase Rocksteady has built into their endgame. In a good way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
(This is partly because Rocksteady bends and eventually breaks the rules by coming up with weapons even Gearbox would think are too much! For instance, there’s a legendary version of the Gotham City Police Department assault rifle called the Combo Meal. If you achieve a perfectly timed “counter” — ranged weapons can counter enemy moves — your combo immediately jumps to its 50X maximum. Now all the powers on your character tree that required reaching a certain kill count are instantly in effect! Reason enough to carry around a GCPD Combo Meal in one of your two weapon slots? Depending on your build, absolutely. Suicide Squad is full of this kind of nonsense!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The talent trees and gear are the basis and vector for a handful of systems that feed into combat, and Rocksteady basically spends the duration of the storyline rolling them out. Even when the storyline is finished, they aren’t. On one hand, I worry that by holding so many of these systems so close to the vest for so much of the game, Suicide Squad might not wow the kinds of players who need to be wow’ed to guarantee commercial success. But on the other hand, I cannot express strongly enough how much I appreciate Rocksteady holding those systems close to the vest. This accomplishes two things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, it allows for complexity. It gives Suicide Squad time and space to teach players its systems. Which might not seem like a big deal, but in a game this detailed, with combat this idiosyncratic, with an action RPG conceit drawn out over such a long term, it’s definitely a big deal. This is not a game where you’ll be swapping between Harley and Boomerang and then playing a little King Shark and then back to Harley for part of the battle, and finally finish off the boss with Deadshot. This is not Agents of Mayhem. This is a game where characters can be hard to play because they’re distinct, and some are harder than others. Some members of the Suicide Squad will fare better than others in certain circumstances and by the time the training wheels are removed, you are more than welcome to beat your head against unbeatable dead-ends. In fact, I’m convinced some boss battles are nearly impossible with some characters. It should be no surprise that Rocksteady rewards — and indeed expects! — a touch of muscle memory. Suicide Squad is not afraid to be complex. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSecond, it lets the systems and the narratives dovetail. You don’t just get weapon crafting because other games have weapon crafting. You get weapon crafting because — spoiler for something very early in the game — you rescued Penguin and got him to work for you. Every gameplay development has a commensurate story development. It’s as goofy as I’d expect from a comic book game, and it works because the developers have been so obviously and deeply invested in this world for so long. And now they seem to be having the time of their lives revisiting it, this time with a brand new perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. The Writing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nOf course, when I talk about characters in Suicide Squad, I don’t just mean character builds. I also mean writing. And when I talk about writing, I don’t just mean dialogue. Overall, the character banter and cutscenes in Suicide Squad worked about 90% of the time for me, which is a fine rate considering the average game comes in around 30% or so. It loses a bit of steam near the finale, before picking back up for a big finish and then leaving you with a wonderfully open post-game open-world, still with shreds of storytelling left to tell. It helps to remember that this is the same team that had me running around Gotham hunting down Riddler trophies on the strength of the environmental storytelling, if not as an excuse to wallow in the rich videogame gothic-ness of Rocksteady’s Gotham. You had me at hello, guys, and I see now you have no interest in letting me go at good-bye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That same love of lore surges through the veins of Suicide Squad, even with its morality inversion. Sure, the inmates aren’t just running the asylum now, but the whole world. And sure the Hall of Justice has been taken over by some super-judicial government agency. Okay, yes, aliens roam freely throughout the cities of the world. It’s a dire time to be a Justice League fan. Look, up in the sky! It’s not a bird! It’s not a plane! It’s not even the Bat Signal! It’s a foreboding Skull Ship, peering down between the Lex Corp HQ and the blimp moored at Wonderland, and all those superheroes you love are powerless against it. Yet this is still a game by and for people who are interested in — even invested in! — Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Something or Other. Hornet, Lantern, or Arrow, beats me. But Rocksteady’s enthusiasm is effective enough that even I stop and smell the lore occasionally. <\/p>\n\n\n\nDC Comics has already given Rocksteady latitude to mess with their canon, allowing them to kill Joker for realz and appropriating him as Batman’s Tyler Durden. That’s a pretty ballsy move. Of course, comic books don’t have any such thing as “for realz”, and Rocksteady has announced DLC for this game with a teaser of Joker’s face. But there’s no denying how much latitude Rocksteady has in a Suicide Squad game to, ahem, literally piss all over the Justice League. Which I’d argue is the point of Suicide Squad as a concept and this game in particular. The vulgarity of the morality inversion is played to great effect here, with low-life thugs and freaks elevated to superheroes, and the superheroes themselves treated like combat bosses: the monsters you have to defeat, usually by figuring out some dumb gimmick. To Rocksteady’s credit, some of the boss battles aren’t even annoying! Suicide Squad might not be another paean to the World Greatest Detective, but it’s still a love letter to DC Comics, for people who know Green Lantern from Green Arrow. A very R-rated and irreverent love letter, with a unique voice and a vulgar edge, but nevertheless a love letter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The humor is on the same level as James Gunn’s Suicide Squad or Peacemaker: crass, profane, low brow, allergic to earnestness, uninterested in redemption or arcs, here to crack wise