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Let this sink in: Rocksteady wasted a whole decade.

While I agree with your conclusion, OP, the premise is a little hyperbolic.

SS doesn't look like a mediocre game. Graphically, it's really strong. The production values are through the roof. It's just that the entire concept, i.e. Suicide Squad, is just so fucking dull and uninteresting.

Out of DC's entire roster of A-list superheroes, they go and make a game featuring a selection of characters that nobody fucking likes or wants to play. If they really wanted to make a villain-focused game, they should have made one about someone like Deathstroke ---but even then, don't waste Rocksteady's talents on that shit.

I don't blame Rocksteady. It's all WB's fault. You just know WB forced them to work on this shit. Because there is not a world where given the choice that Rocksteady would have selected to work on a SS game of their own volition. WB has been trying to make SS a thing since forever. They made two films plus that Birds of Prey abortion to keep trying to push this fucking vapid shit onto consumers.... and we don't give a shit, WB!!!! Get it into your thick fucking skulls.

I've said it many times, but a gritty TMNT game by Rocksteady should have been the obvious choice from WB. It would have catapulted the series back into popularity among the masses, sold fucking gangbusters and rejuvenated the brand so that it would be ripe again for merchandising, new non-shitty movies and TV shows.

....but nooo.... some thick-headed suit in the boardroom of DC/WB just has a raging hard-on for Harley Quinn (probably because they watched too much Corey Chase HQ cosplay) and they won't let this SS shit fucking die in a fire where it belongs.
I disagree on even the first part. OP is not utilizing hyperbole. It looks like shit compared to Demon Souls from 3 years ago, Rift Apart, Horizon, hell even Callisto protocol, dead space remake and GOW Ragnarok, some B listers graphically, look way better. Fucking Arkham Knight from 8 years ago arguably looks better.

The only production value showcase was the cutscene with WW and the flash and even then the cinematography and the cutscene direction seemed a bit... off? Especially compared to the Batman trilogy. It looks like they spent money on the JL guys and their inevitable boss fights given the title of the game but everything else frankly looks cheap. Second Son from 2014 looks more expensive.
 

ACESHIGH

Banned
Dude, what are you talking about? The Suicide Squad >>> The Avengers; and any comicbook connoisseur would agree with this.

I get any complains about the gameplay design, and I agree with a lot of those on many levels, but the setting, characters and story, as well as the presentation, have been absolutely top-notch across all the footage they've shown so far - above and beyond to what they achieved with the Arkham series in that regard.

I'll never understand the massive push WB have to the suicide squad over the last decade. Who the heck is captain boomerang, and that shark!!! I'd rather have a game starring BICLOPS.

Besides they want you to kill the JLA with that unlikable cast of characters? What about Batman neutralizing the JLA? They already have source material. Or a joker game? That would be nuts. Batman metal? Crisis on infinite earths?
 
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ABnormal

Member
This studio is just a shadow of its former self.

No surprise the founders have decided to leave it. It's become worthless trash.
That's the point: probably those who had the original vision and that were able to realize it (including probably some tech-heads), are no more there. Like happened with DICE.
 

kaizenkko

Member
I'm sad because I love Rocksteady games and consider the studio one of the best in the world, but the game shown yesterday is just a mess. It's an immense lack of creativity coming from a studio that was responsible for creating trends.

But I'm also happy because I wish all these GAAS were gone and no other studios ever did something like this again.
 
Was this game and genre forced upon them? did they have Batman or single player fatigue? This game reaps of a publisher wanting something very specific and chasing that Gaas money.
Yes, they had Batman fatigue. They mentioned being "done with Batman" in the period between the launch of the Season Of Infamy DLC for Arkham Knight and the release of Arkham VR--the VR game being a short but fun experience and basically a "once more for old time's sake" thing. Rocksteady wanted to do something new, hence why they pitched Superman. Suicide Squad was what they landed on, though in fairness to them I don't think they initially conceived it as a live service looter shooter. It seems to have been internally rebooted a few times until it became what it is now, something I'll never play.

It's easy to blame WB for what this game has become, and they should shoulder a lot if it. But how many years did Rocksteady spend on the game concept before it became this odious, soulless tumor on gaming? I find it hard to believe they couldn't have gotten it out as a proper, compelling SP game in 2019 or 2020 if they had a clear idea what the game was going to be. It reeks of WB coming in, rattling their sabers, and saying "you've been aimlessly noodling with this game for years and have nothing to show for it, so we'll tell you what the game is going to be--a heartless machine to recoup our ROI."
 
