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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

I have been pretty hard on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League thus far, both in terms of my own personal review, but also noting its wider performance with such poor Steam numbers, the nine-year-old Arkham Knight has been played more the last few days.

There is one pretty unique twist to all this, however, in that across all platforms, even if not enough people are playing Suicide Squad, most of those who are playing appear to…like it quite a bit.

I first noticed this when it began racking up Steam reviews, but it turns out this translates to both Xbox and PlayStation as well. Even after all the drama, all the poor reviews, here’s where those platforms stand:

• Steam – 82% positive (Very Positive rated overall, 3.5K reviews)
• PlayStation – 4.45/5 stars (6.3K reviews)
• Xbox - ~4.5/5 stars (1K reviews)

The exception here is on Metacritic, where 1,300 user reviews give it a 3.7 out of 10, though that platform does not require purchase to review, unlike the others. And the others are well above the 60 metascore, and if those user scores were critic reviews themselves, this game would probably be scoring somewhere between an 82 and an 88 instead, which would have been considered a success.

What’s the disparity here? This is part of the puzzle. I know there is this narrative that “the media” had it out for Suicide Squad from the start, especially IGN, which has been painted as a frequent villain, but I’m just not really seeing that be true, and it certainly wasn’t true for me and my 6.5/10. I had my doubts about the game but I really did want it to be good. I genuinely don’t think it’s good enough.

But a lot of players really do like it, which cannot be discounted. For certain elements, namely the combat, I do understand how that could be true. Even anecdotally, I have real-life friends that are really enjoying the game.

I also have not really seen this happen with similar, poorly reviewed games. Take last year’s Redfall, for instance, with its 56 Metascore. While some players may indeed deem it “underrated,” that was not the overall sense of it. It has a 35% positive score on Steam, also known as “Mostly Negative.” The complete opposite of what we’re seeing with Suicide Squad despite a really close score. Or there’s Forspoken on the PS5 side, a 64 Metascore but just 63% “Mixed” score on Steam with nearly the same amount of reviews as Suicide Squad in.

What I’m trying to say here is that this severe of a split doesn’t happen often, and I am still trying to puzzle out a reason for this myself. The general sense I am getting is that Suicide Squad did not sell well at baseline, but among those that did buy their $70-100 copies, those actually playing the game, like it a lot on the whole. And they disagree with critics in a way we have not seen for similarly low-rated games. Critics, meanwhile, may be more jaded and cynical about the live service model these days, and with no advance copies and no review embargo, we got all manner of reviews in at all manner of times with critics playing anywhere from 4 to 40 hours.

All this is not to say that everyone who has not had an interest in Suicide Squad may load it up and find some sort of hidden gem that critics have buried. But there does seem to be some sort of disconnect here where the game does have a lot of satisfied players despite the negative critical reception and what appear to be low sales. The problem is that a small, even satisfied playerbase cannot sustain a live service, so it will have to grow immensely. And even with positive reviews, I’m not seeing some surge in word of mouth purchases over time here, as this weekend’s numbers are half of launch already, at best, despite there being an endgame designed for grinding.

More to come in this saga, but this is definitely one of the stranger aspects I’ve found.

Positive ‘Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League’ User Reviews Split Unusually From Critics

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League may have scored poorly with critics, but players are liking it quite a lot, it seems.

www.forbes.com

 

[BennyBlanco]

Nobody is playing it

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League - Steam Charts

An ongoing analysis of Steam's player numbers, seeing what's been played the most.

steamcharts.com

Under 2k players right after launch for your AAA game a decade in the making is a disastrous flop

 

[tmlDan]

sounds like 3.5k people convinced themselves its good cause they preordered it.

That's too small of a sample size, also some guy said "good game at 90% off" and still gave it a recommended on steam. (a lot of them said this game is only good with a sale and still a thumbs up)

For some reason people recommended it and still said a ton of bad things about it, just read reviews rather than use the %.

 

[Bridges]

Yup. Critics were just wrong on this one. The game is fun, the writing is funny, the graphics are good, and it's a great co-op experience.

