Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is getting dogpiled online, and it’s easy to see why. After the poorly-received Gotham Knights and the long, slow death of Marvel’s Avenger༺s, no one is excited to see an always-online structure, live-service elements, and RPG mechanics jammed into a superhero game. It reeks of the kind of executive-mandated game design that satisfies all of the checkboxes on a marketing team’s spreadsheet. It’s game development in reverse: start with what makes the most money then work backwards until you end up with something that has all of the buzzwords but none of the qualities that actually make a game good.
I don’t know if Suicide Squad will flop as hard as Gotham Knights, Avengers, or Anthem before it, but from what we’ve seen so far it’s clearly a looter shooter with live-service elements, which isn’t the kind of game anyone was hoping Rocksteady would make after the Arkham series. All of these misfires have fostered a general disdain for live-service games. There’s now a Pavlovian effect people experience when they see loadouts, weapon attachments, and big numbers that keep getting bigger. But I don’t think live-service is a four letter word, and none of these failed live-service ♍games prove that the model can’t, or shouldn’t work. If you need proof that superheroes and numbies can work well together, look no further than the original live-service looter shooter: Destiny 2.
All of these games so badly want to be Destiny. They want to build an audience of dedicated players that will keep coming back (🌄and keep spending money) year after year. Triple-A games are outrageously expensive and take many years to make, and because the game industry is so rife with abuse and mismanagement leading to high turnover, it’s incredibly difficult to build solid development pipelines that can carry over from one game to the next. Everyone wants to invest in something that they can continue to grow and support without💞 having to start from scratch or pump out sequel after sequel, so it’s no wonder all of these games are chasing after what Bungie has built. The problem is none of them understand what makes Destiny work.
It’s true that Destiny is a game about collecting g𒊎ear and making numbers go up, but that isn’t what keeps players engaged, and it is🎶n’t what other games should be trying to emulate. Destiny’s success comes from its wide range of pursuits and the depth of its buildcrafting. It succeeds because it does both things exceptionally well, but these copycats fail to even attempt either one.
The things you pursue in Destiny are meaningful, and the pathways to acquire them are varied. The pursuit for higher numbers is your foot in the door; a shorthand for neꦚw players that gives everyone a general sense that there’s always something to work towards. But no one plays Destiny just to see their power level go up. That’s merely a consequence of your other, more impactful pursuits.
When you get a new piece of gear in Suicide Squad, or Avengers, or Dying Liܫght 2, or Outriders, or any of these shallow loot-based games, you’re not really getting anything that matters. It might be a Legendary, it might have higher stats than your old gear, and maybe it increases your reload speed by five percent, but it🥂 doesn’t have any impact on how you play the game. When you get a rifle with a higher DPS or helmet with more defense all you really get is a quick dopamine hit from acquiring the loot itself. Once that fades, you’re left with the same game and the same grind you had before.
When you get a new piece of gear in Destiny it can change everything. A single perk on a submachine gun can inspire an entire build that fundamentally changes the way you approach combat. The stats and perks on Destiny’s gear can unlock untapped🅺 potential in your subclasses or allow you to complete challenges that were previously out of reach. Each weapon actually means something to you because they aren’t just a collection of stat lines and power levels, they’re individu✃al tools with different strengths and utility.
This is particularly true of Exotics, which are so powerful that you often build your entire character around them. While these other games will give you a shotgun with ten percent lifesteal, Destiny gives you grenade launcher that covers an area with blight that spreads from enemy to enemy, a rocke🦩t launcher that empowers all of your teammates’ rockets with swarm missiles, and a sniper rifle🌊 that fuses all of its bullets into one, giant shot. The best weapon is not just the flashiest skin with the biggest damage, it’s one which allows you to play the game in a way you couldn’t before. Having a variety of weapon options is what allows you to complete challenges and raise your power level, which in turn gives you access to a wider variety of gear. These are two independent systems that feed each other, not one single pursuit for higher-level gear.
The variety of impactfu💫l gear is just as important as the ways in which you acquire them. Destiꦓny has an unparalleled sprawl of activities that range in team size and difficulty, and each have their own unique rewards. This allows you to set your own goal and chart your own progress through the world, collecting items and slowly improving your overall effectiveness. The function of your gear and how you leverage it determines what you’re able to achieve, not just the arbitrary number value attached to it.
It’s ironic that we’re getting another looter game just as Bungie is preparing to eliminate the numbers from Destiny entirely. With the launch of Lightfall this week, Destiny’s seasonal rank system is getting replaced with a new Guardian Rank system that bases your level on your accomplishments, not your XP. When the next season starts this summer, the power level grind will be gone from Destiny completely. Over the years Bungie has managed to fill Destiny 2 with enough meaningful gear and goals to pursue that it no longer needs the skinner box to keep players engaged. If all of these live-service wannabes could just look at where Destiny ended up instead of where it started, they’d realize they’re chasing a ghost. Forever games aren’t inherently bad and the live-service model isn’t predatory or anti-player by design, bu🌌t you can’t treat players like cattle and expect them to be enthusiastic. Numbies are great, I love when they go up, but I have enough respect for my time and attention to know I deserve more than that. ﷽If they want a piece of Bungie’s success, live-service developers are going to have to learn that too.