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NikuNashi

Member
Shame Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker probably signed some kind of bullshit NDA when they left the company. Because I'd love to hear exactly why they decided to leave when they did... given how trash this game looks. It must have been the reason.
Wasn't Sefton Hill in the video? Did he leave, I'm not up in this.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Wasn't Sefton Hill in the video? Did he leave, I'm not up in this.

Sefton was in the video yeah, credited as "founder" but in a sense of irony he left the studio late last year, alongside another founding studio director.

Interpret that as you will.
 

zizou6971

Neo Member
M7NqrOL.gif
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
Love superhero games, and I was pretty excited for this but it looks like it's falling into some of the worst conceits of the looter shooter genre, bullet sponges and samey uninteresting weapons.

If they wanted to make it more of a shooter then they should have gone the Sunset Overdrive route with a focus on varied, interesting weapons, instead of grinding up slight stat variations on the same shit.

Oh well, Spider Man 2 is gonna be good though, right?
 

Madflavor

Member
You know, I remember it took a long time before they showed off gameplay. For years when they showed off the game it was just cutscenes. I wonder if this is why.
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
Yes, they had Batman fatigue. They mentioned being "done with Batman" in the period between the launch of the Season Of Infamy DLC for Arkham Knight and the release of Arkham VR--the VR game being a short but fun experience and basically a "once more for old time's sake" thing. Rocksteady wanted to do something new, hence why they pitched Superman. Suicide Squad was what they landed on, though in fairness to them I don't think they initially conceived it as a live service looter shooter. It seems to have been internally rebooted a few times until it became what it is now, something I'll never play.

It's easy for hyperbole to exist when folks can just toss out comments like this with absolutely zero to back it up.

I disagree on even the first part. OP is not utilizing hyperbole. It looks like shit compared to Demon Souls from 3 years ago, Rift Apart, Horizon, hell even Callisto protocol, dead space remake and GOW Ragnarok, some B listers graphically, look way better. Fucking Arkham Knight from 8 years ago arguably looks better.

Uh huh.
 

ProtoByte

Member
This game is making Gotham Knights look like a masterpiece. As bad as that game's interpretations of its more appealing characters are, at least they do things that they should be doing in gameplay.
Harley's getting Tony Hawk Pro Skaters airtime, with less gravity actually her movements while she's got a minigun on her back. King Shark is somehow air dashing, and they have Deadshot double jumping with an invisible force at his feet, despite going through the effort to give him a goddamn jetpack.

Both games have the live service/multiplayer stink on them that manifests in different ways and while Suicide Squad is worse, it does go to show just how ill fit that design philosophy is for this stuff. I can see Monolith's Wonder Woman game being relief from this one-two punch of dogshit, even if it's not fantastic.
 

Topher

Gold Member
The combat flow of Batman is some of my favorite of all-time. They used those same mechanics in Mad Max and Shadow of Mordor. Spider-man also incorporated much of it in its gameplay. So no Gotham Knights released and they left that out which pissed me off. Now it doesn't look like Suicide has it either. The Mordor series is all but dead, as is Mad Max. Is Spider-man seriously the only game going forward to use the combat that made Batman so popular? That is a shame.
 

hyperbertha

Member
The combat flow of Batman is some of my favorite of all-time. They used those same mechanics in Mad Max and Shadow of Mordor. Spider-man also incorporated much of it in its gameplay. So no Gotham Knights released and they left that out which pissed me off. Now it doesn't look like Suicide has it either. The Mordor series is all but dead, as is Mad Max. Is Spider-man seriously the only game going forward to use the combat that made Batman so popular? That is a shame.
Spiderman's rendition is weak to say the least. It has none of the polish or smoothness or challenge. Hope 2 is a major upgrade.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Spiderman's rendition is weak to say the least. It has none of the polish or smoothness or challenge. Hope 2 is a major upgrade.

I thought they did a really good job incorporating webslinging into the flow. And I disagree with the challenge part. Like Batman, if you don't know what moves to use against specific enemies, you'll get clobbered. I also think they improved on the formula with the additional gadgets and spider powers.
 

StueyDuck

Member
I don't think the game looks amazing In anyway shape or form. But it looks like dumb fun to me for a weekend or two of co-op with mates.

My question is what were people's expectations really?

Arkham knight wasn't as beloved as the prior two entries. And since then insomniac has come and eaten their cake. Were people expecting a gotham knights beat em up?

I understand if you don't like the type of game it is. But we've known for a while now that it was going to be this... a gaas co-op something.

So what did people expect In the 2+ years since it was originally shown that the final gameplay trailer "let them down".

