As Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League nears its launch, developer Rocksteady has confirmed that the game’s post-launch DLC will bring iconic DC villain Joker as a playable character. The studio made the announcement Monday in the third episode of its Suicide Squad Insider developer diary series, detailing its plans for delivering free post-launch seasonal content to players who buy the game, multiversal concepts and a few multiplayer features that will be present at launch. According to Rocksteady, each post-launch season will feature two episodes and will follow the theme of a DC villain, bringing new ways to play. The new announcement follows the developers teasing hundreds of character builds and distinct loadouts earlier this month.
In the Suicide Squad Insider episode titled “Introducing Elseworlds,” Rocksteady laid out its plans for alternate universes in the game, each of them bringing unique DC characters to the mix. With the launch of the first season of post-game content in March, players will be able to unlock the Joker as a playable character for their squads, Rocksteady confirmed. The video shows off a younger version of the Clown Prince of Crime from an alternate universe — Elseworld, as Rocksteady calls it. Bear in mind that the Joker in Rocksteady’s Arkham series of games died in Batman: Arkham City. “He (Joker) was part of the Suicide Squad in the Elseworld that he’s from,” associate design director at the studio Johnny Armstrong explained in the video.
While the Elseworld Joker retains the look and mannerism we’ve come to expect from the iconic villain — the purple suit, the green hair and face makeup and a penchant for chaos, he will have to figure out his place in a new universe, Rocksteady said. The younger, more inexperienced Joker will, however, come with his own unique combat and traversal gameplay systems and distinct weapons to boot. Joker’s new traversal mechanics are based around a rocket-power umbrella, which can be used to propel the DC villain up in the air and glide around. Joker’s umbrella can also be flipped down to grind along buildings like a skateboard and knock away enemies in your path.
From the Joker gameplay footage shown in the video, the villain can be seen gliding around the map with his umbrella and dispatching enemies with glee using melee weapons and firearms. Joker will be the first of a series of DC villain recruits that players will be able to unlock as part of post-launch seasonal content. Rocksteady said it intends to build a library of playable DC characters over time, each with their unique move sets for combat and traversal.
Along with new characters, post-launch content also promises to bring new environments, challenges, missions, gear and more, all at no extra cost to players who have purchased the main game. Rocksteady also confirmed that post-launch playable content will not be locked behind a Battle Pass system and will be directly delivered into the game with the launch of a new season. In addition to detailing their seasonal content plans in their latest video, Rocksteady also provided details on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s multiplayer features like squad-based leaderboards and emotes. Additionally, the developers showed off an outfit customisation system for the squad members.
While Suicide Squad developers have promised a ton of free post-launch content to keep players engaged, the studio, which was earlier known for narrative-focussed single player titles in the Arkham series, and publishers Warner Bros. have attracted criticism over the live service direction of their upcoming DC game. The gameplay reveal for the title back in February 2023 was met with fan backlash over its looter shooter leanings.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League puts players in the shoes of four DC supervillains — Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and King Shark, allowing players to play solo or up to four-player co-op and take on brainwashed and rogue members of the Justice League. The game releases February 2 across PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X.
