Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (2021)

First game this year. Weird I haven’t played this game from 2021 before. I’m a Marvel-fan and I really like the GOTG-movies. Maybe could be because the Avenger-game released the year before this seemed awful, thought this was similar.

You play as Peter “Star-Lord” Quill, the leader for Guardian of the Galaxy. Didn’t know much about the game before, I thought you switched between the characters. You control Star-Lord but you can give orders to Drax, Gamora, Groot and Rocket in battles. I think that was the right move, it felt like it worked out good!

The story is great and interesting. Shortly, it’s about saving the universe from an ancient force, who is brainwashing the entire galaxy.

There’s some really fun dialogues and great banter between the characters. Also some depth in it when you get to know them more through the story.

Gameplay is fun and lots of action. A bit repetive but it didn’t bother me. A rather easy game but I was in the mood for a fast action game without thinking too much. I mostly falled from cliffs and platforms than died from enemies, but that was very forgiving and let you start over from where you falled off 😄

It was a fun and good looking game! True to the Guardian of the Galaxy franchise.

Rating: 🌲🌲🌲🌲

Eidos Montreal really did their homework on this one. They understood the assignment. They knew that as much as the Guardians' story is about the quips and zany hijinks, it's also about the bond of a found family. A group of deeply damaged people coming together and helping one another move past the trauma that has, for so long, defined them. That heart which makes the Guardians so endearing and emotionally resonant is on full display here. You will laugh, and you will cry. From a story, characterization, and world design perspective, Guardians is a triumph.

Sadly, that gushing praise can't be extended to the gameplay. The 3rd-persion action combat isn't bad, but it's definitely the weaker aspect of the package. You can shoot, punch, and dodge, but since Star-Lord's pistols always feel like pea shooters, you're left feeling rather impotent as a combatant for much of the game's runtime. (Perhaps that's fitting, since Peter is by far the weakest and least interesting Guardian.) Eidos neutered the gunplay to push you to engage with the special attacks of your companions, who supply the real DPS and crowd control for the team. The visual clutter is immense and the controls aren't so precise, so I recommend freezing time while selecting your special attacks, so you can engage with the strategy of the system rather than just spamming the attacks as they come off cooldown. The environmental puzzles, if they can even be called puzzles, serve their role as pacing devices, but nothing about their design is memorable.

The technical performance... oof. So. Many. Bugs. Some were funny. Others mildly annoying. The most egregious was during one of the heaviest moments of the game. The audio of a different scene was playing, and it totally undermined the scene's emotional impact. There were also countless instances of characters quipping over top of one another, which might not be a bug per se, but was definitely annoying. The pacing of the dialogue was also very poor, with dialogue constantly being cut off mid-sentence as you progress through the level.

Technical issues not withstanding, this game is a delight. If you aren't completely turned off by the quippy banter and comical absurdity of Guardians, it's well worth checking out.

Final game I bought in the summer sale. Nice on time for the winter sale.

Narrative

You play as Starlord, leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Without going into detail, the galaxy is in danger, and you have to save it with your companions, Rocket, Groot, Gamora & Drax. On the way you learn about the several places you visit and the characters.

Gameplay

It's an action game, with some RPG elements like skill unlocks and crafting (although very shallow). Your primary weapon is two blasters, but you can also do melee attacks. During gameplay you unlock several special ammo types for the guns. You also have special skills and can unlock more of those by leveling during playtime. You also can command your companions to do special skills and also unlock more for them as well. All characters have one superskill which is unlocked by story events. There is also a thing called a huddle, which is basically a peptalk to get some attack bonus.

It's just waves and waves of baddies you have to shoot/stab. That's all there is too it. Then there is some bosses that usually require certain environmental things to do.

Setting

It takes place on a few planets and spaceships throughout the galaxy. There is some nice variety in places, from more nature places to cityscapes. Some levels are also on huge spacecrafts. The music/soundtrack fits well with the environment and sometimes the old rock songs are great (It rickrolled me). The graphics are ok, but not amazing.

