I Didn't Like Suicide Squad

Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League stands as the most disheartening video game release I've experienced to date. I look at how it fails to capture the allure of their iconic Arkham series, nor makes a compelling case for its venture into the competitive world of Live Service games.
🎙 Written, Edited and VOed by ‪@hotcyder‬
‪@PixelLit‬ Kevin as the voice of David Zsalav
🎧 Audio Mastering by ‪@HeavyEyed‬
🖼 Thumbnail by ‪@hotcyder‬
💰 Supported by / hotcyder
🐦 Follow me at / hotcyder
[a] seekingalpha.c...
[b] steamdb.info/c...
[c] steamdb.info/a...
[d] www.mobygames....

[@lrobin-is8dg]

The sewer slide squad

[@lamparo7028]

Sqibidi Squad

[@pimscrypt]

It sucks *so* much to see this type of story repeat, with no lessons learned from the previous time. One would think that publishers would have a little less hubris after what happened to Anthem, or Babylon's Fall, but the lesson is never learned. They will just keep flinging poo on the wall until something sticks, no matter how many studios go under in the meantime.

[@SirDenzington89]

Or how about Avengers? The literal same game that’s now de listed and was out 2 or maybe even 3 years ago. Do these people in charge not pay attention to anything?

[@killuafanboy3812]

​@@SirDenzington89 seems like it. Higher ups telling game companies to do things or else I think.

[@baconlabs]

A 10/10 thumbnail, I love it. I had no idea the developers had any sort of pedigree about them, since this sounded like such a nothing game on the surface. Would you say this is another case like Gollum where the devs' talents got squandered?

[@hotcyder]

It's hard to say really! There were rumours that this might of been a project scrapped by another WB studio that Rocksteady took on, but I can also see them being into the idea of doing a live service game. In either case, there is talent in the right places (graphics, sound, writing) but they weren't quite equipt to make a game like this.

[@aresgodofwar7401]

Its sad how these triple A companies cant seem to understand that us gamers are getting sick and tired of looter shooters always online games. We have had one to many as of late, its the WoW effect all over again. I also dont understand why game companies who are fantastic at make specific types of games want to branch out and try something new. Thats how you lose money and get shut down.

[@Sputnik34]

the irony of the amount of more money this game likely would have made if it was a F2P game is honestly hilarious to me. i would've given it a go for sure at the very least. still haven't played much of the original trilogy but i'm not one to say that i would've NEEDED to play those before giving this a go. I think it's so funny that so many studios look at Destiny or Fortnite and say "lets do that, but make sure that instead of letting people pay for free, we'll charge FULL PRICE. THAT WILL GET PEOPLE TO BUY IT!"

[@richardmcgravyjordan9996]

game gave me saints row 2022 vibes and thats not a compliment

[@planescaped]

That is the most apt game to compare it to.

[@gravekeepersven82]

I can't believe they actually spent a whole ahh decade making a live service looter shooter 1000% worse than Marvels Avengers campaign. That truly is a work of art of failure and thievery.

[@billybeeeeeeeeee]

Harley's traversal was the worst part for me. Hated her swing.

[@PsmTrey-Man]

Harley in Arkham games: Kidnapper Murderer Torture Assault Terrorist Harley portrayed in suicide squad Sympathetic tragedy

[@monkfish1]

God, the visuals and thumbnail are so good in this video. That VHS vibe mixed with your very calm and collected voice is 🔥

[@hotcyder]

Thank you! Glad folks are vibing with the video tone

[@MoonSpiritChannel]

Man, it's sad to see Rocksteady like this, making a looter shooter that is not their forte. IIRC, the heads of Rocksteady are supposedly opening a new studio, I guess as a response to the lukewarm reception of this game. And one more thing, Zaslav can be sent down a Looney Tunes black hole pit for eternity.

[@wait_in_gold_ON_SPOTIFY]

The game had already been in development for 5+ years when Zazlov came in the picture

[@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz]

I hesitate to call this "their desire to break out of what they're known for" when the talent jumped ship and the game is so lacking in creativity. it's far easier to believe that statement was marketing bs.

