Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League – impressive tech but the full package isn't quite there

With an extended development cycle, plenty of controversy, multiple delays, and a rocky preview period, it’s fair to say that Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League isn’t making the smoothest landing. However, in my case, this simply increased my desire to see what this game was about and after spending a decent chunk of time playing it, the news is much more positive than I expected – but there are caveats.

The expectation surrounding the game is outsized, simply because of the pedigree of the developer. When Batman: Arkham Knight was released in 2015, Rocksteady delivered a new high watermark for visual design. Built in Unreal Engine 3, no less, Arkham Knight remains striking to this day with gloriously detailed environments, great modelling and superb VFX. It was a genuine visual tour de force. The question is, does lightning strike twice with Suicide Squad?

Well, there’s little doubt that Suicide Squad is a very different looking game. Right from the introduction sequence, it’s clear that the team has shifted towards a brighter colour palette set during the daytime. Metropolis is a very different place, thematically, compared to Gotham City but there is a lot to like here.

Without a doubt, the game’s most striking visual feature lies in its character rendering. Seriously, whether you’re into the story or not, the quality of both the character rendering and their performances is of a very high quality. I was genuinely surprised by this. The skin shading is superb with lots of subtleties including a very realistic sub-surface scattering implementation, especially impressive with Captain Boomerang’s fair skin complexion, with blemishes and wrinkles. Hair rendering is excellent across the board and covers a wide range of hair types as well, only let down slightly by the chosen method of reconstruction, which we’ll discuss later.