Other

I encountered a weird bug where the HUD completely disappeared including healthbars and everything. It was very annoying as it happened in the middle of a fight. I had to restart the fight to fix it. Also some weird visual glitches, especially when falling. No other big things.

Conclusion

It was not a bad game. I really enjoyed the music, i enjoyed the dialogue and banter. But the game pulled way too many "It's over, but surprise, no it's not" moments. Way to many filler fights, and even whole filler levels that didn't impact the game all that much. Since the combat is a bit boring I thought it was too much. Several levels could have been cut without issue. and definitely several fights can be cut. Just waves of samey enemies is not fun. While I had fun most of the time, it was a bit too long. I did get it on sale so I'm okay, but would not recommend for full price.

Loved the difficulty system where you can personalize almost anything.

Dialogue in this game is very present, and sometimes you can't listen to all of it because the conversations are cut when you have to choose an answer or you're advancing in the level.

In general I really enjoyed, finished the game within 2 weekends. (which for me is a perfect time)

I went into gotg expecting it to be like Mass Effect, and more RPG-like. Instead, it ended up being one of the most fun sci fi story driven experiences I've played in awhile.

Going to skip story, since it's probably best experienced firsthand, and if you don't know Guardians comics explaining it won't do much good anyway. Best way to talk about it is the writing was surprisingly good, and the comedy landed more often than not. The guardians interact with each other often to the point that it's clear this isn't their first mission together, and won't be their last. Every character you find and interact with feels like they were meant to be there. No NPC felt wasted. First, it has Telltale style storytelling and choices, which do surprisingly matter. It doesn't affect the overall plot, but it has implications on how side characters treat you, and some even change larger events that come into play later on. So choosing wisely is a good idea. Combatwise, it's a 3rd person shooter, but if that's all you see you're missing a lot. The game has what is called a "momentum" system that encourages you to switch up how you approach fights to get the most out of it, and get your team's skills faster. Between that, and the arena style fights, it kept me switching things up in terms of larger fights, and kept things interesting. For those abilities, everyone gets 3 main moves as well as an ultimate ability later on, on top of star-lord's element guns getting more elements as you progress. Between using ice to freeze enemies to take them out of combat, or using wind to pull snipers to you and punch out their lights, to using rocket's gravity grenades to bring enemies together to aoe them or have drax rush the group down, you have options. It kept the combat feeling fresh throughout.

Theres also some exploration and collectables. While most of the ones I found were pretty out in the open, I still missed a ton of costumes and other small things, that I'd like to go back and get later on. However, nothing game changing is hidden, so if you don't want to explore every nook and cranny of a level as you progress, you don't really have to. I wish there were some side quests and other optional missions though. They hinted at a lot of space marvel mainstays like Richard Rider Nova, Galactus, and a good amount of random weapons throughout marvel in The Collector's personal collection that may have made me nerd out a little bit. The soundtrack was fantastic. I played all of it off stream, so I got to enjoy the 80s jams in full force, and it was absolutely worth it. Having the final countdown play at random during a big fight was hilarious, and appreciated. The only real issue I had was some of the lines in combat were repeated a little too much to the people of Xenoblade syndrome. It got annoying pretty quick. Beyond that, I did have quite a few issues where Star-Lord would get stuck on terrain forcing me to restart, but the checkpoints are often enough that it didn't take me out of the experience. Overall, I enjoyed the game a lot. I can't put partial stars, but would probably put it closer to 3.75 stars due to the bugs and lack of side quests. However, I am holding out some hope they fix the latter with story dlc, as the game deserves it. Not a bad game to start off 2022 with (even though the game came out in 2021).

This game caught me off guard both upon its reveal video and during gameplay. I wasn’t expecting the game when it was announced, I figured it wouldn’t be very good…. But it shocked me how enjoyable it was.