[@hotcyder]

I couldn’t find any evidence to back that up (despite it being a popular claim I’ve seen all over the place) and cross referencing the credits, pretty much all the major players from the other games came back for this

[@maximogallardo1841]

How to improve Gameplay: - more enemies: enemy bomber that explodes when killed, medic enemy that heals troops, and a mix of the two that when killed cures nearby troops. In addition i'd add mini bosses that copy some abilities from the JL(for example an enemy with laser eyes, another one with slightly increased speed, an enemy with wings like Hawkgirl,etc) and ones that are mutated animals from the Metropolis zoo (i imagine a Tiger, Elephant and Gorilla) - more Game modes: team deathmatch, two teams compete to see Who can do a list of objectives faster. Survival, survive waves of enemies, with each passing wave the difficulty increases. Backstab, compete amongst your own team to see Who can kill the most enemies, in this Mode you can place landmines to damage your team, dying Will reset you progress. PvP, the Squad fight eachother

[@jayupnext5890]

This is why y’all don’t like it not every game has to have pvp go play yo dumb ass cod for that shit

[@stonepasta5296]

One of the few times where you with certainty can say "if he's not having it, neither am I".

[@mravg79]

Is it just me, or it seems like people who deal with money are completely detached from the market and customer base? They are also not really learning any lessons from previous mistakes or mistakes that competition made. Anthem, Avengers, even loot based Gotham Knights we’re not successful. Hogwarts Legacy was (sure one might argue the value of the franchise). SW BF2 caused a ripple effect where EA and Epic were answering to the UK commission, and all of the sudden this gaming related news were in all the media. Jedi The Fallen Order - performed better than expected. So with this why would anyone bet on live service game? Sure I get it is the holy grail and there are games like Fortnite or GTA Online making tons of money. But with increased total cost for games (where huge part is marketing) such games are also high risk. Companies need to diversify their portfolio and budgets. Putting all eggs into one basket might not work in the long run.

[@planescaped]

Old guys who've never played a game in their life not understanding the market and making bad calls? _♫a tale as old as time ♪_

[@connorharnage6697]

Christ... Look I'm a major Persona fan. It's my favorite series of all time. THAT SAID, it should Never beat a DC game in terms of numbers! There are a lot more DC fans in this world than there are Persona fans. How do you fuck up this bad?!

[@kirbles2035]

This being the first review of this game I watched (since I respect you, everyone else reviewing this game I do not) I noticed an interesting thing, which was the 3 kinds of reactions to this game 1. "wow this looks like mass produced dog shit, I ain't buying this!" - my reaction 2. "Oh hey a repetitive triple A looter shooter, I like looter shooters so I'll buy this" - some streamers I saw had this reaction and 3. "wow this looks like mass produced dog shit, but it's by rocksteady so I'll buy it hoping to whatever god I pray to that it'll be good" - I assume your reaction, and the reaction of ever arkham fan I've seen.

[@baki484]

This game is the go to guide in how to alienate your fanbase.

[@kdjets]

I gave this game so much room to justify itself before release, after release. I justified the characters having very similar movesets because I was like " oh my God! Clearly they are going to focus on the gun play and make the loot really great. Why else would they have simplified the gameplay?" I hate being so wrong about it. I haven't even touched the game and I'm hesitating getting it on sale and I enjoy live service games. The problem with enjoying live service games is, You come to realize that most of them are poorly designed for endless engagement and then don't fulfill the fun they are supposed to deliver. I'm totally fine with them turning OverWatch into live service because it results in seasonal content that is way more focused than what they used to do. Pve being abandoned is a shame but apparently internally it was not very innovative and fun. So even great live service games built around competitive. Endless solid gameplay, missteps and misplans. Suicide Squad is an epitome of that. It was misplanned by the development team, It was made over important by the shareholders and CEO presiding over it, It seems like it just turned into an absolute mess for everyone involved. This should serve as a lesson but the CEO was talking about more live service games and more monetization. Absolutely ridiculous 🤦

[@juicestains52]

It’s very clear to me now that big studio executives are truly out of touch with what people actually want. They see key words and think they’ve cracked some code. David Zaslav probably heard the words “live” and “service” and thought that shit would be music to our ears.

[@franciscor390]

There's absolutely no reason to feel sorry for Rocksteady studios because they're not even the original team anymore. Everyone from the og team has left long ago, the remains are politically inclined activists and regular newly hired programmers.

[@mravg79]

On the games being extended after release. It can be done in my opinion but there is a condition to be met. The base game needs to be considered fun, even if it is niche it needs to have a healthy player base. Then company can create additional content (from cheap ass cosmetics, to expansions/DLC which adds to the game play, it would be also nice if game had updates, upgrades over the years). Examples: ETS2 - this game is more than a decade old, yet still being developed and updated. SnowRunner - I’m not a fan of yearly pass, but for me the base game gave me a lot of fun, so if I want I might extend the experience with additional content. So far 3 full yearly passes were released, and 4th was announced. These games were not created as live service games yet they have a model that extends the game life span.

[@Maplewest]

I mean well duh. Who thought this was going to be good?

[@hotcyder]

They made good games before!

