Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad alpha is generating some surprising first impressions

We knew about Rocksteady's live service ambitions for Suicide Squad well before the game's initial gameplay reveal but the general sentiment towards the game only got worse after the gameplay deep dive. However, after a year-long delay, we are finally starting to hear some positive things about the game. 

Miller, the leaker previously responsible for datamining all things related to Marvel's Avengers, which has since shut down its servers, has been collecting impressions from those playing the Suicide Squad alpha under NDA. Surprisingly, it sounds like the game has indeed come a long way since its initial reveal.

Keep sending these in! pic.twitter.com/bL0q1pbsk8

— Miller Ross (@mmmmmmmmiller) November 30, 2023

In particular, the game's combat systems get a good shoutout here, with those who played the alpha stating that the shooting feels good and ‘crunchy', and it sounds like they even borrowed the faster reloading QTE from Gears of War. As one of the best third-person shooters ever created, any comparison to Gears of War can only be viewed as a good thing, even if it is strictly referring to shooting mechanics.

Melee combos are also present and incentivised, so those who prefer to get closer to the action and throw hands should feel satisfied. One particularly glowing comment claims that “they learned the right lessons from Avengers”, although we can't be 100% sure of that until the game is out and all of its monetisation plans are put into the public eye.

I'm still very sceptical of the whole live service portion of this game, but if positive impressions like this keep popping up, then my barometer may move towards cautiously optimistic.

While the Killer Croc character has not been revealed as part of the game yet, the alpha's game files do suggest that he'll appear, if not during the campaign, then perhaps as one of the first DLC characters, which are to be expected from a game like this.

Currently, Rocksteady is holding closed alpha tests for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, with plans to officially launch in February 2024. With that in mind, we can expect to hear plenty more about the game leading up to then.

KitGuru Says: I still need to see and hear more before I buy into this whole idea of live-service Suicide Squad, but the positivity is nice to see after all the doom and gloom that came about after the game's first gameplay trailer. 

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