Summary
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s Metropolis is brimming with charisma and vibrancy, which is already going to be a bit alarming coming from how dark and dreary the atmosphere of theBatman: Arkhamgames were.Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguestill belongs to that canon and is technically a proper sequel toBatman: Arkham Knight, but through the lens of different characters in a completely different setting it is interesting to see how Rocksteady will approach a group of anti-heroes running around in Superman’s old stomping grounds.
Interestingly, every Arkhamverse game will have now been set in a different location besidesOriginsandCity, which both take place in the same part of Gotham City but in two distinct time periods. The essence of itsArkhamunderpinnings is made explicit, though, whether that’s in the literal name of the city-spanning Arkham City compound orJason Todd taking on the mantle of the Arkham Knight. Still, the actual asylum is only ever visited in the originalArkhamentry, and choosing not to go back with any gameplay sequences was Rocksteady’s best and worst choice for the franchise.
It’s easy to lump all theseBatmangames into the same conversation due to them all sharing theArkhambanner—even ifWB Games Montreal’sOriginsis often unjustly left out of the equation—and yet each entry couldn’t be more different from the one that conceived the entire premise and canon.
Rocksteady’s ‘Arkham’ Series Doesn’t Actually Feature a Lot of the Asylum
City, Origins, and Knight are Far Cries from Asylum
Indeed,Arkham Asylumis a Metroidvania action-adventure gameand an incredibly linear one at that with minimal diversions. Its combat is surprisingly elaborate though it doesn’t have the extensive gadgets or fluidity of games that would succeed it, and it never needed a robust traversal system because players aren’t maneuvering an open world.
Instead, Arkham Island is an intimate space that can be explored almost wholly without ever using a single gadget, whereasArkham Citywould expand its locale out in an open worldand make it much more dense with buildings that Batman needed to grapnel-boost over.OriginsandKnightthen followed suit in having open worlds, withKnighttaking a drastic leap in how large its open-world Gotham City was and vastly improving the speed and means by which players could launch themselves into the sky and sail from one island to another.
It wouldn’t have made sense, then, to takeArkham Knight’s Batmobile and excessive maneuverability to the tiny island players knew before they ever saw what Rocksteady’s Gotham City looked like, and always extending the franchise into larger environments made sense for the direction the series was headed. That’s obviously resulted inSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s Metropolis being as enormous as it is.
The Arkham Games Ended Where They Began, Sort of
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguepays many homages to the rich history that came before it, explicitly and implicitly. It’s also true thatArkham Knightdid technically feature Arkham Asylumas the location Scarecrow takes Batman, Robin, and Jim Gordon to, unmasking Batman live on television. Rather, because this sequence is no more than a cutscene, players didn’t truly get to go back themselves and it feels like a huge missed opportunity as a result.
If Jason Todd’s Arkham Knight took Batman to the asylum and showed him where Joker had held him captive all that time, for instance, that would’ve given Rocksteady the chance to have a walking sequence again like the opening ofArkham Asylumand explore the institution again. There’s always a chance thatSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguetakes players back for a gameplay sequence, whether in the base game for some reason or in post-launch content expansions, but how Rocksteady handled the asylum in its Arkhamverse franchise thus far certainly has its high and low points.