Many live service games have come and gone with way less content that was less fun to play and reviewed better. This one feels like too many people couldn't let go of this not being a new Arkham game to review it for what it really was and for how successfully it accomplishes what it set out to do

 

[Astray]

sounds like 3.5k people convinced themselves its good cause they preordered it.

That's too small of a sample size, also some guy said "good game at 90% off" and still gave it a recommended on steam. (a lot of them said this game is only good with a sale and still a thumbs up)

For some reason people recommended it and still said a ton of bad things about it, just read reviews rather than use the %.

You can refund Steam games if you have less than 2hrs playtime for no reason. If they didn't like it they would have just returned it.

I understand that Xbox has a similarly lenient return policy as well.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Employees flooding user reviews then? Or are comic book diehards so brand loyal that they’d lie to themselves that something is good when it’s not?

Get me my abacus Watson.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Sounds like DC fanboys deluding themselves.

 

[Punished Miku]

I haven't played it yet but there's literally nothing there that looks lower than a 7/10. Looks like a totally functional open-city co-op shooter. The floor is a 7/10 just from looking at it. The hate campaign against this was completely out of control and unprofessional and its hardly the first time I've seen it happen to a game. So maybe that's what Tassi can investigate.

I'll pick this up on sale.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

sounds like 3.5k people convinced themselves its good cause they preordered it.

3.5k people vs 56 game critics who regularly get games wrong all the time.

Hmmm...

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

Yup. Critics were just wrong on this one. The game is fun, the writing is funny, the graphics are good, and it's a great co-op experience.

Many live service games have come and gone with way less content that was less fun to play and reviewed better. This one feels like too many people couldn't let go of this not being a new Arkham game to review it for what it really was and for how successfully it accomplishes what it set out to do

Nope. Its a turd of a game. Guess you pre-ordered it and are stuck with it.
that's ok but at least be honest.

The game is so generic in its aproach, it doesnt even have an identity. Its just subpar-superherogame-numberX

It's not doing anything better than other games. Tried and tested formula which ran stale like 5 years ago.
Graphics are PS4 Pro level. Last gen engine.

Glad that you like it, but its shite from a technical point of view.

 

[BlackTron]

I haven't played it, it probably is not the worst game in the world but too flawed for expectations as a full on seventy-dollar-ass game.

Paying not only 70 but also the opportunity cost of the game they could have put out instead is even worse.

 

[MScarpa]

Nope. Its a turd of a game. Guess you pre-ordered it and are stuck with it.
that's ok but at least be honest.

The game is so generic in its aproach, it doesnt even have an identity. Its just subpar-superherogame-numberX

It's not doing anything better than other games. Tried and tested formula which ran stale like 5 years ago.
Graphics are PS4 Pro level. Last gen engine.

Glad that you like it, but its shite from a technical point of view.

Did you get a refund?

 

[R3TRO]

I'm finding it enjoyable but I'd rather be playing a new Batman game tbh

 

[tmlDan]

3.5k people vs 56 game critics who regularly get games wrong all the time.

Hmmm...

yea, steam reviews are also dogshit, they cry over small stupid things that are inconsequential.

they also only have two options, yes or no, and even tho most of the reviews i read say 50% off or 5-6/10 they still gave it a thumbs up

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

Did you get a refund?

I played it on my son's account and yes he did. He wanted it so bad. I warned him. Got a refund after 44 minutes in game time.

Dad knows best.

 

[SJRB]

Couple of thousand people gaslighting themselves into thinking that spending 100 bucks on this game was a good investment while the rest simply didn't buy the game doesn't really tells you much about anything.

DAU numbers are a disaster and in the end that is more telling than a bunch of people posting positive steam reviews. If you're legit having fun then more power to you but that doesn't change the fact that the game is a failure.

 

[ResilientBanana]

I mean, not many of you have played it, but somehow know for sure that it sucks.

