It’s clear that British studio Rocksteady is one of the top developers in the video game world, so it makes sense that gamers worldwide are looking forward to their upcoming game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Because there’s no doubt that Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham games were stunning, letting people play as the Caped Crusader (aka Batman), hunting down supervillains in the dark streets of Gotham City. The latest game in the series, Batman: Arkham Knight, definitely counts amongst the best superhero games ever made.
So obviously people have high expectations for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, even if you won’t be playing a superhero here. Actually, players take control of Task Force X, who’s on a mission to stop the Justice League, who’s under the control of supervillain Brainiac. Playing as Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark and Captain Boomerang, players will take on the likes of Superman and the Flash in Rocksteady upcoming game. The game can be played co-operatively or in single player mode, but does require an Internet connection in either case.
The game’s always online requirement is something that gamers have been moaning about, while a recent “behind the scenes” video shown during Sony’s State of Play was met with a tepid response from Rocksteady fans.
Maybe, then, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the game will seemingly be delayed out of 2023, as was recently covered on GameSpot.
This follows a Bloomberg report (via Eurogamer) which claimed that the game would be delayed until “later this year”. If such a delay is true, however, publisher Warner Bros. is remaining tight-lipped about it (for the time being at least), as officially the game is still slated to launch on May 26 this year.
But industry insider Jeff Grub claimed in a podcast that the game will be pushed out of 2023 in favor of a release next year. “Listen, I don’t want to like cause a panic or anything, but I heard it’s not even coming this year”, said Grubb, saying his source for this rumor is “very good”.
A delay for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League does make sense though, taking into account that pushing the game’s release to later in 2023 or 2024 would move it out of a release window which includes blockbuster games like Final Fantasy XVI and Nintendo’s eagerly awaited Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
There’s also the negative feedback the game got recently, but apparently any delay will be for polishing the game before release, and not overhauling its gameplay according to the Bloomberg report.
This may be a disappointment for those who were eager to get their hands on Rocksteady’s upcoming game. Because while we got another superhero game this year from Warner Bros. – Gotham Knights – it turned out to be a disappointment for many (as well as a controversial game too). Despite being billed as a spiritual successor to the Batman: Arkham games by some, it was nowhere near in quality to Rocksteady’s Batman games according to most reviews.
Here’s hoping then, that if Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is actually delayed this gives Rocksteady enough time to produce a game that lives up to its earlier Batman: Arkham saga when it launches sometime in the future.