Well, the season one patch killed this game on Steam Deck, so I guess it's time to call it a day!
The positives first; I think this a nice looking game with some genuinely fun traversal and combat. While the characters feel relatively samey, they are nonetheless enjoyable to use. Zipping around with the various traversal methods, sniping, melee'ing - it's all good.
But that's pretty much it.
I don't want to just go for the low hanging fruit and say 'it's bad because live service' because live service games can be awesome. I and many others are loving Helldivers 2 right now. People can try and act like HD2 isn't one of those but I'm not hearing it. The point is that SS:KTJL is just not a very good one these. It's a grindy, boring, repetitive shooter with lame, unremarkable enemies and AI that feels like you've seen everything they have to offer after the first two hours of combat encounters. Despite this game's lengthy road to release, and the polish you see in some areas, the fights are just not dynamic at all and feel very rushed. The core mechanics are fun, but the scenarios you use them in are not, if that makes sense. And to top it all off; you play these endless dry encounters to earn a largely identical gun that does... Fuckin... +2.3% frost damage or whatever. Who could possibly care?
The story takes everything Rocksteady were bad at, like comedy, and focuses on it entirely. I always found Arkham Harley Quinn to be kind of grating, but in the broader context of those Batman games it was fine. And the rest of the writing in those games was pretty neat! In Suicide Squad however, the brooding, gothic vibes are swapped for sub-MCU banter and needle drops. The comedy is wince-inducing and ten years past its sell by date. Two characters doing the 'Im sooooooo crazay' shtick, two doing the dead pan routine. Snore.
I was going to soldier through and see the story to its completion because I was at least interested in the Justice League stuff, but I was already struggling to stay invested and then, as mentioned, the latest patch did something to the games Anti-Cheat that made it unplayable on Steam Deck. A fitting end!
The positives first; I think this a nice looking game with some genuinely fun traversal and combat. While the characters feel relatively samey, they are nonetheless enjoyable to use. Zipping around with the various traversal methods, sniping, melee'ing - it's all good.
But that's pretty much it.
I don't want to just go for the low hanging fruit and say 'it's bad because live service' because live service games can be awesome. I and many others are loving Helldivers 2 right now. People can try and act like HD2 isn't one of those but I'm not hearing it. The point is that SS:KTJL is just not a very good one these. It's a grindy, boring, repetitive shooter with lame, unremarkable enemies and AI that feels like you've seen everything they have to offer after the first two hours of combat encounters. Despite this game's lengthy road to release, and the polish you see in some areas, the fights are just not dynamic at all and feel very rushed. The core mechanics are fun, but the scenarios you use them in are not, if that makes sense. And to top it all off; you play these endless dry encounters to earn a largely identical gun that does... Fuckin... +2.3% frost damage or whatever. Who could possibly care?
The story takes everything Rocksteady were bad at, like comedy, and focuses on it entirely. I always found Arkham Harley Quinn to be kind of grating, but in the broader context of those Batman games it was fine. And the rest of the writing in those games was pretty neat! In Suicide Squad however, the brooding, gothic vibes are swapped for sub-MCU banter and needle drops. The comedy is wince-inducing and ten years past its sell by date. Two characters doing the 'Im sooooooo crazay' shtick, two doing the dead pan routine. Snore.
I was going to soldier through and see the story to its completion because I was at least interested in the Justice League stuff, but I was already struggling to stay invested and then, as mentioned, the latest patch did something to the games Anti-Cheat that made it unplayable on Steam Deck. A fitting end!