Meanwhile 90% of GAF is jerking off to Stellar Blade with its anime art style, sexy protagonist, that appears to have the same combat loop as every other Japanese action adventure game.

 

[Bridges]

Nope. Its a turd of a game. Guess you pre-ordered it and are stuck with it.
that's ok but at least be honest.

The game is so generic in its aproach, it doesnt even have an identity. Its just subpar-superherogame-numberX

It's not doing anything better than other games. Tried and tested formula which ran stale like 5 years ago.
Graphics are PS4 Pro level. Last gen engine.

Glad that you like it, but its shite from a technical point of view.

I played it on my son's account and yes he did. He wanted it so bad. I warned him. Got a refund after 44 minutes in game time.

Dad knows best.

Yup, you really gave it a fair shot. 40 minutes barely gets you past the tutorial and opening cutscenes.

If you didn't like it, that's fine. But don't pretend like you have some critical lense and can see it for what it truly is. "It's not doing anything better than other games" based on the tutorial and opening cutscenes. Give me a break. The game is fine and your criticisms don't even make sense. It may as well be called Confirmation Bias: The Game at this point.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

I mean, not many of you have played it, but somehow know for sure that it sucks.

Meanwhile 90% of GAF is jerking off to Stellar Blade with its anime art style, sexy protagonist, that appears to have the same combat loop as every other Japanese action adventure game.

This is a perfect example of how contradict your own statement.

"other Japanese" lol, I wont even bother with the absolute ignorance of this, my goodness.

 

[Flabagast]

The reason has already been explained.

Game had massive red flags all over it, so only ultra commited hardcore DC fans who were 100% sure to like it made the jump, as everybody that would have rated it poorly has not purchased the game.

It is a massive bomba with barely anyone playing it, stop trying to alter the narrative

 

[Cyberpunkd]

I mean - isn’t it obvious that people playing it despite all the negative feedback are true die hard fans that found something interesting in the game? It’s just why other 99% of potential players didn’t.

It’s like saying: “despite people not being into shitting on somebody’s face it seems people into it really like it” kind of article.

 

[ResilientBanana]

This is a perfect example of how contradict your own statement.

"other Japanese" lol, I wont even bother with the absolute ignorance of this, my goodness.

My mistake, the developer is Korean, couldn't tell that from the gameplay. Please explain to me the nuances between Korean and Japanese anime-style gameplay. Surely you can be my guide and open my eyes. As it stands, it looks the same as everything else from the region.

 

[Punished Miku]

Couple of thousand people gaslighting themselves into thinking that spending 100 bucks on this game was a good investment while the rest simply didn't buy the game doesn't really tells you much about anything.

DAU numbers are a disaster and in the end that is more telling than a bunch of people posting positive steam reviews. If you're legit having fun then more power to you but that doesn't change the fact that the game is a failure.

I thought both Infinite and Starfield were great. Your loss I guess. I'm glad I can enjoy things even when massive amounts of peer pressure are trying to convince me it sucks.

 

[T4keD0wN]

Ive sorted the steam reviews by most helpful this week (english). Theres less than 10 positive reviews in the top 100 and its similar when sorting by all-time. Its a weird situation and the reviews look extremely suspicious.

 

[Jigsaah]

I'm pretty sure if I didn't have photosensitivity before playing this game, I would after. It's just too damn busy for my tastes. Too much shit on the screen.

I tend to have a similar issue with Granblue Fantasy RE:link at times

 

[ReBurn]

Employees flooding user reviews then? Or are comic book diehards so brand loyal that they’d lie to themselves that something is good when it’s not?

Get me my abacus Watson.

The hype cycle didn't do the game any favors. The game is actually pretty fun but the pre-release hype set a different expectation and I think people just assumed that they wouldn't like it. Rocksteady didn't do a very good job managing the conversation around this game. I really didn't understand what kind of game it was for most of the cycle.

If this game had released at $40 it probably would have been a much different story. They're charging too much for what they delivered. If I hadn't been gifted a copy I probably wouldn't have tried it. When I did I had feelings like I had with Crackdown co-op back in the 360 days. I haven't popped into it much since I picked up Tekken 8 but I could see myself going back to it off and on if it survives.

