A senior Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League developer has defended the game's live service format, saying the studio doesn't "think of our game as fitting with any particular label."
Darius Sadeghian, studio product director at Rocksteady recently spoke to PLAY Magazine, and spoke about the live service stylings of the Suicide Squad game. "We knew we wanted to make a four player co-op game, so we spent a lot of time iterating on our characters," Sadeghian said.
"For us, it wasn't so much about making a game in any particular genre. Rather, the focus is on creating a sense of flow and trinity between all out gameplay systems. That's reflected in the way the traversal, melee, and shooter elements all blend together when you're playing," the senior developer continued.
Early last year in February, Suicide Squad fans weren't thrilled by details like battle passes and gear scores, both design elements of live service games over the past few years. Rocksteady's game was then delayed just a month later, reportedly due to backlash surrounding the live service elements, but a following report claimed the delay was merely for "polish," and wouldn't change live service parts.
"Our goal is to build a community with this game. We want each player to feel like they're part of Suicide Squad and, more broadly, a global Suicide Squad community," Sadeghain continued. "This has been at the core of our development and the game has been built from the ground up as an experience that can be shared with friends."
The senior developer also outlined a slate of "social features" for Kill the Justice League, including taunts, a social squad feature, and competitions within online leaderboards. "We wanted to make a game where each plyer is connected to that larger community and where we, as developers, get the opportunity to invite the community to evolve this game together with us," Sadeghian added.
PLAY Magazine noted that Sadeghian never actually referred to Kill the Justice League as a "live service" game, despite its elements like battle passes. "We don't really think of our game as fitting with any particular label," said Sadeghian, adding that the Suicide Squad game is "still full of the DNA that infuses the Batman: Arkham series."
The Rocksteady studio product director then outlined all the free content Kill the Justice League players can look forward to, which is focused on keeping players around for the long haul. This includes "new story missions, locations, gear, costumes, collectable trinkets, and more," and new characters with "unique mechanics," all of which will be unlocked for free.
Unfortunately, Suicide Squad spoilers hit the internet last month in December, in a move that Rocksteady called "disappointing." A lot of story details were unveiled in the leak, including revelations of how the new game directly ties into the aforementioned Arkham games from Rocksteady, as well as details of antagonists like Batman.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League finally launches early next month on February 2.
You can head over to our new games 2024 guide for a look ahead at how the rest of the year's major releases will shake out.
My next Metroidvania kick is an ingenious mix of Zelda-like exploration, twin-stick combat, and pitch-perfect controls – with 97% positive Steam user reviews
Stellar Blade keeps fixing things that bothered me when I reviewed it – now including "input time for basic attacks, as well as the timing of blocking and parrying"
