Suicide Squad – Kill The Justice League review: Rebels without a cause

But Flash doesn’t give up this information willingly, having been corrupted like many other Justice League superheroes by megavillain Brainiac. Instead, Flash confesses under duress to the Lasso of Truth wielded by Wonder Woman, the only Justice League member to avoid Brainiac’s brainwashing.

So Flash’s revelation explains the surprising subtitle to this new Suicide Squad adventure from Rocksteady, the development team that brought us the peerless Batman: Arkham Knight in 2016. Four reprobates with a criminal past have been sprung from prison to take down the rogue Justice League and, ultimately, Brainiac himself.

If you found all that exposition exhausting, just wait until you play the game itself, a co-op loot shooter with lots to say but very few ways to say it.

First the good, though. The prologue sets up the bickering band of misfits comprising Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Boomerang and King Shark, who may not be familiar names if you haven’t seen the movies or read the comics. None has much in the way of superpowers unless you count their amusingly stellar banter, a mix of sarcasm, droll ripostes and outright hostility.

Each of the four has their own method of rapid traversal in the open and towering spaces of Metropolis – Harley Quinn can swing from a drone, Shark has a Hulk-like uber-jump, Deadshot owns a jetpack and Boomerang can teleport. That anchors the gameplay firmly on high-speed pinging around arenas while shooting or thumping an assortment of enemies.

Rocksteady made its name with the methodical punch and counter-punch of the Batman games but Suicide Squad presses the fast-forward button and there seems little room for skilled combat. Given the pace of a mile-a-minute, the player is reduced to hit and hope as the screen fills with numbers, indicators and targets, especially when working with three others in co-op.

Single-player is entirely possible – enabling you switch at will between the four characters – and somewhat preferable until you begin to notice the recurring pattern of enemies and missions. Ultimately, it’s this lack of variation – and the generally unappealing nature of the guns at your disposal – that drains Kill The Justice League of its long-term appeal. Sure, you’ll regularly stumble on a new weapon or be handed it as a reward. But doesn’t mean it feels meaningfully different from the ones already in your pocket – a key driver in a good loot shooter.

As a multiplayer co-op game, it fares marginally better but it’s hard to shake the sense that you’re witnessing a lot of sound and fury that signifies little. With a handful of notable exceptions, the mission quests blur into one another with their bullet-sponge enemies and dearth of game-changing upgrades in the skill trees.

This hollowness at the core marks Suicide Squad down as a missed opportunity given Rocksteady’s pedigree and the vibrant personality on show in the down time between the lack-lustre shootouts.