Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League to get offline mode post-release

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Rocksteady’s upcoming live service supervillain team-up, will require a constant internet connection when it releases, even when playing solo. The reaction to this and many other polarising live service elements when its full gameplay trailer released earlier this year saw it getting delayed into 2024 while the developers work on polishing the experience. Now, the studio has confirmed that the game will receive an “offline story mode” for players not interested in the game’s multiplayer elements. The catch is that it won’t be there at launch and is being patched in post-release.

Announcement of this mode was confirmed in a post by a Rocksteady employee on the game’s official Discord channel. The post states that the studio is “planning to add an offline story mode that will give players the option to experience the main campaign without an internet connection“. As offline functionality was not originally planned as part of the game’s co-op multiplayer live service gameplay focus (and was probably a late inclusion following the poor reaction to the gameplay trailer), it will be added in an update sometime in 2024.

The Batman Arkham games (of which Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is technically a sequel) were well-regarded for being single-player and story-focused. As such, appealing to fans of those games with an offline mode seems like a no-brainer. Making the game at least partially functional offline also ensures that the game will remain playable if the developers decide to end official support only a few years after release. This essentially happened recently with the now-delisted Crystal Dynamics’ Marvel’s Avengers.

The live service gameplay model, focusing on microtransactions, battle passes and repetitive content to grind for better gear and cosmetics, has become so unpopular that Warner Bros. has had to quash rumours that its upcoming Wonder Woman game will feature those elements. As such, making a version of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League wherein players can just focus on the story is probably a good idea, even if it should have been part of the game from the start.

At time of writing, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is set to come out on February 2nd in 2024 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The offline gameplay mode will release later in the year, with more details to be revealed closer to release.