https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70pnfnH3Afo

So we finally got a glimpse of what Rocksteady has been working up as a follow-up to their Batman Arkham trilogy (sort of). No gameplay, but we get a sense of what the story and characters will be. What is everybodys' thoughts?

It seems like it could be fun. Obviously a lot is going to depend on what the gameplay actually is but I like the cast. Pretty much the same as the movie but sub Killer Croc for King Shark (an improvement imo).

I also really like that they are basically making the plot based of one of the major criticisms lobbed at the Suicide Squad movie. That being Amanda Waller's ridiculous notion that somehow the Suicide Squad would be able to take down Superman if he ever went rogue. It seems like more than a coincidence.

The aesthetic and tone seems like a nice change of pace from the Arkham series as well, which I enjoyed in Asylum and even to a degree in city but felt like it got really tired and ugly by the time Knight rolled around.

The humour in the trailer worked for me as well so if they can keep that up for a game then I think this could be a really fun experience.

Of the two game announcements yesterday, this and Gotham Knights, despite Suicide Squad only having a cinematic trailer, I find myself much more interested in it than in Gotham Knights. As you said, I found the humor/tone of the trailer to be pretty fun and an exciting departure from the straight grim-dark of the Arkham franchise.

With that said, it was still just a cinematic trailer, so I'd say I'm cautiously optimistic, as I am with any exciting unreleased game. It's obviously still a ways off, so I'll be looking forward to seeing more of it in the future.

With the nature of the end of the trailer and the "Kill The Justice League" concept, I wonder how much this is Monster Hunter without the prep work.

That said, needs a Funches voice pack. Hell, the movie version is Steve Agee and I want that too.

@petesix0: I am kind of ok with letting (the very excellent) Harley Quinn be its own thing. I love Bane in that show but would not really want to see the character represented like that in other media necessarily. Also I think the King Shark they showed has a pretty interesting personality that is still funny but also different than Ron's take. I mean as much as I could see from the little bit that we got.

@petesix0: I thought what you said at first sounded odd. "A monster Hunter where you hunt super heros?! Are you going to carve the flash up and make speed armor?".

Then I realized the game could be all about beating and defeating weaker Justice league chsracters. Stealing their gear, or somehow manipulating their abilities to use on stronger Justice league characters. Once you somehow beat Batman using a combination of the tools you got fighting other heroes you will find Batman's stash of Kryptonite and use it in the final fight with Superman.

That could be really compelling.

I like that Outkast song more and more since it came out 20 years ago. Eerily foreshadowing in hindsight.

Promising starting point with the trailer and Rocksteady had a solid track record. Arkham Knight wasn't a bad game but the differences in gameplay weren't really an improvement on the predecessors that were lengthy games on their own. Maybe they can even model variations on less enemy buffness this time.

Looking forward to the QTE counter prompt for Superman's laser eyes.

Its too bad all the Suicide Squad characters are lame and unlikable and this didn't make me feel any different. The Arkham games were really good for graphics and gameplay.... story and writing? Not so much.

Also was hoping for an earnest "take out the superheroes" type of thing because that would actually be different, not "oh the superheroes are evil now so you're the good guys" thing which has been done over and over. I know its the easy way and I'm sure well worn territory but yeah its well worn as hell.

It;s weird that this game is in the Arkhamverse but Gotham Knights, which looks exactly like Arkham Knight, is its own continuity. I get the feeling that some dev troubles with both studios lead to an odd outcome.

That's a great fuckin' trailer and the first time I've ever been interested in a DC game, so good for them.

Looking forward to it. I'm one of the few who liked suicide squad, as I like character interactions more so than plot I guess, and I thought the cast worked well together.

I just wonder what kind of game it will be, it's in the arkham universe but seems like they will make this a way different type of game.

" 4-Player co-op" And just like that my enthusiasm is gone!

I liked that both this and Gotham Knights put their foots fairly firmly down in subverting the grimdarkness of the previous games. Those had their times, but I think the tonal difference is a very, very good idea.

That said: I've said it before, I'll say it again, if the most interesting question you can ask about a character like Superman, who can be written with ANY limits or none, is "BUT WHO'S HE GONNA PUNCH REAL HARD THIS TIME?!" then maybe it's not the character that's boring...

Both Injustice and DCU Online did the "Brainiac overruns Earth" thing as justification for the fight, and it just seems passe at this point. There are so many cooler stories to be told with these characters, but treating "Superman bad now" as anything other than a tired trope (unless they actually DO SOMETHING with it) feels overly charitable.

That having been said: I'll show up for great writing and good gameplay. And here's to hoping they tie up ANY loose ends from the Arkham series, that whole thing just LOVED to dangle plot threads that went ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE (from Harley's pregnancy test at the end of "City" to the ending of "Knight").

