Developer Rocksteady have detailed Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s initial post-launch plans, confirming The Joker will arrive as a playable character in a free content update accompanying the game’s first “season”.
As per Rocksteady’s latest Insider video, each of Suicide Squad’s post-launch seasons will be themed around a different DC character, with The Joker kicking things off when Season 1 arrives in March. The Joker – well, a Joker technically, seeing as he’s an alternate-reality Elseworlds vari ant hoovered into the Arkhamverse by Brainiac – promises unique traversal abilities and weaponry, including a dainty mace and a rocket-powered umbrella that’ll let him launch into the air, drift, and grind on buildings to knock enemies out of the way.
Suicide Squad’s Season 1 is also set to include a new Joker-themed playable environment, two new episodes – featuring new missions, activities, and strongholds – new boss fights and enemy variants, new Riddler content, and new DC Villain-themed weapons and gear.
And that, it seems, will be the basic template for all seasons to follow; Rocksteady is currently committing to releasing Seasons 2, 3, and 4, and each one promises a new playable character – again yanked from an alternate-reality Elseworlds by Braniac – plus a corresponding playable environment, new activities, new weapons and themed gear sets, mid-season updates, and “more”.
Rocksteady says all the above will free to all players and stresses that no playable content will be locked behind Suicide Squad’s seasonal battle pass. It also reiterates that the paid in-game shop will only feature cosmetics – although judging by the extensive range of emotes, rival taunts, outfits, and other cosmetics outlined in today’s developer update, it doesn’t sound like the in-game store will be short of stuff to spend money on.
Eurogamer’s Ed Nightingale recently went hands-on with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and wasn’t overly enthusiastic about the whole thing. “It’s clear Rocksteady is keen to try something new with Suicide Squad while remaining tied to the studio’s past,” he wrote, “but as an online shooter with live service elements it’s perhaps trend-chasing more than sticking to what the studio does best. Its Arkham-verse lineage and characterful storytelling are strong, but this might not be the superhero fantasy you’re looking for.”