 

[FingerBang]

I unironically liked it more than Starfield

 

[Shakka43]

Is this Harley Quinn the same from the Batman Arkham games?

 

[poppabk]

Haven't played the game and don't plan to, but the fact that the article lays out very clearly why this is fairly unique for a poorly reviewed game with examples and people just completely ignore all that to say the game is shit and the people leaving reviews are deluded or to just point out that it is a sales flop reinforces what he is saying.

 

[Fake]

Yup. Critics were just wrong on this one. The game is fun, the writing is funny, the graphics are good, and it's a great co-op experience.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Guess you pre-ordered it and are stuck with it.

Steam and xbox don't care if you pre purchased it, you're never stuck with a purchase and can refund no questions asked as long as you're under 2 hours play time.

 

[MALpractice311]

For the people playing it and enjoying it, I'm glad for you. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. However, you are NOT entitled to your own facts.

The facts are (1) the current player count is a couple thousand at best two weeks after release, which is absolute death for a game that has been in development for about 9 years, (2) it was developed by a studio primarily known for single player games, who managed to make four such single player games in the same number of years, and (3) forcing single player focused studios to do GAAS games is an increasing trend in this industry and if they keep turning out like Suicide Squad and Redfall and Anthem and TLOU Factions, we're going to see more talented studios closed.

 

[KillaJamm]

I really liked it? The gameplay is fun, the story kept me engaged, the voice acting and cutscenes were top notch and I'm actually really interested to see what they do with the end game as they have a really interesting premise. I think people are just pissed they didn't make another single player game but you can still see it has Rocksteadys DNA throughout. Hopefully they put it on Plus or Gamepass down the line so more people can experience it and it's boosts the player base.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

This always felt like a campaign against GAAS more than anything else.

Rocksteady committed the sin of betraying the SP crowd and embracing a different type of gamer.

Old media and message board types worked in unison to protect their old dying ways.

 

[poppabk]

For the people playing it and enjoying it, I'm glad for you. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. However, you are NOT entitled to your own facts.

The facts are (1) the current player count is a couple thousand at best two weeks after release, which is absolute death for a game that has been in development for about 9 years, (2) it was developed by a studio primarily known for single player games, who managed to make four such single player games in the same number of years, and (3) forcing single player focused studios to do GAAS games is an increasing trend in this industry and if they keep turning out like Suicide Squad and Redfall and Anthem and TLOU Factions, we're going to see more talented studios closed.

The question is how do we explain the fact that the game is getting very good user reviews when other similar games got bad critical reviews and bad user reviews.
One possible explanation is that like you, reviewers have pre-conceived bias based on what they see as a negative trend in gaming.
Which could then be a self fulfilling prophecy - a good game gets lots of negative press before release, bad previews, and unfairly bad reviews which leads to poor sales. Which would make the pre-conceived biases that actually killed the game and the studio.

 

[MALpractice311]

The question is how do we explain the fact that the game is getting very good user reviews when other similar games got bad critical reviews and bad user reviews.
One possible explanation is that like you, reviewers have pre-conceived bias based on what they see as a negative trend in gaming.

Sure, that's possible. You know what is equally possible? Professional reviews are just the opinions of the reviewers and perhaps the reviewers just don't like the game.

Isn't that just as or more likely the cause? Why are so many people so sensitive that they have to craft conspiracy theories to make themselves feel better when other people don't like the things that they like?

 

[Klosshufvud]

The only ones that bothered playing it are hardcore DC fanboys, who most likely don't even have much taste to begin with.

 

[justiceiro]

The thing about this particular game that everyone saw from a mile away what it was. It didn't disappointed anyone because no one was expecting anything really.

I'm actually interested in it because of the bits of the story I saw seems silly enough. The game is not revolutionary at anything, it's just the same old fun shoot enemies with wacky cutscenes in the middle. The game don't take itself seriously.

