How The New Suicide Squad Game Changes Everything

Picture a torn-apart Metropolis with fires all over, helicopters crashing left and right, and strange beings scrambling through the streets. Imagine that same Metropolis with a large alien octopus machine parked dead in the center of it. Think about how royally screwed Metropolis might be if its savior, Superman, somehow became possessed by evil while all of this was going on.

Think about how much trouble Metropolis would be in if the heroes of the day had to be the Suicide Squad: Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark.

That appears to be the premise of Rocksteady's next game, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The much-anticipated title is still very early on in development it seems, as it won't arrive until sometime in 2022. But based on a cinematic shown at DC FanDome 2020 — and a brief explainer from Rocksteady's Sefton Hill — fans of past DC titles from Rocksteady now have a small sense of what the game entails.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a continuation of the previously established "Arkhamverse" — the universe utilized and built upon by Rocksteady's prior Batman: Arkham projects. This next game will differ quite significantly from those earlier adventures, however. To start, those Batman games were (as the titles so helpfully point out) based in and around Gotham. Based on the first look at Metropolis under attack in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the Arkhamverse will be heading to some entirely new locations.

Those Batman games were also single-player affairs. Whether you were tearing through Arkham Asylum, busting bad guy skulls in Arkham City, or taking your crime-fighting game to the wider city of Gotham in Arkham Knight, you were always doing it solo. The decision to add multiplayer could be the biggest difference between those titles and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. As Eurogamer notes, players can choose to take on their foes in two, three, or even four-player co-op, with each player controlling a different character in the Suicide Squad.

But if you're not a fan of teaming up with other players, fear not — you'll still be able to play Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League by yourself. Rather than have a few buddies controlling the other characters, you'll simply do it yourself by switching between them. It sounds kind of like the Dual Play concept from Batman: Arkham Knight — just with more allies you can switch to. If you enjoyed those tag team scenarios from Rocksteady's third and final Batman game, you may end up digging how it's utilized in Suicide Squad.

That is, of course, assuming that Suicide Squad plays in a similar way to the Batman: Akrham titles. No gameplay was shown of the title — perhaps because development still has a ways to go — but there's a chance fans could see a similar take on combat with some adjustments for various character abilities. That could make the act of switching between them more strategic, and add a bit of competition between friends over who gets to play as who.

As for what else you can expect from Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, well — more details might have to come with time, or perhaps with some detective work. The reveal trailer was light on story specifics, for example, but fans online are already beginning to put some of the puzzle pieces together. That "large alien octopus machine" in the middle of Metropolis? Some DC fans have identified that as Brainiac's Skull Ship. And as for why Superman is apparently having a very bad day — and is turning innocent helicopter pilots into dust as a result — it's the theory of some that DC villain Brainiac is using mind control to bring the Justice League over to the dark side.

It's not clear whether that'll all pan out as accurate yet, but it does help explain some of what fans saw in the trailer. It could be a neat angle for the overall narrative to take, as well. Players of Rocksteady's past titles have been taking up the mantle of hero for quite a while. Perhaps it's high time they got to play as some anti-heroes — real bad guys and gals who are being forced against their will to put down some of the most powerful beings in the universe.

Until Rocksteady and Warner Bros. reveal more about Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, this is about all there is to go on. No one knows when more news might drop about this new DC title, but based on the target release year — 2022, as mentioned earlier — it might be a while before you see anything more substantial.