and amuse, to establish characters and their world, to remind you it’s M-rated with an occasional F-bomb (although far too few F-bombs). Deadshot is sick of this shit, Harley Quinn is a bubbly sociopath, King Shark’s brain is small or he’s Drax (depending on the gag), Boomerang’s accent is Aussie and his dick is big ha ha, Amanda Waller is your daddy, Flagg is a stuffed shirt, etc. The gags flow readily, but the jokes are rarely just easy. And on top of this, our erstwhile superheroes are now red-eyed and full-throated murderous villains. It’s rich territory. Rocksteady, the creators\/curators of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City and especially Arkham Knight, is up to the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n(There’s a noticeable undercurrent of affection for Batman which I thought was related to Rocksteady’s history making Batman games. But it turns out a longtime voice actor who played Batman had recently died. After the credits, there’s a weird Batman eulogy read by the Lois Lane actress, in character, with no reference to the voice actor, followed up with a commemoration for “Kevin”, with no additional info about the actor who had died. I appreciate the intent, but it seems like a real disservice to just assume everyone knows what you’re talking about. Rocksteady knows games, but they could use a primer on commemorations.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember that this “writing” isn’t just a matter of what characters say to each other, or backstory, or plot points. As I mentioned earlier, the writing is responsible for rolling out gameplay and introducing you to the systems. Sure, it’s an easy thing to gate weapon crafting behind a story beat involving Penguin. That’s such a no-brainer I don’t even feel bad about spoilering it! But what’s notable here is how effortlessly Rocksteady unrolls their story — and beyond! — as a way to lay the groundwork for their gameplay. If I were to detail the features as if they were bullet points for the back of a box, it would spoil how and why Rocksteady added them. Better to let them tell you than me. Better to let you discover this Metropolis and its gameplay on Rocksteady’s terms instead of mine. In a review like this, I would no more break down Suicide Squad’s gameplay progression than I would detail the plot of a movie. That should speak volumes for what Rocksteady has accomplished. <\/p>\n\n\n\nI’m sure there’s an interesting discussion to be had about the many inspirations for Justice League, which is shot through with gameplay DNA from Borderlands, Saints Row\/Agents of Mayhem, Ratchet & Clank, Crackdown, Bioshock 2, and Metal Gear Solid V, grappling with many of the same issues and gameplay as those luminaries in their genres. But I’m also sure that discussion would rob Justice League of some of its intended delights, of some of its discoveries. I approached this game as I approach most games I play these days: with a certain amount of trust, based on confidence in the developer from what I know of their past efforts. That was the only marketing I experienced for Suicide Squad. That was the limit of my hype. Those were my bullet points. And in this case, because the writing and the gameplay progress hand-in-hand, I’m very glad I made the choice based on trust and reputation rather than bullet points. I wish it were available to more people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My overall takeaway is that Rocksteady made this game in response to similar games that other developers were making in the 15+ years they spent toiling over the specifics of Batman and Gotham. Now that they’ve broken out into a wider world full of different kinds of superheroes, they’re busting loose and showing us what they can do, unfurling for us their sprawling playground one system at a time, each snapped neatly a larger whole, each written as a piece of the grandly goofy Kill the Justice League story. I get the sense they’ve been sampling these other games, studying what they do well, smoothing over what they don’t, learning and adapting, picking them apart, borrowing freely, repurposing, smoothing again, shaping, and then fitting into their own design. This is the result. And as I get ready to dive back in, as eager to resume after the storyline as I was to begin before I even understood what was on offer, it occurs to me that this is fitting. Who better to dispatch these heroes, to flip the script on them, to drag them kicking and screaming into a modern-day open-world like never before, than the team known so well for giving one of them life? Who better to kill a hero than the one who created him? Whereas I had previously thought of Arkham Knight as Rocksteady’s crowning achievement, a gothic comic book swan song, it turns out they were just getting warmed up for Suicide Squad. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which is an absolute delight and one of my favorite games in a long time, has four main things going for it. The first and most immediately obvious is Metropolis, the glittering comic book city where Superman makes his home, an emblem of Silver Age comics if ever there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\n
Rocksteady throws down the Batgauntlet in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League - Quarter to Three<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rocksteady throws down the Batgauntlet in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League - Quarter to Three\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which is an absolute delight and one of my favorite games in a long time, has four main things going for it. The first and most immediately obvious is Metropolis, the glittering comic book city where Superman makes his home, an emblem of Silver Age comics if ever there […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Quarter to Three\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-11T22:11:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-12T19:34:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/suicide-squad-city-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"632\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Chick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Chick\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"26 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/11\\\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/11\\\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Chick\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3fe63ea802f1c18eb09e0b1b8df5199b\"},\"headline\":\"Rocksteady