It's almost exactly what I expected. Aside from being more a TPS than melee focused
 
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StereoVsn

Member
What's weird to me is basically focus on unpopular B-team. Batman is understandable. If the game took mainstream Justice League or even second echelon, it would be understandable, but Suicide Squad is unpopular.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
Turned that shit into a game where Harley Quinn swings around like Spider-Man, Sharkman jumps around like the Hulk, and Deadshot is a poor man’s Iron Man.

The gameplay looked absolutely ridiculous.
 
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Urban

Member
It doesn't feel like a game what develops want to make but a game that the management/shareholders wants to create.
 

TLZ

Banned
Turned that shit into a game where Harley Quinn swings around like Spider-Man, Sharkman jumps around like the Hulk, and Deadshot is a poor man’s Iron Man.

The gameplay looked absolutely ridiculous.
The seconds I watched of it looked like fortnite.
 

Hoppa

Member
If they made a game like this with a variety of DC villains it could be cool but it’s limited to C tier characters + Harley
 

amigastar

Member
The game looks bad for sure but my attention dropped immediatly when i saw gameplay. So its one of hundred games i'm not interested in and ignore.
 
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Mr.Phoenix

Member
A dev at the helm makes a game that when good, ends up making a ton of money.

corporate at the helm, tend to want money, and then put a game together that they hope makes it.

The latter usually ends up like this.
 
Let this sink in. Arkham Asylum was great. Then they just copied that with worse open world level design and that's all they've ever done.

You guys need to get better at spotting this stuff in advance.
Asylum was one of the few examples of a Non-Prime 3D Metroidvania and I was disappointed that it turned into an open world game with City.

Same thing happened with Dark Souls. DaS1 was basically a 3D Metroidvania level design wise, and since then the games haven’t really done that same approach. Arguably it matters less in From games since the combat, build options, enemy placement design, and Bosses can work regardless of world design. When it comes to those games I don’t mind the change and I love all of them.

Arkham games though don’t have the best combat, or bosses. They kinda coast on it being Batman with solid gameplay and admittedly nailing the aesthetics. But Asylum had pretty good Metroidvania design, which was nice. City and onward got less inspired and more bloated as it went. But Batman was always going to attract the lowest common denominator audience, so they had to keep making bigger and “better” games to appear to be outdoing the previous ones.
 

Superkewl

Gold Member
It actually reminded me of Crackdown…..but not as good. I love Crackdown but this did not look like a game made over 8 years and for next gen consoles. Pretty poor! Gaming is in a bad spot these days.
That was my first thought as well. I mean the crackdown for the 360, not the most recent one
 
I'll never understand the massive push WB have to the suicide squad over the last decade. Who the heck is captain boomerang, and that shark!!! I'd rather have a game starring BICLOPS.

Besides they want you to kill the JLA with that unlikable cast of characters? What about Batman neutralizing the JLA? They already have source material. Or a joker game? That would be nuts. Batman metal? Crisis on infinite earths?

They are trying to make Harley Quinn a major revenue driver. Was interesting that they didn't incorporate peacemaker here. Deathstroke would have been a better choice over Deadshot too. Kind of the worst cast they could put together here.

They should have gone with the Superman game, which could have ushered in a Justice League follow-up.
 
I don't think the game looks amazing In anyway shape or form. But it looks like dumb fun to me for a weekend or two of co-op with mates.

My question is what were people's expectations really?

Arkham knight wasn't as beloved as the prior two entries. And since then insomniac has come and eaten their cake. Were people expecting a gotham knights beat em up?

I understand if you don't like the type of game it is. But we've known for a while now that it was going to be this... a gaas co-op something.

So what did people expect In the 2+ years since it was originally shown that the final gameplay trailer "let them down".

It's almost exactly what I expected. Aside from being more a TPS than a brawler

Insomniac should hire Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker and create a sister studio. Rocksteady is undoubtedly dead after this, but I think they still have a ton of potential. I think they could help with Wolverine.
 

SSfox

Member
Yeah sadly, and I'm someone who always stated that Batman trilogy is legendary and even better than the excellent Spiderman PS4

So yeah Spiderman 2 seems to be the only quality superhero game this gen so far, maybe Wonderwoman too if they won't fuck it up.
 
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Doesn’t look great BUT - I do recall before it was released, Arkham Asylum also didn’t look good, was a laughing stock/mocked. The gameplay/the style they were pushing, no one bought in at the time

And then…the game came out and blew everyone away. It was a legit shocker at the time
 

Hal.

Member
Graphics look good but the gameplay looks boring as shit.

Asylum was absolutely amazing but tbh it was a one and done for me, City didn't grab me in the same way and Knight felt way too bloated.
 
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