I’m still of the opinion that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a bad game that can be fun when you look past its many, many negatives. Sure, the story feels like it was cobbled together at the eleventh hour, Metropolis can’t hold a candle to Arkham Knight’s Gotham City when it comes to open-world design, there are far too many useless currencies in circulation, progression is painfully tedious, the boss fights against the Justice League are terrible, Batman deserved better, and… where was I again?

Oh right, the fun parts of Suicide Squad! While a lot is holding the game back, its moment-to-moment gameplay and buildcrafting are downright excellent. After launch, I had a blast assembling an arsenal of supervillain-themed gear for builds, as I ran hot with the broken Diablo Blaze setup before it was nerfed, unleashed ungodly amounts of poison with the Bane Infamy set, and became virtually unkillable thanks to Hack’s bonuses with specific gear.

As a foundation, those elements were perfect to build on. Suicide Squad couldn’t sink any lower, and the upcoming Joker-themed season was sure to add some new content, variety, and fun to the mix. There’s no way things could get worse… right? RIGHT?!

I was wrong. I was so, so wrong.

Enter Season of the Jokes, the first Suicide Squad post-launch season. Arriving two months after launch, this new season promised a new character in the form of an Elseworlds Joker, more weapons to unlock, and another Brainiac to fight. It is all that and a bag of chips, but it’s also the very worst first season of a live-service game I’ve ever played. Despite the promises, it’s another nail in the coffin of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, succeeding only at extinguishing the last sparks of enthusiasm I once had for this game.

Let’s start with the key selling point of this expansion: the Joker. Rocksteady’s new take on the clown prince of crime hails from one of the alternate dimensions conquered by the Brainiacs, an explosives expert who scoots around the stage on a turbo-umbrella. Sounds good, right? Log in, take Joker out for a spin, experiment with his talents and call it a day. The problem here is that Joker has to be unlocked through an excruciatingly long grind through a season rank that’s exists on top of the battle pass and mastery ranks. This takes a couple of hours as you run through recycled content and eventually take on a Brainiac in a reskinned Green Lantern fight.

Once you have Joker, that’s it. Aside from a motion comic introducing him and a brief cutscene where he reminds everyone that he’s so cuuuhhhhh-rrrraaaazzzyyy, he adds zero synergy to the squad. Harley Quinn doesn’t even acknowledge him and you’re left to get back to the grind. Sure, those Scarecrow Infamy sets look fantastic, but after 60 hours with the game, I’m done. Sure, there’s a battle pass of stuff to unlock, but I’ll see a Marvel vs. DC film in theatres before I reach level 10 on it.

It takes dozens of missions to progress through a single level on this battle pass, something other live-service games have either begun to move on from or have replaced with more rewarding systems entirely. Just take a look at Helldivers 2, as its Warbonds offer a high degree of freedom when it comes to unlocking gear, or how even Overwatch 2 is offering new heroes for free once again.

Currently, Suicide Squad feels like live-service death by a thousand cuts. On its best day, it’ll have around 500 people playing it on Steam, creating an uneasy sense that the end is near. Will Suicide Squad join the list of failed live-service games like Anthem, Lawbreakers, and Babylon’s Fall? I don’t want to be a prophet of doom, but at the current rate that the game is bleeding players while adding exploitative and time-consuming content, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see the plug pulled soon on a game that’s already on life support.

If there’s a punchline to this terrible joke of a season, I’m still waiting for it.

Forget the Justice League. Just kill everything about this game already.