Wha Happun? (Matt McMuscles)

Oh no, Slimcoder's incredibly long lasting hatred screed for Harley Quinn has breeched containment.

EDIT: Dammit this was not supposed to be a pagetopper!

Edited by ShirowShirow on Apr 27th 2024 at 1:01:07 PM

I still maintain the base game idea was potentially fine (GAAS stuff notwithstanding). "Borderlands but with DC characters" could have worked.

I mean Harley's portrayal here is among the major criticisms of the game plus its also indicative of the general bad character writing with all the characters.

This is a game that really wants you to support a gang of cackling depthless supervillains as they remorselessly butcher and execute good people.

No one here is particularly compelling in any way.

Edited by slimcoder on Apr 27th 2024 at 9:20:37 AM

Yes. I know. You talked at length about it in the SS:KTJL thread.

But eh, there are worse things to be angry over. Or, better things? Which would make the act worse? This turn of phrase doesn't really work.

It's funny because Hogwarts Legacy became one of the best selling games of all time around the time Suicide Squad bombed so WB's announced plan is to make a Hogwarts game... As a Games-as-service title like SS:KTJL. Now if that game bombs I'll really be dancing in the streets.

I have a feeling that Rocksteady will be shut down as a company before they'd even finish all of the "seasons" of KTJL, or maybe after that.

Leaks are already coming out that the game will probably shut down by season 4.

It's not long for this world alright.

Also SS is not the franchise I'd think for a lootbox shooter game.

It's sitting at only a few hundred players on Steam.

I never understood why they kill Batman disrespectfully. Was it some weird attempt to make Batman was just as bad as the villians he fought but failed at showing it or Batman wasn't meant to stay as an antagonist the whole time but Kevin Conroy's death before he could record more lines forced them use whatever lines they have for the game?

From datamines Batman's always been intended to come back (and Conroy recorded dialogue for it), so it's just how they always intended to handle face-heel Arkham Batman this game. If anything he has the most respectful send-off of the brainwashed League, since the Squad at least shows some remorse for his fall and admit that the fact they're using his contingency plans means he's still in the right.

That said, yeah as the Kill the Justice League thread has discussed in detail having the game be set in the Arkhamverse and use Arkham Batman specifically as an antagonist is a not-insignificant part of why the game's so alienating.

Edited by NesClassic on Apr 28th 2024 at 11:41:52 AM

The Justice League are only "bad" because they are being brainwashed by Brainiac, right? That is the central conceit of the game, is it not?

The game tries to make you hate the League by having them act in the most generically evil and cruel ways possible so you can root for thr Squad to kill them.

But the issue there is they are brainwashed so most fans acknowledge these people don't deserve to be humiliated and brutal executed.

Especially since the Hall of Justice beginning shows they are all good people and friends.

And the whole "evil Superman" and "evil heroes" has been done to death lately.

A Suicide Squad game would have worked if it was, like, a hero shooter or the Avengers game showing the different members' skills and gimmicks. But what we got was done in the laziest way possible.

They tried to have their cake and eat it too, in other words.

to that post wondering why this wasn't written off for tax, apparently the game division was successful?

This is why I mentioned it being a potentially good Borderlands ripoff. Lean into the characters' powers more to differentiate them (e.g. make Deadshot a sniper) and spice up the gunplay and you could have a fun shooter. They could also "borrow" stuff from characters like Superman or Batman (without having to kill them) to get cool guns.

Edited by Karxrida on Apr 28th 2024 at 9:54:38 AM

I was a little surprised that Matt didn't discuss the game's... now-infamous writing and cutscenes. Maybe some of the devs he contacted but didn't hear back from put the kibosh on that.

Also, the idea of a Harry Potter GAAS is the funniest thing I've heard in a while... if I wasn't more than a little certain it would still fail upwards.

Edited by BearyScary on Apr 28th 2024 at 8:56:47 AM

On one hand, Hogwarts Legacy proved that the franchise still sells, on the other, live service games have like a 95% chance of quickly eating dirt, so it's a coin flip.

Edited by Blueace on Apr 28th 2024 at 1:07:02 PM

wasn't the Avengers game post Endgame? that's a good example of a hot property bombing because live service without thought

A bit of a tangent but I noticed for myself that most of the indie games he feature in flophouse makes me... grate/cringe. Maybe it's the writing or dialog of those games.

Edited by Ookamikun on Apr 29th 2024 at 2:02:49 AM

The funny thing about Avengers is at least that was a hot property to make a game out of.

Suicide Squad though was never really that huge or beloved success yet WB keeps pushing the franchise even at the expense over more proven characters.

Keep in Wonder Woman and Aquamn both made over a billion dollars and were way more well received than Suicide Squad, yet it's not like Aquaman is getting a game or anything.

Which makes it hilarious how the game tries to synergize to Ayers to the appeal of no one, most infamously retconing Arkham Deadshot was always a black man through a completely bonkers plot point because Will Smith played him in the movie.

Taking this into account, is it any wonder WBD wanted someone like Zaslav to help run things? They wanted someone who didn't care about anything but making more money.

Bit of a monkey's paw that.

It's hard to say what's worse — leadership that insists on pushing one ip to the detriment of the company as a whole (not to mention the rest of the ip), or leadership that doesn't care about any of the ip and just wants to increase profit margins.

I think the logic in this case is that the squad is easier to make work for this sort of looter shooter gameplay than the league

...And Harley Quinn has historically been a very popular character

The company has always been terrible at managing non-Batman characters.

Non-Batman makes a ton of money and is a huge success and what to do in response?

"Oh let's push Batman characters to the forefront, no one cares about those worthless non-Batman motherfuckers".

Harely is a good example of this mindset. Aquaman alone has been more profitable than Suicide Squad 1, 2, and Birds of Prey combined yet the company only ever thinks of pushing her despite the lackluster profits of her cinematic appearances.

They did greenlight sequels to those non-Batman films that succeeded. Which then failed