Excited to learn more about Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League? Announced alongside Gotham Knights all the way back at the DC Fandome presentation in 2020, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will have us playing villains who have been recruited to save Metropolis when the heroes go bad.
Kill the Justice League is still a little while away after a delay landed it in 2023. We've got some interview, trailers, and info to look at though, and it looks as action-packed as any of Rocksteady's previous DC games. So, let's cover everything we know so far about Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
When is the Suicide Squad release date?
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was delayed in early 2022 and Rocksteady announced during the Game Awards that it will release on May 26, 2023.
Kill the Justice League was originally announced for 2022, while WB's other DC game Gotham Knights was planned for 2021. Both were delayed, with Gotham Knights eventually coming out on October 22, 2022.
It's worth noting that Rocksteady studio co-founders Jamie Walker and Sefton Hill announced that they'll be leaving the studio by the end of 2022. The announcement letter also reveals that Darius Sadeghian and co-founder Nathan Burlow will assume the roles of studio director and studio product director respectively.
Here are the Suicide Squad trailers we've seen so far
The first cinematic teaser trailer (opens in new tab) for Suicide Squad peppers in a decent amount of background on the dynamics of the gang, the terms of Task Force X, and the villains of the game. As you can guess, the villains are the protagonists in this story and the usual heroes are the villains instead.
The second trailer (opens in new tab) still doesn't feature any gameplay. It's a story trailer that hints at a lot of Arkham game callbacks. You can spot King Shark putting on the bowler hat the Riddler wore in Arkham City and Harley Quinn firing Batman's grapnel gun. Poison Ivy and Penguin appear to both be along for this story as well. Aside from that, trailer two mostly recaps the story setup we'd seen originally: the Justice League has gone rogue and our band of four villains is out to kill them under the direction of Amanda Waller.
Finally, at The Game Awards in 2021 we saw a gameplay trailer. Some pretty brutal attacks—King Shark just bites a guy's head off—were combined with slick movement as the characters fought running battles across the rooftops of an open world Metropolis.
Then at the Game Awards in 2022 we got the final release date and saw the Shadows trailer (opens in new tab), which revealed that Batman would be among our Justice League opponents, played by Kevin Conroy in his final performance as the Dark Knight.
What is Kill The Justice League's gameplay like?
In an interview following the reveal trailer (opens in new tab), Rocksteady creative director Sefton Hill says that Kill The Justice League is a hybrid between their prior Arkham games and some "powerful, awesome gunplay."
Rocksteady's Hill also references weapons that you'll develop over the course of the game, which may refer to a system for upgrading or customizing each villain's signature weapons.
Rocksteady has also confirmed that Metropolis is an open world. Hill calls it the "fifth character" of the game, the way that they approached Gotham in past games.
What's the Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League story?
Kill the Justice League is part of the Arkhamverse, meaning it carries forward the story of Arkham Knight, though the story is picking up in Metropolis instead of Gotham.
We don't know much about what's going on in Metropolis beyond an invasion by Brainiac, but it seems to be quite a mess. Various members of the Justice League have gone rogue under Brianiac's control, and only Task Force X, aka the Suicide Squad, can stop them.
The Squad take tactical directions from their boss, task force founder Amanda Waller. If you're not familiar with the Suicide Squad already, their incentive to stay in line, and in the line of fire, are deadly nano-bombs injected into their heads when Waller conscripts them into the crew.
Which characters are on the Suicide Squad?
The Suicide Squad sends dangerous super villain convicts on equally dangerous missions in return for reduced prison sentences. The government black-ops squad has had a huge number of members in the DC Universe. Kill the Justice League will star four of the bunch: Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark, and Captain Boomerang.
Harley Quinn
Harley is as bombastic as ever in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. From the footage we've seen, she'll use her acrobatics to grapple through the city's architecture while firing light guns, before getting up-close and personal with her bat and ball. Wait that's not a ball, that's a bomb she's shoved into an enemy's mouth. I'm always getting those mixed up.
Deadshot
As the name suggests, Deadshot is pretty good at shooting. His specialty is guns at long range but as the trailers show, he also has a backpack that he can use to glide above enemies to get to better vantage points for his kit. Sniping enemies off one-by-one while jetting from rooftop to rooftop looks, frankly, badass.
King Shark
King Shark is the brawler of the bunch but also has a minigun for good measure. I'd prefer to take the minigun though, rather than King Shark getting his hands on me and ripping my head off with his teeth. Just personal preference. As for his movement, King Shark can super jump and then hit the ground with enough force to damage enemies around him in a shockwave.
Captain Boomerang
Boomerang is in his name, but the Captain also likes a gun or two too. Deadshot performs well from afar but Captain Boomerang seems to prefer a shotgun or a pistol in his arsenal. Additionally, he has his own teleportation abilities where he can make small aerial jumps by seemingly throwing his boomerang where he intends to go. Oh, and he's great at beefing with the Justice League. Like really good at getting them to fight the Squad by recording videos where he's mean to his nemesis, The Flash. That sort of thing.
The "villains" and wider cast
The set up for Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League is kind of apparent. You're playing as the Squad and you're out to kill the Justice League. They've not suddenly become the bad guys, though, they're under the influence of big bad Brainiac who is controlling their actions. From the info we've had so far, we'll also take on The Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, and maybe Wonder Woman, though it also looks like we'll get to team up with her as perhaps the only member of the Justice League who hasn't been taken over.
We can expect to encounter other DC characters such as the Penguin and Lex Luthor, and presumably plenty more.
Suicide Squad's campaign can be singleplayer or co-op
The Suicide Squad works as a unit but you the player can work alone if you want to. Rocksteady says that if you choose to play solo, the other three members of the squad will be handled by AI. You can pick a favorite team member to stick with, but you're also free to hop into the shoes of any team member at any time.
If you want to have friends drop in, they can take on the role of the other squad members for a total of four players in co-op. Rocksteady says that it's a seamless experience, meaning you can have friends join or drop out as needed and won't be forced to commit to solo or co-op during the campaign.