First thing I really played on my new series x(besides halo) and oh was it beautiful. The game just looks so good. The worlds really pop even if they start to kind of blend together a bit as the story goes on. But the character models are great too.

The voice work is perfect. I think they hit this out of the park, every member is just perfectly cast and better than the film for me. Which yes we shouldnt compare the two since the game is so much more in-depth… but it happens.

Which I love all the little nods to other characters in the marvel universe. Also certain characters really get to shine in this version. The banter and relationships are so well thought out. I almost want to play it again to see if my choices would change that aspect too.

My biggest complaint would be the gameplay and more so the battle system. I never lost a huddle so I’m not sure if that can happen? And even if you unlock a few weapons that add a bit of difference the battles are really rinse and repeat with using a team members pier and waiting for it to cool off. I didn’t hate the battle system but it seems really lacking too?

Which the upgrades seemed to help very little or matter besides maybe the treasure locating one. The elements and the super moves unlock as you play the story tho which do come into play some but still didn’t feel as well thought out as the story and Voice work did.

I do think the story kind of drags on a bit. Which it makes a joke about in the game even imo. Plus the slash back stuff wasn’t very enjoyable, almost rather they just be cut scenes. Same for the flying parts.

I liked the collectible with all the different costumes.

I’d totally play another GotG game for sure.

4/5

Played on PS5.

I was super hyped for this one from reveal and am so glad that they pulled it off and that it's being received well. I think that this game is actually a 5/5 masterpiece masquerading as an above average 4/5. There are just a few things holding it back.

Love that this is a linear adventure first of all - I think the pacing and storytelling of the game are much better for it. It's also so refreshing given the absolute overflow of open-world adventure games we've gotten more recently. In that regard it wipes the floor with something bloated like AC:Valhalla.

The storytelling is lovely, really charming with a lot of heart. The Guardians are all explored and by the end of the story they've done enough for you to buy into them as a family of misfits. The performances are brilliant, the jokes land more often than not (although you need a tolerance for the near constant flow of them) and the story itself is engaging and does a good job setting up universe-level stakes without seeming cheesy.

The gameplay was middling. I played on hard and found that there was enough challenge to be found here. The idea of the combat system (controlling team member abilities) really hooked me - however I think it can really be improved, and is only half-baked still. I'll get back to that in a bit. Having said that when it comes together and you're beating up a boss to an 80's track its exhilarating. The exploration is re-ward-ing - you get cool outfits for all your guardians from poking around the levels. For me this is a must and what I love about games like God of War. The puzzles are super basic but give the pacing some variety.

On the more rough side of things I found that there were a good amount of glitches here. Stuff like being stuck permanently on a ledge, having to reload checkpoints to get my team members to do things to progress the plot etc. Needs some ironing out. I don't usually get hung up on performance and numbers but playing on performance mode on my PS5 looked a bit awful - like someone had rubbed vaseline all over my TV screen. The reviews I watched told me it was 1440p 60fps but if it was it was an ugly one. The first game where I opted to play at 4K 30fps instead, where it looks amazing, but an unfortunate trade-off.

My wishlist for the (hopefully) guaranteed sequel:

• Change Star-lords hair please
• Flesh out the combat by adding more ability synergy (e.g. some abilities launch enemies into the air, so add an ability that does extra damage to those launched, add abilities that deal extra damage to enemies that are immobilized etc.)
• Add defensive abilities that allows for interesting counter-play

Like I said though, a 5/5 pretending to be a 4/5.

I feel like this was just announced at E3 and it's already gone gold. I guess they did a good job keeping that one under wraps pre-E3.

Am I hopeful this will be better than Marvel's Avengers? Not particularly, but I am looking forward to reviews.

For those keeping track, you can add this to the growing list of streaming only games on Switch. I believe we are now up to five in total:

• Resident Evil 7 Biohazard
• Assassin's Creed Odyssey
• Control
• Hitman 3
• Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy