10 Most Disastrous Releases Of The Current Generation

Don't look so surprised, Harley - you had to have known this was coming.

It didn't take a genius to see that Suicide Squad was going to bomb, and bomb hard. Heck, this writer was dumb enough to leave his keys in a taxi recently, yet still had the mental wherewithal to realize Rocksteady's latest was going to be a dud. Yet while the keys were returned, Warner Bros had no such luck with the $200 million they spent on one of gaming's greatest flops.

Frankly, Suicide Squad feels like a cry for help from its developers. Rocksteady made their names as the premier superhero studio with the Batman Arkham trilogy, but everything they learned over the course of developing those games was thrown out the window when the studio's leaders demanded Suicide Squad be a live-service cash cow. The end result is a tired, tedious shooter with Rocksteady's trademark love for the source material completely absent.

Just take a look at this quote from the IGN guide for how to fight Batman: "Focus on shooting at Batman while dodging his eye lasers and flame carpets." Ah yes, eye lasers and flame carpets - classic Batman staples both. (Yes, it's because Batman is a fear-induced hallucination, but that in itself shows how the developers went for the easiest route available rather than creating a meaningful challenge around Batman's actual skills).

When Batman himself is summarily disposed of by being shot on a park bench, you can feel the developer's disdain for the game their leaders had forced them into making. Gamers, in turn, showed their contempt by simply not bothering to show up at the hollow sideshow Rocksteady had created.