Summary
Many ‘open-world’ games enjoy branding themselves as having a legitimate open world when in actuality the spaces players may roam are often restricted. This is either done implicitly, such as having power scaling in different regions of the map that deter players from otherwise freely exploring a treacherously overpowered area, or explicitly, such as having hard boundaries to the map players collide into when they’re traveling too far from a specific mission’s parameters and are kept on a tight leash within. The latter is an instance that calls the ‘open world’ descriptor into question, even while taking part in a scripted quest.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leagueis an open-world game, for example, and it is not without these kinds of explicit boundaries. It’s surely difficult enough to wrangle together four playable characters in an open-world design as ambitious as that ofSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and what Rocksteady’s done to achieve this is have players huddle together to initiate progression. It’s always unfortunate when players can’t simply run off wherever they’d like to, but thankfully Rocksteady has come up with the most immersive and gratifying way to express its explicit out-of-bounds warning.
Open-World Boundaries Often Have a ‘Turn Around’ Prompt
Even in games that don’t have open worlds, it’s far too often to see that a tiny degree of exploration results in hitting a hard boundary, let alonean NPC badgering the playerfor any reason. This is becoming increasingly common and while some boundaries are more implicit than others, it can erode the illusion of immersion quickly.
Now, in a game likeSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, boundaries were always expected; the game is an always-online (for now) live-service title with four-player co-op inan open world city larger thanBatman: Arkham Knight’s Gotham City, after all. Therefore, restrictions and limitations are obviously going to be apparent, whether players are initiating a new mission or simply engaging in content that they come across while freely traversing.
Because there areopen-world activities like collecting Riddler trophiesit seems assured that free-roam exploration will be available between main campaign missions, too. But veering away from scripted paths while on a mission thrillingly gets players’ chosen Task Force X members killed, and it isn’t as if they weren’t warned it could happen.
Kill the Justice League Decapitates Task Force X if Out of Bounds
Indeed,Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leagueallows players to leave mission boundaries without a hard collision wall, although this might not always be the case and free-roaming gameplay at the edges of Metropolis obviously halts the player further.
Instead, the screen begins glitching and ARGUS warns the player to head back, lest their heads explode due to the bombs implanted in their necks at the start of the game. However, unafraid of displaying bloodshed,Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguebrilliantly and violently beheads the player’s characterif they stay out-of-bounds too long and fulfills ARGUS’ strict promise of a swift death if players fail to obey Amanda Waller.
This goes a long way to being an immersive portrayal of these typically banal and disappointing boundary markers because it employs the one threat that hasHarley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Sharkcomplacent in their suicidal quest in the first place. Players get to experience first-hand what happens if they attempt to disobey a direct order from ARGUS, and the literal boundaries the game doesn’t want players to pass are effectively reinforced without completely dissolving immersion in the process.
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League
WHERE TO PLAY
Play as the Suicide Squad to take down the World’s Greatest DC Super Heroes, The Justice League. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, is a genre-defying, action-adventure third-person shooter from Rocksteady Studios, creators of the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham series.
