Rocksteady downplay live service elements of Suicide Squad, as superhero murder sim goes into early access

rockpapershotgun.com:

Rocksteady and Warner's much-disparaged live service superhero snuff fantasy Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League goes into Deluxe-preorder-only early access today, Monday 29th January, at 9pm, or if you're from the UK or US east coast, Tuesday 30th January at 12am ET and 12 GMT. Non-Deluxe peons get to play it from Friday 2nd February. With just a handful of hours till the initial release we still don't have review code, which is generally a good sign that a publisher thinks the game in question is going to get a mild-to-severe kicking.

I'm personally quite mixed on Suicide Squad. The movesets and city environment are snazzy enough, and Rocksteady obviously have unrivalled form on the comicbook adaptation front. But the studio appear to have watered down their own superheroic pedigree in the shape of a game-as-a-service with a heavy emphasis on looting guns and gear. Still, I'm encouraged by game director Axel Rydby's remarks that Rocksteady "don't want the game to feel like a life commitment". The question is, how much of that is humouring Arkham Asylum fans who are very weary of live service productions in general?

"We all love playing games, but we also have lives (sort of) and that's been a big part of our design philosophy making this game," Rydby observed in a Discord Q&A swept up by PCGamer. "We don't want the game to feel like a life commitment or be a game where you have to sacrifice a lot to see all the content on offer, or feel like you're not making good progress in the game if you can't play hundreds of hours. We want this game to be generous, both with your time and with all the features we have to offer."

I like the sound of all this, but the proof will be in the pudding, and the pudding in this case appears to be the usual, live service trifle of seasonal content via battle passes and assorted endgame malarkey. Studio director Darius Sadeghian did share a little about how Suicide Squad will make time for players who can't afford to treat it