STACK #232 February 2024

GAMING FEATURE

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TURNING THE TABLES continued

With Captain Boomerang being an Aussie, we were relieved to learn that Rocksteady recruited an actual Australian to voice him, in Daniel Lapaine. We asked Ben what he was like to work with, and whether he helped with any suggestions for ”Aussiefying” the lingo at all… ”Daniel’s a complete sweetheart, so getting him in touch with his inner bogan was a lot of fun for us all. I’m Australian as well and we have a few other Aussies on the team, so we tapped into some deep Australian lore! ”And Daniel’s willingness to explore the character helped us make him more than a stereotype of a true-blue larrikin. Boomerang is loud and obnoxious, but he has some of the qualities of a good person – he’s capable of trust, loyalty, and even doing the right thing.” CRIKEY!

of freedom there, of chaos, of always going big and loud. They’re fish out of water in a world of heroes, and through them we get a chance to see things differently. DC trusted us to maintain the core of these famous characters while giving them a Rocksteady twist. We’re not in Gotham City anymore… How did you go about creating Metropolis, and how big will it be?

characters in the single player mode? I think the biggest challenge was finding the sweet spot between them doing too much and not doing enough. In single player your character is driving the action, but we never want you to forget the Squad are with you. Where we ended up was that you can’t just sit back and let them win fights for you, but they’re always ready to jump in, back you up, and use their abilities in ways that are fun and surprising. Are there any particularly exciting game mechanics that you’d like to detail for us? I’m biased, but I’m incredibly proud of our dialogue systems. Our goal was that every encounter should feel like its own comic book, and there are a lot of different ways for dialogue between the Squad and their enemies to play out. Beyond that, the way that the three big aspects of gameplay combine: traversal, shooting, and melee. When you play the game, you get these moments where that trinity clicks together: swinging across the city as Harley, dropping a grenade into a group of enemies, following up with a hail of gunfire and baseball bat swings – and then diving off a ledge to move on to the next encounter. It feels fast paced and villainous, just like you’d expect from the Suicide Squad. There are so many elements combining to make the moment

Metropolis is bigger than Gotham in Arkham Knight , but the intent wasn’t just to make a larger area— it’s built with very different artistic and design goals to Gotham. As the ’City of Tomorrow’ it’s more open, brighter, more inspired by architecture trends. We wanted to present a city that’s totally enamoured with superheroes, and then let a bunch of villains loose in it. What new opportunities does this open world Metropolis open up for players? The environments are really built around our core combat and traversal. Combat can flow very quickly from the rooftops to street level and back, and our traversal favours chaining moves together to always keep up momentum. Brainiac’s invasion is also very much still ongoing, so you’ll see the Skull Ship reinforcing areas with enemies during play. But outside of combat, if you take time to explore, you’ll find all the detail, visual lore, and Easter eggs that fans expect.

with gunshots then knock them off the side of a building, all while you fly past.

You’ve assembled a fabulous voice cast, including – tragically – the last performance from the amazing Kevin Conroy as Batman… In a game driven by big character personalities we needed a voice cast who were dialled into that energy. There’s a lot of ad-libbing and back and-forth, and we were pretty quickly writing the characters around their actors’ voices. I think Kevin had a ball playing ’Batman with the brakes off’ and he has a big presence in the game. Ultimately, what do you most hope for players to gain from their time with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League ? I hope players have a great time hanging out with the characters and experiencing the world. The team have put so much personality into every aspect of the game – not

What challenges did you face having AI control the three non-player

to-moment feel rewarding. There are over-the-top gear effects, character build

just the dialogue and story – it’s got an ’I can’t believe that just happened!’ energy that I think is really infectious. I haven’t worked on, or played anything quite like it, before.

• Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is out on Feb 2

combinations… Or just another Squad

member meleeing an enemy into the air, so you can juggle them

42 FEBRUARY 2024

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