throws down the Batgauntlet in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-11T22:11:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-12T19:34:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/11\\\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":5359,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/11\\\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/suicide-squad-city-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Game reviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/11\\\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/11\\\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/11\\\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\\\/\",\"name\":\"Rocksteady throws down the Batgauntlet in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League - Quarter to Three\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/11\\\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/11\\\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/suicide-squad-city-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-11T22:11:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-12T19:34:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3fe63ea802f1c18eb09e0b1b8df5199b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/11\\\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/11\\\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/11\\\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/suicide-squad-city-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/suicide-squad-city-1.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":632},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/11\\\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Rocksteady throws down the Batgauntlet in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/\",\"name\":\"Quarter to Three\",\"description\":\"All games, all the time. Except for the bits about movies.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3fe63ea802f1c18eb09e0b1b8df5199b\",\"name\":\"Tom Chick\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/qt3\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/author\\\/tomchick\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rocksteady throws down the Batgauntlet in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League - Quarter to Three","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rocksteady throws down the Batgauntlet in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League - Quarter to Three","og_description":"Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which is an absolute delight and one of my favorite games in a long time, has four main things going for it. The first and most immediately obvious is Metropolis, the glittering comic book city where Superman makes his home, an emblem of Silver Age comics if ever there […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/","og_site_name":"Quarter to Three","article_published_time":"2024-03-11T22:11:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-03-12T19:34:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":632,"url":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/suicide-squad-city-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tom Chick","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tom Chick","Est. reading time":"26 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/"},"author":{"name":"Tom Chick","@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/#\/schema\/person\/3fe63ea802f1c18eb09e0b1b8df5199b"},"headline":"Rocksteady throws down the Batgauntlet in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League","datePublished":"2024-03-11T22:11:57+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-12T19:34:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/"},"wordCount":5359,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/suicide-squad-city-1.jpg","articleSection":["Game reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/","url":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/","name":"Rocksteady throws down the Batgauntlet in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League - Quarter to Three","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/suicide-squad-city-1.jpg","datePublished":"2024-03-11T22:11:57+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-12T19:34:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/#\/schema\/person\/3fe63ea802f1c18eb09e0b1b8df5199b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/suicide-squad-city-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/suicide-squad-city-1.jpg","width":1200,"height":632},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2024\/03\/11\/rocksteady-throws-down-the-batgauntlet-in-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rocksteady throws down the Batgauntlet in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/","name":"Quarter to Three","description":"All games, all the time. Except for the bits about movies.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/#\/schema\/person\/3fe63ea802f1c18eb09e0b1b8df5199b","name":"Tom Chick","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/qt3"],"url":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/author\/tomchick\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52891"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52926,"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52891\/revisions\/52926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SS-airport-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SS-Harley-swing-1024x527.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Deadshot-talents-1024x578.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Deadshot-order-of-operations-1024x578.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Deadshot-mandatory-1024x578.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/suicide-squad-combat-1-1024x428.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SS-Harley-smash-1024x568.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/suicide-squad-gear-1024x495.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SS-crafting-confirmed-1024x620.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/suicide-squad-day-city-1024x558.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Suicide-Squad-outfits-1024x568.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/boomerang-and-hack-1024x583.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n