Feel like that title is one word away from spreading an entirely different message
I must admit that even though I personally held no faith in Suicide League Gank the Justice Squad- I did think myself pretty firmly in the minority in this matter. I mean sure, the circles through which I travel, the people with whom I speak and share fandom with, they all agree that an online Live Service Suicide Squad game from the Arkham team that maintains very little of what made the original games work in favour of soulless trend chasing is a bit of an L for a once legendary development team. But that is kind of the nature of circles and cliques, right? They have something of the same opinion to one another. Outside of what I know, I remember hearing that Destiny 2 was beloved for a very long time. (I have trouble backing up whether that is a worthy adoration given that fact that Destiny 2 has some of the worst early game roadblocks of any online game I've ever played.)
Live Services are somewhat popular in the mysterious cadre of online games. That bizarre species of people who like to play through the same rough game day in and day out, competitively grinding their heads in the same matches chasing the same awards and dedicating large chunks of their freetime to keeping up with the weekly updates of a video game- which to me sounds like a hellish proposal, but what do I know- right? Of all the Ubisoft games that I regularly mock ruthlessly, the only one I can't touch because I simply know nothing about it, is The Division- which seems to maintain a pretty favourable relationship with it's runners. There is an audience, is what I'm trying to establish. So I thought my own feelings about the trash that was Suicide Squad would have some sort of push back.
Recently the Warner Team tried their luck at throwing together a working marketing campaign given their overall failure to make the game any sort of clear for those that actually wanted to get a read on the thing. I mean, being unable to tell whether or not the game is even an open world game is something of a red flag for any marketing department, almost as much as the constant clowning that every reveal event has had where people rag on the repetitive look of the enemy design, the barren open world, the identical looking playstyles and just the general lack of a worthwhile excuse for this game existing in the state that it does above and beyond- "That's the easiest way to monetise it all." Which, let's be honest, is probably the culprit behind everything at the end of the day. No need to get the Scooby gang in on it, we've wrapped this one up and unmasked the perp all by ourselves.
It was with some confidence, then, that Warner Bros. reached out to a bevy of popular video game journalist publications to get a review event underway. It would have to be a confident move given that the scared usually NDA impressions until the day of release. But perhaps a little healthy fear might have done this team some good because: 'uh oh!' First impressions aren't good! In fact- they're really bad! (By the standards of a VG publication) As it transpired the event was beset by networking issues that limited what would have been something of a full gaming day down to a couple of hours, and judging from the feedback received- this hear is not the kind of game that wins you over in a couple of hours. In fact, many of the impressions seem to echo all the surface level vibes that the gameplay trailers were giving us all.
Outlets found the game to be generic, uninspired, repetitive- every epithet under the sun. In fact, the only consistently positive point of note was the cutscenes. People seem to think that the tiny snippets of narrative they received would pertain to an entertaining narrative, but I have to question that in the long run. Afterall, we know the team are planning to throw in new DLC characters to sell to us, so presumably all of these character moments are just puppet work performed with easy swap-in-swap-out characters, essentially resulting in an impossibility of setting up meaningful character stakes or interactions because you need to be able to swap out Deadshot for Deathstroke at a moments notice in the script. There's only so far you can go to make a script like that carry any sort of weight, and I'm not sure that this game is going to be the one to crack the code.
Honestly, I haven't seen previews this scathing since I myself was involved in the early Beta for 'Homefront: The Revolution'; although that game was much more of a trainwreck than Suicide Squad could ever possibly be. And I can just bet that WB marketers were seeing the same impressions we were and just freaking out. They were tearing out their hair, crying and shaking, and then they made a drastic decision. A distraction measure. They suddenly released the NDA for the game's beta back in November in the hope that the impressions of the general public would be softer on the ears than what the stubborn and grumpy critics were dishing out. And to their absolute marketing credit, they were right! For the most part.
The average joe-schmo who specifically signed up in order to get the chance of being in specific beta tests was of course going to have a higher tolerance for mediocrity than the seasoned game critics who were dragged along to a scuffed event. Plus, said-joes even got to spend an extended amount of time with the game in it's early hours, giving them a chance to feel out the game and it's style. Which is probably why we have people that were very excited about their time with the game, praising the punchy shooting and flashy bursts of effects, eager to get just a little bit more of the game in their hands. But then there were those with cautious optimism that found the whole experience deeply unengaging. It seems that we've got another Marvel's Avengers on our hands, where those that want to love it find it easy, and every else just rolls their eyes and tries to deal with it.
On average, it seems that critical perception has finally shifted against the Live Service model of business in it's very spirit, and the general public might be someway along the path of doing exactly the same. You'd have thought companies would have learnt from the failures of their contemporaries where this path leads, but just like an old wrinkly fish trying to cross the street, it's time we load up our fists and teach this lesson again. Rocksteady should have known better. WB should have known better. And rather than double down in headscratching interviews telling everyone not to hold their breath for the next Arkham because, quote: "We really do kill the Justice League in this game!"- maybe it's about time the team start cooking up some elaborate 'Elseworlds' narrative excuse to get out of the franchise assassination which is happening here.
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