Summary
- Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is generating a lot of buzz due to its live-service approach and the challenges faced by the industry in developing such games.
- The newly announced "Social Squad" feature allows players to replace Squad members with characters from other players, giving them a chance to earn resources and loot even while they're offline.
- The AFK farming potential of this feature is enticing and could alleviate FOMO (fear of missing out) for players, although it may mostly benefit top players and streamers.
Set to come out in just a couple of weeks, on February 2, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is already one of the most talked-about games of the year and will likely retain this title for the remainder of 2024, although not always for the best of reasons. The discourse around Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League's live-service approach has been a difficult one, possibly due to a certain fatigue experienced by players with games that are demanding in terms of commitment, but also due to the issues faced by the industry with developing such games. Examples come from The Last of Us Multiplayer being canceled or Rockstar seemingly canceling GTA 5 DLCs and Bully 2 to keep GTA Online going. However, for those excited about Suicide Squad, there may already be a clear AFK farm to reduce the pressure of its live-service elements.
Games like Destiny 2 and Fortnite are proof that live-service titles can be very successful, but they do tend to stretch players too thin - especially if they actively spend time on multiple of these games. This is why players are often excited about finding exploits that allow them to gain extra resources, items, or experience easily, and Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League's recent Discord reveals show that Rocksteady may be intentionally going this route.
No Matter What It Does, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is Facing an Uphill Battle
Rocksteady's upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League can't seem to escape criticism, regardless of the developer's attempts to negate it.
How Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League Tackles Live-Service Fatigue and FOMO
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League's Social Squad Feature is a Game-Changer
On January 12, Rocksteady developers held a Q and A session on Discord, answering some of the most pressing questions from the community. One of the most exciting reveals is that Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League's DLC may be Joker-themed, as hinted by an image posted by the devs after commenting on the current iteration of the endgame gameplay loop, but there's one newly announced feature that fans shouldn't sleep on, called "Social Squad."
What Social Squad does is allow players who prefer solo play to select members of the Squad they're not using and replace them with characters that belong to any other player. This is not restricted to friends, either, so one can go to the leaderboards for the game and select the top players' characters to join their Squad, or maybe do this with the characters used by streamers or people they know. Not only do these Squad members retain their original gear and builds, possibly helping out Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League players out, but the owners of those characters also receive a portion of the loot and experience from the session.
How Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League's AFK Farm Could Work
This means that, hypothetically, anyone active in the game could get resources and items when they login based on how much and for how long their characters were used, essentially farming while AFK. The implications of the Social Squad feature are endless, as players have more of a reason to level and gear up all their Squad members to increase the chance they are used while they're offline, considering the incentive of obtaining resources and loot for free is quite alluring. Suicide Squad players can also form groups with their friends and make sure everyone is constantly getting items, even when offline.
There could be a few exploits players may find with this feature, but it's a nice addition that does alleviate the potential FOMO (fear of missing out) of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League's live-service approach. Having this as a permanent feature in the game rather than a one-off exploit also helps the game's overall post-launch health, even though one could argue that it will mostly be the best players and streamers to benefit from this feature the most when they will likely not need it. Still, even if just for the helping out part, the Social Squad does seem like a good change of pace from other live-service titles, and just how much one can AFK farm with it remains to be seen.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 59 /100 Critics Rec: 20%
- Released
- February 2, 2024
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Rocksteady Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Warner Bros. Games
WHERE TO PLAY
Play as the Suicide Squad to take down the World’s Greatest DC Super Heroes, The Justice League. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, is a genre-defying, action-adventure third-person shooter from Rocksteady Studios, creators of the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham series.
- Franchise
- Suicide Squad
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- Action, Adventure, Open-World