Tldr: it's Batman Arkham origins all over again.

Of course, I will wait for the price to drop to bomba levels before getting it.

 

[ReBurn]

For the people playing it and enjoying it, I'm glad for you. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. However, you are NOT entitled to your own facts.

The facts are (1) the current player count is a couple thousand at best two weeks after release, which is absolute death for a game that has been in development for about 9 years, (2) it was developed by a studio primarily known for single player games, who managed to make four such single player games in the same number of years, and (3) forcing single player focused studios to do GAAS games is an increasing trend in this industry and if they keep turning out like Suicide Squad and Redfall and Anthem and TLOU Factions, we're going to see more talented studios closed.

It's also a fact that player sentiment is much more favorable toward the game than critic sentiment, which is what this discussion is about. I don't see how any of the facts you presented are related to the topic.

 

[MALpractice311]

It's also a fact that player sentiment is much more favorable toward the game than critic sentiment, which is what this discussion is about. I don't see how any of the facts you presented are related to the topic.

Yes, those two thousand players love it. Great for them. Have fun.

But clearly, millions more either don't like it or don't care to try it and this whole topic seems obsessed with trying to blame this fact on professional reviewers. It sounds something like "If those mean, old journalists didn't bash my new favorite game, more people would be playing it." Says who? Maybe the general populace doesn't care about the Suicide Squad. Maybe they're tiring of looter shooters. Maybe they don't like reports that the story is only 15 hours long. Maybe they watched the gameplay trailers and didn't see anything worth investing their time in. Maybe the looter shooter crowd has other, better looter shooters they'd rather be playing.

 

[Freelance Yakuza]

It's funny how people use their enjoyment as a shield against any criticism.

Of course, the only thing that matters is if you're enjoying something, and not if some critic from IGN or Gamespot thinks this or that, but that doesn't mean your beloved game is perfect.

Ask the players who are enjoying Suicide Squad about:

- Boss battles
- Variety of enemies
- Mission structure
- Map exploration

And see how they react

 

[poppabk]

Yes, those two thousand players love it. Great for them. Have fun.

But clearly, millions more either don't like it or don't care to try it and this whole topic seems obsessed with trying to blame this fact on professional reviewers. It sounds something like "If those mean, old journalists didn't bash my new favorite game, more people would be playing it." Says who? Maybe the general populace doesn't care about the Suicide Squad. Maybe they're tiring of looter shooters. Maybe they don't like reports that the story is only 15 hours long. Maybe they watched the gameplay trailers and didn't see anything worth investing their time in. Maybe the looter shooter crowd has other, better looter shooters they'd rather be playing.

It's literally an article by a professional reviewer who does not like the game and has reviewed it negatively personally and dragged it for its poor sales and who is trying to figure out why, in this one off instance the user reviews of people who have bought the game are not also mainly negative.

I haven't played the game, I'm not gonna play the game, but the article raises an interesting question and the way so many people have come into the thread, not read the OP and just want to shit on the game I'm starting to wonder.

 

[MALpractice311]

It's literally an article by a professional reviewer who does not like the game and has reviewed it negatively personally and dragged it for its poor sales and who is trying to figure out why, in this one off instance the user reviews of people who have bought the game are not also mainly negative.

I haven't played the game, I'm not gonna play the game, but the article raises an interesting question and the way so many people have come into the thread, not read the OP and just want to shit on the game I'm starting to wonder.

My point has been not to shit on the game. My point is the game getting low reviews isn't some mystery or conspiracy theory. It's very easily explainable; just because you like something, doesn't mean everyone else has to.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Weird. It’s not often you see new release with such positive player feedback - yet barely anyone’s playing.

 

[poppabk]

My point has been not to shit on the game. My point is the game getting low reviews isn't some mystery or conspiracy theory. It's very easily explainable; just because you like something, doesn't mean everyone else has to.

The low critic reviews aren't the mystery, the mystery is why the user reviews are so much higher, unlike in nearly every other case like Redfall etc that he mentions in the article.