@undeadpool: The craziest part to me is that the only ending teaser that Rocksteady seems to be remotely tying up is...the one from Arkham Origins. Granted, it was Waller recruiting Deathstroke, but still, it was an obvious Suicide Squad teaser, and considering how the rest of the time Rocksteady acts like that game doesn't exist, it is a little nuts.

A bit of a funny thing is I originally thought this was just a new animated movie because they played a snippet of this trailer on a morning show here in Australia when they did a cross to their Hollywood correspondent, and I found it a little bit odd that they would give a shit about some new animated comic book movie (which by the snippet, if you told me it was one of those direct-to-video comic book movies, I would have no reason to doubt you). Now that I know it's for a new game, makes me wonder how the hell it got all the way to air without any programmer/presenter realizing that fact.

As far as cinematic trailers go, that was a good one of those. It feels very strange to me that they're doing a marketing push for two of these 4-player co-op games at the same time. Obviously there hasn't been gameplay of this so it might be way different, but for now it feels like weirdly counterprogramming your own PR push.

I had exactly the same reaction. This and Gotham Knights being co-op just destroyed all the hype that's ben building.

At the moment i'm more interested in Knights because i know what it is, how it plays, what it looks like, rather than a cringe pre rendered trailer.
It's Rocksteady so it's probably going to be good but... ok, i didn't watch the movie/movies/whatever, why do the good guys need Harley's help exactly?

I think I'm still cautiously optimistic about this game. Although looking at this cast of characters I can't help but say: "Out of all these misfits I'd prefer to main Captain Boomerang." A sentence I never thought I'd say in my life. Should I expect a bigger roster than this? Suicide Squad works better when it is a random smattering of rogues and rebels. Having a nice and tidy 4 characters ends up feeling a bit contrived in a "so...four-player co-op eh...?" kind of way, especially with Gotham Knights being developed in tandem. After knocking around some ideas in my head I think the Suicide Squad concept might work better with a Prey: Mooncrash style setup, where your characters are meant to be expendable but ideally you'd play so they all survive in a single run. Also, never mind Avengers, give me a Superior Foes of Spider-Man game based on those comics.

Not necessarily good guys but a shadowy government organization. They conscript criminals in the DC universe with explosives and she's just another expendable criminal. Haven't seen the live action movie but in the animated movie her role in the operation was to draw Batman out to arrest her and hand her over to the prison they're heisting from, plus she has insider knowledge of the aforementioned venue.

Trailer rubbed me the right way, hoping for the best.

Edit: anyone get Sunset Overdrive vibes from the trailer?

Gotham Knights gameplay looks bad, unfortunately. Clunky, janky, and lacking. It appears that studio is just kind of cloning Rocksteady's old games but not nearly as well, killed all my hype. Unfortunate. But the SS game I'm still curious about!

king shark being a big dumb jock may be the best thing i ever seen.

How's the gameplay going to work for a character whose whole thing is they "never miss."

@cikame: The Suicide Squad is a group of villains that the government uses to send on shady covert missions. They force them to participate by placing bombs in their heads and promise them time off of their sentence if they complete missions. The idea is that if they get caught they will just be considered to be acting on their own because they are villains. At least that is what I understand. I have not read the comics but have seen the movie and the animated movie.

The Suicide Squad as a concept has existed since like the 60s but the most recent version that the movie is based off (which includes Harley Quinn) has only been around since 2011. I assume it is/was popular which is why it was the version used for the movie.

Also Harley Quinn (who is a relatively recent character in the DC universe as a whole, having been created for Batman the Animated Series in the 90s) is extremely popular right now. That probably also contributes to her inclusion in the Arkham games, the Suicide Squad movie, multiple animated DC movies, her own solo movie, the Injustice games, her own TV show, and probably a ton of comics as well.

In the first Suicide Squad movie Amanda Waller (the person who assembles and directs the Suicide Squad) convinces the government to create the program by positing that in the event that someone like Superman goes rogue the government has no way of stopping him and that the Suicide Squad is the answer. This was commonly ridiculed as the Suicide Squad in the movie consists of Harley Quinn (who is just a regular person with a baseball bat), Deadshot (who is just a guy who can shoot good), Killer Croc (a crocodile man who is stronger than your average person but nowhere near Superman level), Captain Boomerang (who doesn't even have super speed in the movies so he literally is just a guy with boomerangs), Diablo (dude with fire powers but due to personal reasons doesn't want to use them), and I guess Slipknot (guy who is good with ropes and climbing or something?). The Enchantress, who is probably the only person who could maybe do something against Superman because of her magic, is an uncontrollable witch lady who Waller almost immediately loses control of and becomes the main villain of the movie. Overall it is a pretty stupid plan (and also movie)

This seems to be what the game is based on, or at the very least this trailer. It seems to me to be a pretty specific reference to that anyway.