There’s no denying the phenomenal success of the Arkham games. Since coming out of the gate strong with Batman: Arkham Asylum in 2009, they’ve all been critical and commercial hits, as well as massively influential on the wider industry. (How many of the games that followed aped Arkham’s rhythmic combat and detective vision?) Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League – described as a ‘third-person action shooter’ – is a direct successor, set in the same universe… but what’s making the bat computer beep, whirr, and spit out reams of dot-matrix paper is just how different a beast this new title is shaping up to be.
Gotham City doesn’t feature; instead the action is shifting to the brighter, retro-futuristic Metropolis. You can still smash the teeth out of bad guys, but you can also riddle them with bullets, darting at more of a distance thanks to arenas that encourage traversal rather than standing your ground. Oh, and – of course – you’re not merely playing as reformed supervillains (well, supervillains behaving lest the bombs implanted within them get detonated), you’re facing up to brainwashed superheroes. Everything’s been flipped.
Unique skills set them apart, but every member of Task Force X (to give the squad its proper name) can easily traverse Metropolis.