Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has been out for over a month now. I know, time is weird. It feels like it was only yesterday that we were all wondering when the game would actually even release, given the string of delays it received. Pair that with multiple vague responses as to why there’s been so much push back and you’ve got a multiverse of confused fans.
Well now the game is out, and maybe you’re among those “squadding up” to take out those fallen titans of comic history, or could be you’re just curious to know how the game is doing over a month out. Either way, we’ve got your back. Here’s the current state of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League.
Server issues still plague Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
First off, for those taking the battle to Braniac, you might be curious to know how many players are out there in Metropolis with you. As of the time of this writing, the game is sitting at roughly 800 concurrent players on Steam via SteamDB.
The site lists the all-time peak for last month’s player count as 13,459, a number that SteamCharts concurs with. It’s also a number that many players might be feeling the reality of right now too, as matchmaking tends to be a bit of an ongoing crisis. Server issues have been a consistent complaint from the community since the game’s launch, and the delay of the game’s upcoming patch has been met with criticism – especially considering it’s supposed to be fixing many of the game-busting issues that the last patch delivered.
Honestly, as someone who’s been playing the game since a week after launch, I can confirm that the current state of multiplayer is still pretty poor. Getting into a game isn’t impossible, but it’s not easy. Even with a multiplayer lobby successfully launched, there’s no guarantee you and your squad won’t run into a myriad of latency issues and awkward bugs.
Teaching players how to actually play the characters
It isn’t all storm clouds and tentacle monsters though, Suicide Squad Kills the Justice League is seeing a major update go live at the end of the month. Rocksteady promises this update will bring much needed repairs alongside a new meta and a new character that could be enough to at least re-spark interest in the title. The studio talks about the upcoming patch in a developer update, which you can the full rundown of here.
The update mainly features information on new meta builds of the four currently playable characters; Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark. As a certified “Boomer shooter,” I only watched the Captain Boomerang breakdown in full. For what it’s worth, it offered a fairly detailed look at the character’s playstyle, abilities and gear. Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is pretty fast-paced, and despite a cluster of in-game prompts and text wall pop-ups, it can be confusing learning how to play your favorite Squad member. Regardless of your level, it might suit you to give one or all of these videos a glance over just to get familiarized with the game’s core mechanics. You might even find the build that works best for you to quickly plow through those repetitive promethium farming missions.
Season 1 starts an Elseworlds journey
As far as the actual current state of the game beyond meta-builds, Rocksteady had this to say in the update’s official statement:
We know that many of you are eagerly awaiting the next patch, which will include many fixes and improvements to ongoing issues. This patch will be releasing on Tuesday, March 26 and will include the download for Season 1, which will go live on Thursday, March 28.
Season 1 officially marks the beginning of Rocksteady’s seemingly lengthy content map for SSKJL. We’ve known about the developer’s intentions for a while now, but it doesn’t make the reality of this live-service multiverse any less daunting as we near the launch date. All eyes are on the game’s upcoming first squad addition, the Joker. This Joker will be an Elseworlds take on the character that players will get to play as for free starting March 28th.
This new Joker comes with a range of new gear (including a Mad Hatter inspired weapon teased at the end of the update), new missions and a mountain of expectations. Now that the “endgame” has been revealed to be a practically endless pool of multiversal opportunities, players are eagerly waiting to see if Rocksteady can spark some new interest in the title – as well as hopefully fix many of the issues plaguing the game since launch.
Fixes are also incoming
The update continues:
Additionally, we’re continuing to work on back-end fixes to improve login, load time and multiplayer issues. Earlier this week we implemented a back-end fix and have already seen improvements, which we think will alleviate issues for a number of our players. For players still experiencing multiplayer or load time issues, we also recommend resetting your custom key bindings and/or controller layout to default. This should help reduce these issues for more players while we work on a solution for all players!
This fix also included an improvement to matchmaking, making it easier for you all to find other players to join your Squad in multiplayer sessions.
The hopes for a fix-all patch might seem outlandish at this point, as not all of the problems the game is facing are internal. Interest in a live-service follow up to Rocksteady’s previous DC ventures, the Arkham series, were low. A fact reflected in the ever-declining player count of SSKJL. Though the game boasts impressive graphics and a massive open-world map, these positive features are bogg by very basic gameplay and a story that is a backdrop to the live-service component of the title. A patch is critical — to fix the bugs affecting much of the current player count, but it also might not increase interest in the game for those who have already decided to stay away.
That all basically lies on the upcoming Season 1 update. The addition of Joker may bring with it new enemy types, new scenarios and new improvements to many of the lackluster mechanics found in the game’s current meta – it may not. We’ll have to wait and see when Season 1 drops for free on March 28th. Until then, how have you been liking Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League?
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox, and PC via Steam or Epic Games.
Featured images © 2024 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Developed by Rocksteady Studios. DC LOGO, SUICIDE SQUAD, JUSTICE LEAGUE and all related characters and elements © & ™ DC.
A desert seed that let the wind carry him to the chilly east coast. Currently in his “starving artist” era.