[@Maplewest]

@@hotcyder fair. I do enjoy the Batman games. However, the "always online" was a red flag from the get go.

[@DoodleCompadre]

Actual perfect thumbnail

[@hotcyder]

Let's hope it turns into high CTR

[@justaghostinthesea]

It's incredible how setting this story outside of the Arkhamverse fixes so many problems with the story

[@KindofBradAtThis]

Fantastic watch as always! Loving the VHS theme

[@hotcyder]

Thank you! Always cheers me up when people appreciate the visuals

[@kdjets]

If the Wonder Woman game is still in development, I really really hope it's just a nice single player game. I know it's going to have dumb monetization that people don't need to pay for to enjoy the game... But at the least, I hope it has solid gameplay systems for the love of everything holy 😅

[@hotcyder]

Fingers crossed it’s just Shadow of Mordor 🤞

[@keyblader007]

I love the Arkham series and I hate everything about this game and refuse to play it or acknowledge it in the canon.

[@TulpechaidoplaysMC]

They need to fire Zaslav like yesterday

[@dcmastermindfirst9418]

Zaslav is the CEO of WB

[@mravg79]

Well they for sure need someone with mandate to operate their gaming division who understands trends, risks, customer expectations who will present them to the CEO and the board. I’m not saying they should not explore on line games, but at least look at what makes the profit for them: Hogwarts Legacy did, I believe Gotham Knights performed below expectations, and if the Steam player count is any indication how the game is doing SSKTJL is a flop. With such data it should not be hard to see what to invest in next. Will you make a game maybe with smaller budget which is less risk but still can earn? Or will you chase the holy grail of live service game invest a lot (and I mean a lot) of time and money with huge risk and possibly high reward. I always though these companies were trying to minimize risks.

[@amirhomayoonfarmusic]

gotta love the thumbnail

[@Oldschool1943]

Suicide Squad: Kill The franchise

[@0XDDCC]

So far Worst Game of 2024 EVER.

[@KobytheHero]

Finally a review that isn’t dripping in Arkham Knight revisionism. That game was good, but it had plenty of flaws and it’s kinda weird to see people talk about it like the pinnacle of the series.

[@hotcyder]

It’s my favourite post Asylum, but so many of that games systems didn’t scale up very well to an open world, as City illustrates. They figured out better pacing in Knight, but by literally turning it into an activity centre instead of a linear story. I think it goes to show that their take on Batman was better in small spaces. Suicide Squad shows they still haven’t figured out great open worlds.

[@KobytheHero]

@@hotcyder Agreed on all counts, not to mention the clumsy way the story handled the titular Arkham Knight and his reveal

[@planescaped]

The vehicle sections ruin the pacing of Arkham Knight, and the main villain gave off Sonic OC vibes. Arkham City was my favorite of the original Batman games. Knight was a lot of fun for one playthrough, but the pacing issues make it a slog to replay. Asylum is great too but feels a little simplistic at times. Side effect of being the first.

[@wizawhat]

To be honest, I haven't played any of the Arkham games and definitely not this, but I have been morbidly curious about it given it seems to have been released at a pivotal point for the industry and current culture around AAA. You gave me all the information I needed to understand why this move was so questionable for Rocksteady in the first place. Great piece!

[@mravg79]

Do yourself a favor and play the Arkham trilogy, it can be bought on sale with all DLC for quite low price. They are not perfect, but I enjoyed each of them.

[@Goobywoobygoo]

Play the Arkham games you fraud.

[@EchoDoctrine]

I would encourage you to try Batman Arkham games. The 1st Asylum still plays and holds up great even on my ps3 version, i played last week and was honestly surprised it still is great. City has my favorite story and Orgins I honestly can’t remember so can’t say (i will replay it next week). Currently replaying Knight on PC, graphics amazing, plays great, i dislike batmobile but everyone does lol. So overall i would encourage you to try them. Kinda originated the current combat system in Spiderman. Great games.

[@mravg79]

@@EchoDoctrine Origins was not a Rocksteady game, and is not part of Arkham trilogy, but I believe it is worth giving a chance I set it up on my Steam Deck. Also with waiting for sale I believe from time to time there is opportunity to get it quite cheap. The bat mobile (tank) sections were not my favorite, but still the game was at least good.

[@crypto40]

I really wanna see what the original rocksteady devs thinking about sucide squad and how they treated Batman’s death by forcing him onto the Arkham verse that they created

[@hotcyder]

I mention it in the video, but if you check the credits the original devs also worked on this. The story by credit is the same person who wrote City onwards (Sefton Hill)

[@baki484]

​@@hotcyder I guess Paul Dini kept them in check because after he left the continuity began to contradict itself in some areas.

