Suicide Squad : Kill the Justice Leagueis in the hands of more masses than ever this week because it ’s one of January ’s PlayStation Plus Essential games . But is it worth revisiting or play for the first time nearly a year after its dismission ?

That question loomed as I saw thisPS Plus newsin the aftermath of deep discounts forSuicide Squadduring the Steam Winter Sale , just as Rocksteady confirmed that its updates would stop in January . At this point , Rocksteady ’s latest is notorious for being a live service flop : a plot that Warner Bros. skip would be a cash cow for years to come but instead was beat on arrival . engender back intoSuicide Squada year subsequently is a conflicting experience .

As myreview of the gamearound its launching mentioned , there is just to be find oneself in the experience , particularly in how it feels to play . woefully , revisitingSuicide Squadreminded me of how that ’s all bury under horrendous UI , slow and repetitive mission design , and great deal of confusing plot systems and jargon . As a wonder , I thinkSuicide Squadis deserving downloading , but once you make for it , you ’ll understand why it was n’t the next liberal thing in live service of process gaming .

Rejoining the Squad

About 10 months had passed since I last playedSuicide Squad , so I boot it up with the simple goal of unlocking Deathstroke , the net new playable character to come to the plot post - launch . When I first opened the plot up and tried to access , I forever got a “ ca n’t reach host ” message . It turns out that my PS5 have me launch the app even though I was download an update for it , but it still finger like a uncollectible omen for thing to come .

After the update was completed , I was greet by a King Shark twit . While the system is hypothecate to be for players who do better at missions than one of their friends , this taunt featured placeholder text edition for the role player ’s name and score . That one - two - poke of job killed some of my motivation to dive in , and thing convey even more confusing once I tried to start playing .

I ab initio loaded my campaign save file but saw no fresh content . To work toward unlocking Deathstroke , I had to return to the master fare and start a new sitting in Episode 7 ofSuicide Squad’spost - launching content . Once I adulterate in , I was bombarded by several pop - ups telling me about the new additions in the installment . That ’s when I remembered just how terrible the substance abuser experience   is .

All ofSuicide Squad’smenus are littered and puzzling . It was hard to incur simple data , like what I needed to do to obtain Deathstroke or whether or not I ’d played a mission before . All of the dissimilar buffs and status effects tie to my characters also read like jargon . It was so bad I tried to look up a template online , only to find one that was clearly AI - generate — seemingly because so few site are still actively covering this game a twelvemonth after its discharge .

Eventually , I readjust my bearings and understood how I needed to play missions to reach Episode Level 30 to enter the Brainiac fight that deed over me Deathstroke . The fact that the re - onboarding physical process was so miserable made me better infer its failure . If a live service game is this unvoiced to initiate , even for someone who beat the independent campaign like me , there ’s no way it will have aggregate free-and-easy solicitation .

The misadventures of my Suicide Squad

Once I started moving around Metropolis as Harley Quinn , Deadshot , King Shark , and Captain Boomerang , I got a more electropositive admonisher : Suicide Squadfeels good to play . Movement is tricksy and full of distinct personality depending on who I was toy as . In turning , it was fun to hop around field , annihilating mindless hordes of enemies . This gunplay and platforming would be showered with praise in a serious game . In Suicide Squad , it ’s a small piece of Au inter under dirt .

Within an minute of mySuicide Squadrevisit , things mystify insistent . It has so few kind of mission target for musician to complete , and even then , almost all of those boil down to “ kill enemy until the object is staring . ” I ’d hoped that Episode 7 ’s new mission would have more unique mission design , but most of them just enquire me to belt down a certain number of enemies within a metre limit .

I found it leftover that the new added content all took position in Elseworlds rather than the beautiful , monolithic open world of Metropolis . It ’s singular that I ’m shuffled off to a novel field rather than drop into a Metropolis rethemed around the Episode ’s Medieval vibe . Successful bouncy service of process game likeFortnitedon’t just add novel content ; they recontextualize what ’s already there , too . It ’s yet another way in which it ’s clear thatSuicide Squadnever had a chance to thrive .

After a few hour of grinding , I finally unlock the Brianiac stage to unlock Deathstroke . I was let down when this raid - comparable mission swapped out the last conflict for a brawl against hordes of standard foe , considering that is all I had been doing in the grind - up to this missionary station and for the prior objectives of the Brianiac mission itself . After fighting those enemies for a while , Brainiac pops out but is instantly put out of his wretchedness by Deathstroke .

That palpate like a metaphor for this plot as a whole .

An unceremonious death

After all that , I unlock Deathstroke . I love his traversal abilities , which admit him to dash through the atmosphere almost unceasingly and drift while shooting a gun . alas , minute into my first deputation with him , a Suicide Strike on an opposition got me stuck in the grade geometry . After that , I knew I did n’t desire to play much more ofSuicide Squadever again .

There are still three other characters I could grind for , but they ’re all original cosmos of Rocksteady ’s . An Elseworld reading of the Joker , Mrs. Freeze , and Lawless just are n’t just exciting compared to an established submarine sandwich like Deathstroke . Doing so would call for hours more of complete the same objective I get well-worn of in this brief rematch . Is coming back toSuicide Squadone year later deserving it ? found on how I ’m feeling after only a few sessions , no .

I ’m grateful that it ’s now possible to take on offline so all of Rocksteady ’s employment wo n’t eventually be lost in a server shutdown , but poor pattern pick make this something I want to be conserve for saving ’s sake rather than a honey of the experience . The net content update roll out later this calendar month , and I hopeRocksteady gets the chance to move onand make something better after this .

If you ’ve never played before , you might have some fun after downloading it through PS Plus . Just know that after a few hour , you ’ll have seen almost everything thatSuicide Squad : Kill the Justice Leaguehas to offer . For a biz that was meant to be a resilient service launch pad for WB Games just one yr ago , that ’s damning .