DC's FanDome event for 2021 has wrapped up, giving fans a look at the upcoming stories that they can expect to see their favorite characters embark on. It also included new story trailers for two of DC's upcoming video game titles, Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. While fans are still waiting for a look at gameplay from either of the two games, there are already some design decisions that many are hoping the games get right.
For inspiration on how both games can do so, there are numerous similar titles that both games should draw from. One of these, in particular, is the recently released co-op zombie shooter Back 4 Blood. There are many parts of Back 4 Blood that are extremely successful, but there are some other aspects that players have been more disappointed with. One of those that Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad should both learn from is how Back 4 Blood drops the ball for singleplayer.
How Back 4 Blood Seems Similar to Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad
While Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League may not have players gunning down hordes of zombies, there are some structural similarities that all three games seem to share.
Firstly, all three look to have co-op focused gameplay, even though Gotham Knights has only been confirmed to support two players at a time. Back 4 Blood also sees players running through a long campaign of missions, with a loose story tying them all together. It seems likely for Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad to feature a similar structure that lets players go through the missions in the linear progression, or mix it up to replay missions in any order they want to.
Another aspect of Back 4 Blood that will appear in DC's upcoming titles is every character having unique aspects to them that influence how players approach missions. While character abilities in Back 4 Blood are more subtle than in other games, they still help players mix up their playstyles and coordinate with one another to make sure they have a good team composition, especially on higher difficulties.
This will undoubtedly be true for characters in Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad, which should help encourage players to play with friends and to check out the different ways that the game can be played. However, this also plays into how Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad should succeed, where Back 4 Blood hasn't.
The Biggest Failure of Back 4 Blood
Many players were disappointed just before Back 4 Blood was released because it was revealed that players would not be able to unlock characters, achievements, or supply points when playing the game in singleplayer. This is because playing offline gives players access to all of Back 4 Blood's cards to build decks with and access during missions. This keeps singleplayer gamers from unlocking many of the best rewards in Back 4 Blood, as well as not even tracking how players perform during their matches, making the mode feel extremely tacked onto the multiplayer experience.
The lackluster singleplayer experience has led to many Back 4 Blood players voicing their frustration and saying that it feels as though the game punishes players who don't want to be matched with random players online.
The developer Turtlerock Studios has said that it is looking into changing the experience to better serve players who want to play alone, but for now, the game undoubtedly favors those who have friends to experience it with or who don't mind being put into games with random people. Back 4 Blood's decision to hamper the experience of singleplayer fans seems to be a major misstep for the title, and is one that Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad should definitely pay attention to.
How Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad Can Avoid a Similar Mistake
Gotham Knights will feature four characters for players to learn and master. It is unclear whether players will be able to pick which characters they play during missions, or if the game will dictate who can be played depending on Gotham Knights' storyline. Regardless of how it is handled, solo players should be able to have a bot with them at all times. If they can choose their character, players should also be able to choose who their bot plays as well to ensure that the characters play well together. If players can't choose what characters tackle the mission, they should at least be able to choose which of the mission's two characters they want to control.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, on the other hand, has shown four player characters that can all be played in co-op. The developers have confirmed that during singleplayer, players will have three bots controlling the other characters, similar to Back 4 Blood. However, Suicide Squad should ensure that playing alone is still rewarding and engaging by allowing players to progress through singleplayer, as well as making the bots skilled enough to help the player and not feel useless. That will allow players to enjoy Suicide Squad's story and characters regardless of how they prefer to play, while also making all players feel welcome and supported.
It will be very interesting to see how Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League shape up when they eventually release. How they handle singleplayer progression and systems will likely depend largely on the mechanics that surround their stories and multiplayer, so it should be sometime before players get an understanding of how it will work. However, the games decide to do it, though, both Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad should make sure that they don't over-focus on multiplayer and exclude their players who want to experience the games alone.
Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League both release in 2022 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.