ROCKSTEADY has a great library of fantastic games behind it, so people were expecting big things from its next release.
For those not in the know, Rocksteady developed the excellent Arkham trilogy of games, two of which are 90+ rated.
However, the studio’s upcoming game Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is not promising to live up to Rocksteady’s reputation.
The first signs of trouble was the number of delays the game had received.
While this isn’t always a bad sign, it felt like many of these delays were a response to players’ concerns about gameplay shown in trailers.
It is rumoured that behind the scenes executives were pushing for a live service model of a game with a Battle Pass, something the studio has no history with.
Live service games like Fortnite can be very popular, but even more flop heavily and end up disappearing.
This seems to be the fate of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, as all signs point to something which isn’t ready for launch.
There was a preview event held for the press, and only a small selection of outlets were invited.
Usually, for a large game like this, the studio would want every publication present in order to get as many eyes on the game as possible.
However, this was not the case in this instance, and it was clear to see why, given the poor previews for Suicide Squad.
Previews tend to be positive in nature, as there is still time to fix any problems before the game is released.
Despite this, there were negative comments surrounding the game already making the issues seem irredeemable.
The final sign that points to a troubled game is that reviewers have not been given access to the game before launch.
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League was offered for review on the same day that it was released for players who purchased the Deluxe Edition.
This not only means that people didn’t have the chance to read reviews before they tried the game for themselves, but has a more sinister consequence.
While this is not always the case, many studios delay giving access to media outlets in order to reduce the number of negative reviews.
It also means that reviewers have to rush the review process in order to be the first publication to give the game a score.
It is only in extreme circumstances that a studio will delay handing out their game as rushed reviews can lead to poorer scores due to the experience.
Suicide Squad was also taken offline yesterday (January 29) after players spotted a number of bugs, and will be offline again today (January 30).
You can read more on how Deluxe Editions have increased the price of gaming to over £100/$100 for new games.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
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