Highlights
- Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will introduce its first bit of DLC in season 1, featuring a younger version of The Joker as a playable character.
- The game promises “one of the most generous, player-friendly post-launch experiences available” with a full year of free content planned.
- Leaks and rumors suggest that characters like Victoria Fries, Lawless, and Deathstroke may join the Squad in future DLC releases.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is due for release in a few short weeks, and information surrounding the title is heating up. Since the title’s announcement, fans have been split about Suicide Squad’s status as a third-person live service title, with many fearing that it would follow in the footsteps of the genre’s often pricey ”battle pass” approach. This week, developer Rocksteady Studios released a new entry in its Kill the Justice League dev diary to address these concerns, revealing the studio’s plan for free post-launch content, called Elseworlds, and it gives fans plenty of reasons to be excited about the future.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was announced in August 2020, but endured multiple delays, before confirming an official release date of February 2, 2024. The title features some unique draws for DC fans, as it continues the highly popular Arkhamverse following the climactic events of Batman: Arkham Knight. For quite some time, its most significant draw has been the return of Arkham’s Batman, marking Kevin Conroy’s final performance of the character. Following this week’s dev diary, however, it appears that some additional heavy hitters will be returning to the Arkhamverse, albeit with a twist.
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League’s Weird ‘Solo Requirement’ Makes More Sense Now
Suicide Squad’s online requirement for solo players has faced opposition since day one, but a newly revealed feature has added some needed context.
Suicide Squad’s First Elseworlds DLC Will Add The Joker to the Team
As part of its Elseworlds announcement, Rocksteady Studios revealed that Suicide Squad’s first DLC will add The Joker as a playable character. This is particularly notable, as the Arkham series features a strict canon and chronology, with the Joker having died five years before the events of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. However, the unique circumstances of DC’s Elseworlds have allowed a very different Joker to cross paths with the Arkhamverse Suicide Squad. In the first DLC for Rocksteady’s upcoming title, fans will meet a Joker who has yet to become the confident force of chaos that fans know and love.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s Joker is much younger than that of the mainline Arkhamverse, and was once a part of his reality’s Suicide Squad. The character brings some unique skills and weapons to the title, with many of his core mechanics centered around a rocket-powered umbrella. In a variety of gameplay clips, Rocksteady demonstrated the umbrella’s use in traversal and combat, creating a uniquely fluid style of combat that sees The Joker constantly in motion. While the character appears to be much more agreeable than his Mark Hamill-voiced counterpart, Rocksteady promises that Suicide Squad’s Joker will reveal his underlying madness in time, with his psychosis manifesting in strange, and sometimes shocking, ways.
Suicide Squad’s Future DLCs Promise More Unusual Appearances
While The Joker may be enough to get many fans excited about Suicide Squad’s Elseworlds content, a host of other characters are due to join him during the title’s first year of post-launch support. Rocksteady hinted at a few possible villains who could be joining the Squad, via a string of visual shifts to the main game’s overworld and key locations. However, if a new rumor is to be believed, the first four DLC characters for Suicide Squad have already been leaked. Leaker Miller Ross claims that Victoria Fries, Lawless, and Deathstroke are all joining the title within its first year of DLC releases, with Killer Croc and Katana likely to follow close behind. Beyond just characters, new weapons and locations will be coming to the title every season, as well as episodic content focusing on villains like Two-Face and Scarecrow. With only cosmetic content being paid, all players will be able to enjoy these free DLC updates.
According to Rocksteady Studios, Suicide Squad will provide “one of the most generous, player-friendly post-launch experiences available” in gaming. With the title’s Elseworld DLCs set to keep the party going long after the credits roll, Suicide Squad‘s scope and potential appear greater than ever, giving fans plenty of reasons to be excited. Given its most recent delay and highly effective developer diaries, it appears that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is looking to prove its doubters wrong. Whether it succeeds is something fans will soon be able to decide for themselves when the base game launches on February 2, 2024.
