The Suicide Squad enters the Borderlands

With mechanics like gear score, upgradeable weapons, and differing weapon manufacturers, Kill The Justice League seems less like an Arkham City and more like a Borderlands game.

During Sony’s first State of Play of 2023, we were offered an extended look at Rocksteady’s first game in a handful of years — Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League.

In Kill The Justice League, the titular doomed heroes are tasked with saving Metropolis from a Justice League corrupted by Brainiac. Despite the fact you won’t be playing as Batman, Kill The Justice League knows what players want, and that’s to swoop around a dark metropolis — one of the first scenes of gameplay is Harley Quinn grappling through the air. It looks like the villains you’ll get to play as (Harley Quinn, King Shark, Captain Boomerang, and Deadshot) will have their own unique flying mechanics, which looked pretty sick in the featurette.

Kill The Justice League supports up to four-player online co-op and will be supported post-launch with new content, new playable characters, and a battle pass the developers said would feature cosmetics like new outfits only. With features like a gear score mechanic and the ability to upgrade every weapon as well as weapons you can acquire from different manufacturers, Kill The Justice League seems a little less like Arkham City and more like a Borderlands game.

Kill the Justice League has popped up in previous States of Play and on The Game Awards’ stage, but development hiccups have pushed the game’s release back. Originally slated for a 2022 release, the game is now scheduled for May 26th — a fitting date for a game titled “Suicide Squad,” considering The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom comes out a couple of weeks earlier.

I’m really glad DC’s new vision of trying to keep actors and the characters they portray consistent across TV and films won’t affect Kill the Justice League. For as much as I love Viola Davis as Amanda Waller in the movies, voice acting in a video game is a different beast requiring a separate but no less important set of skills. Debra Wilson, who plays Waller in KTJL, is just too damn good to let go. (Hi, it’s me, video game journalism’s biggest Debra Wilson stan.) Kill The Justice League will also feature the late Kevin Conroy’s last performance as Batman, which will no doubt be extremely emotional for any kid who grew up watching Batman: The Animated Series in the ’90s.

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League launches on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC on May 26th.