Another sad live-service joint where you can tell a studio that specialises in phenomenal single-player games was forced to make something more "mass-appealing" by a publisher who doesn't even remotely understand what makes them tick. As a massive fan of the Arkham games, you can see the ingredients to make something baller were here. It looks great, the motion capture is second to none and, early on, there are moments of cinematic storytelling that make you almost forget that this is just another live-service looter shooter. I played the first hour or so (which is mostly just full-on Rocksteady-caliber storytelling) and actually was quite enjoying it.

And then the story gives way to reams of repetitive, unfulfilling missions that revolve around the same five structures, meaningless loot that's more about stats than fun, and setting up an endgame that's entirely focused on grinding with no useful rewards. It sucks to see a studio that is so unbelievably talented at making rich worlds filled with brilliant blockbuster stories and tight combat work on something that feels so hollow. But what's worse is that, beneath it all, you can see how this might've worked.

A co-op Suicide Squad game that focused in on story and some Arkham-style setpieces could've been great. A single-player Batman or Superman game set in Metropolis after the Justice League were corrupted by Braniac could've been great. Instead, this just strips Rocksteady of everything that makes them such a terrific studio to try and shake 15 quid out of my pockets for a new Harley Quinn hairstyle.