[@ewetwentythree]

Not super interested in this game. Just wanted to tell you that the thumbnail is awesome.

[@hotcyder]

Thanks!

[@Trencher1375]

Great review I only disagree with one thing and that is that the development team can find themselves something else to do after this.

[@fishsayhelo9872]

nice vid 👍

[@Wolf07342]

I think we all can agree sucide squad isn’t canon to the Arkhamverse lol

[@RakastanPorkkanakakkua]

Why has nobody ever told me that Arkham Asylum is like a Metroidvania? Now I want to try that game.

[@hotcyder]

I made a video about it years ago but I'm considering remaking it. But yeah that's the best thing about Arkham Asylum - it's Metroid Prime meets Prince of Persia

[@baki484]

Arkham City has those elements as well.

[@EchoDoctrine]

Its so good. I think Asylum does Metroivania the best because its a tighter smaller area so you come across more things you don’t know how to access and then you get upgraded and come back. Smaller area means more going back and forth in that area. Arkham City still has this too but more open world. Personally City is my favorite story but I actually like Asylum better…. I think. Boy, i love them all. The tank sections in Knight i dislike and honestly i need to replay Origins because I can’t remember how i felt about that one. Lol Perfect time to play them all is now since Sushi Squad is so disappointing.

[@mackeym10]

8:30 Even with that point at least mario nickname, Is jump man. So him jumping makes sense. But when you have characters like king shark and captain boomerang, I'm expecting not guns Especially when they're awesome supervillain. I expect more interesting ways too fight plp.

[@hotcyder]

That’s the big thing. Shark’s movement is kinda cool in a Hulk Ultimate Destruction way but he just uses a Gatling Gun to fight people lol

[@mackeym10]

@hotcyder Like isn't he king of ocean. Why not give him Aquaman's Trident and allow him to do water based attacks. Speaking of which. Where the fuck is aquaman? Isn't he part of the main Justice League team?

[@raysure1345]

Trash can game

[@bigalgames7963]

Who did?

[@davinperry5648]

I do not like SKJL, I do not like them Sam I am.

[@Mar13_Gr33n_]

The fact that I only clicked this video because of the gorgeous thumbnail. Love it

[@lumirairazbyte9697]

Now review the other 3 live-service games: The almost forgotten Square Enix’s Foamstars, the Sony’s in-house Helldivers 2 and the problematic Ubisoft’s Skull & Bones.

[@hotcyder]

subscribe to the hotcyder patreono so i can afford a PS5 for the first two

[@theblobconsumes4859]

​@@hotcyder Helldivers 2 is on PC

[@mravg79]

@@hotcyderhelldivers are also on pc :)

[@EchoDoctrine]

This game sucks, for too many reasons to list here. Do yourselves a favor, avoid this. Or wait for free to play since player counts on steam are under 4,000. Its DOA

[@0XDDCC]

Final Fantasy XVI and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 are far superior and every single thing then this bad game.

[@zackwarrington7272]

Nobody liked it. It is a trash fire. Dead within the year no doubt. 13 DLCs, I'd be surprised if they make even 3.

[@bananabike279]

Sucks to hear the game isn't received well, I hope this won't result in Rocksteady shutting down

[@fatmanjstyle5306]

I do, they’re no longer what they used to be. The writers are for “modern audiences” now. I don’t want a JL or superman game from the new rocksteady. So it’s over

[@gravekeepersven82]

The OG team of rock steady left a year ago to do their own thing.

[@RudeCanine]

Great video, thank you Mr. Cider. Since this is my first video of yours I would love to offer you some feedback. You have a quite sibilant voice, I think your viewers would benefit if you would use a de-esser on your voicetrack in premiere. Thank you!

[@martinfiala2712]

I Like This Game

[@scheevyjenkinz8444]

I can't wait for the dlc. Story was solid in my opinion, but I'm a fan of DC more than the Arkham batman. I laughed when she punched him in the face in Luther's lab. And if you're really paying attention to the story and listening to the codex things, you'll be able to realize that he wasn't even the batman of that universe 😂 you people are hating just to hate

[@DopeOnezScoob]

So basically like everyone else you want a Batman game and not a looter shooter like this game is . All looters is the same build focus end game focused doing the same thing on repeat trying to get higher . Yall just mad they killed fictional characters that may just be clones . Stop crying 😂🙄

[@hotcyder]

I just wanted a good video game

[@eduardoflorescarralero6834]

Ppl really judgin the game and it aint finished XD

[@brandonworron1658]

​@slimyyetsatisfying6637 The story they did release is super solid foundation though. It makes you look foward to where the rest of the story goes. Everyone just has a hate boner because its set in the arkham universe