In the wake of DC-related gaming franchises since Batman: Arkham Knight in 2015, fans have been left without any AAA DC games to look forward to besides titles related to LEGO and Telltale’s episodic Batman series. It only makes sense, then, that the two developers who would eventually produce the next two AAA DC titles are WB Games Montreal and Rocksteady, both of whom were responsible for delivering the Batman: Arkham series and its related content.
WB Games Montreal is developing Gotham Knights, while Rocksteady is developing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Upon announcement of both games, fans were understandably alarmed to learn that Batman would not be a playable protagonist in either. Instead, both games feature new slates of playable characters in either single-player or co-op, where all members of Gotham Knights’ Bat Family are playable and all members of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s Task Force X are playable. Therefore, Gotham Knights is an appetizer that can prepare fans for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s main course.
Gotham Knights Is a Nice Bookend for DC in 2022
Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League were both originally scheduled to release in 2022. This has obviously changed since Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League announced its delay into 2023, and fans will have to wait even longer now before the launch of Rocksteady’s newest game.
It is undetermined whether Gotham Knights was deemed truly ready for a 2022 release and therefore did not need a delay itself, or if a delay was an option that only Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was offered. But either way, Gotham Knights’ insistence on releasing this year ensures that fans will still be receiving at least one of these titles in 2022.
Thanks to announcements shared during Summer Game Fest, the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase, and other seemingly impromptu showcases this summer, fans are aware that the end of 2022 is already saturated with many highly anticipated games. These games include Hogwarts Legacy, The Last of Us Part 1, The Callisto Protocol, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and potentially even God of War: Ragnarok.
For DC to include Gotham Knights in this mixture of incredibly popular and brand-new IPs is a favorable way to bookend the year. This way, DC and Warner Bros. can end the year having put out another AAA game with the knowledge that another will be releasing at some point in the new year.
Either game may realistically be pursued as a franchise with future sequels or prequels, especially since Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League belongs to Batman: Arkham’s continuity. Gotham Knights thus paves the way for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, dipping its toe into the water, so to speak, and can bridge the excitement for DC-related games much sooner following Gotham Knights’ release.
The interesting part about this release gap is that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League benefits regardless of how Gotham Knights is perceived. If Gotham Knights is received positively, fans will be even more excited for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League due to its potential as another successful DC property; if Gotham Knights is received negatively, fans will be excited for Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League due to everything that makes it fundamentally different from Gotham Knights.
Co-op in Gotham Knights Can Prepare Players for Suicide Squad
One of the most significant features Gotham Knights boasts is two-player co-op that will be available for the entirety of the game. Players can choose to experience it wholly in single-player if they wish; Gotham Knights fans can play as one character the entire time or swamp between whichever characters they want, and playing in co-op will let fans choose two of the same Gotham Knights character if they desire to both be Batgirl, for instance. This will likely be how a lot of players decide to experience Gotham Knights, but aside from how influential co-op will be in Gotham Knights, it will also affect how players perceive the co-op in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
The transitional leap from two-player co-op in Gotham Knights to four-player co-op in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will hopefully be much smoother as a result of the former releasing sooner, affording players time with co-op as a fundamental part of gameplay before it is reprised extensively in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Of course, there are many fans of each game that are likely to only play them in single-player.
For anyone who looks at either of these games and is more inclined to play them due to co-op, Gotham Knights proves once again how it behaves as a pre-show for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Further, if one or both of these games sees success due to their co-op features, it could be possible that future DC titles capitalize on it and implement co-op, whether they maintain a narrative-driven, single-player focus or not.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Could Be Refreshing
Even if fans are excited for Gotham Knights, it is undeniable that it repeats mechanics and gameplay found in almost every other modern, AAA superhero game, let alone action-adventure games in general. In spite of being fundamentally different from the Batman: Arkham franchise’s combat, Gotham Knights’ combat has earned multiple comparisons to it for how similar it looks.
Gotham Knights is an action-RPG with action-adventure mechanics not unlike Batman: Arkham, but fans will notice Gotham Knights’ lack of a combo counter and a parry mechanic distinctively differentiate the two. But while these games are comparable to one another and others in relevant genres, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is neither a hack-and-slash nor a rhythmic beat-’em-up.
Instead, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is the latest in a long line of multiplayer, four-player PvE shooters, but as a superhero game it is relatively authentic and refreshing. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League shares more similarities with games like Sunset Overdrive than it does with Gotham Knights, so it will be interesting to see how the reception to Gotham Knights affects the perception fans presently have of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.