In the first hour of the game, there is a script where the ground collapses and the game expects you to fall into a hole. its so sad.
I didn't fall, but the game had a dialogue programmed with groans. The game assumed that you had fallen into the scripted trap.

It is incredible how the AAA pop have appropriated the narrative resources more typical of the indies of the beginning of the last decade. Those that allowed you to explore the space in a more reduced and detailed way, interacting with small objects on a stage, only to end up mixing it with Walkie Talkie sections and Voilà, you already have your cinematographic level.
Actually, an older version of space exploration reduced but exhaustive through the details already existed in the blockbusters since the late 90s (Shenmue? , MGS 2-4 maybe?) but they were never so frequent.
because the exploration can be slightly guided, since the digital worlds are a powerful and wonderful ultra-designed lie... But dictated? no plz

This game drowns you with absolutely all the trends it can afford, leaving no room for thought. grabs you by the neck without conviction, with such a corporate plan. its scary.
I'm on board for narrative-driven pop games (gosh, I love MGS4) but I need A LITTLE bit of authoring.

Few games really make me actually laugh out loud or just smile to myself whilst I'm playing them but Guardians of the Galaxy had that effect on me almost constantly during its 20 hour playtime.

There are so many things I want to say, lines I want to quote, characters I want to discuss but it's nearly all spoilers so I will just say that Guardians nails character interactions like almost no game I've ever played. The crew talk amongst themselves constantly and in such a way they really feels like a real dysfunctional team through a movie or show and I flarking loved that. Eidos Montreal absolutely nailed almost every character from hilarious insults and comments to the more poignant moments it just felt so good, so right. (Mantis is easily my favorite character, every line she says is just gold.) The writing is just excellent.

On the negative side though you only get to make first impressions once and when this game was initially revealed I thought the combat looked really boring and unfortunately that just holds true. When not on ship or exploring locales you are in combat but despite having 5 Guardians at your disposal you can only play as Star-Lord. That in itself wouldn't be so bad but they just made him painfully dull to play, he can barely use his rocket boots, his blasters just feel like toy guns etc. To compensate you can order your team to do special attacks with cool downs on enemies which just means most the time you are micro managing them rather than really doing a lot and all of their moves are far more interesting then a single thing Star-Guy can do. It would have been far more fun to simply be able to change character during combat and use those moves yourself when you want to. It all results in some what clunky feeling gameplay and terrible lock on to boot. I almost inwardly groaned at every battle that began.

Presentation wise Guardians is a slam. The character designs are brilliant, they are close enough movie, close enough their own thing that they feel familiar and different all at once. I really liked the art generally and playing it on PS5 in performance mode it was very smooth. The game has a great attention to detail especially on The Milano (their ship) and Nowhere when exploring around I looked at everything and their are Easter eggs everywhere. That said I ran into quite a few little bugs getting stuck in some scenery or glitches forcing me to checkpoint restart.

The sound design to this game is a 10/10. The game wouldn't be Guardians without amazing 80's music and there are over 30 licensed tracks you can listen to from then plus some original tracks by the band Star-Lord and it all couldn't be more perfect though I wish during battles you could manually choose to listen rather than do this cringey huddle first the game has. On the voice acting front it's absolute perfection. Each characters voice fits them perfectly. Rocket's angry sarcasm, Drax's oblivious warrior front, Star-Lord's quippy pirate leader, I am Groot? I am Groot. I can't fault it at all.

To sum up I think guardians of the Galaxy is a wonderful experience, but it's kind of a bad game. The voice acting, dialogue, music, atmosphere and visuals are absolutely nailed but the actual gameplay is so mediocre. Still, I desperately hope they get a chance to make a sequel and improve that because even with it's flaws this is still an absolutely fantastic game.

+ Character dialogue and interactions are so very good.
+ Laugh out loud funny at times.
+ Fantastic voice acting and music.
+ Great art design and atmosphere.
+ Mantis.

- Combat is just bad.
- A few minor bugs here and there.

Sendo fã dos Guardiões e dos filmes, ia ser bem difícil eu não curtir esse game. A história é muito boa e a química e interações entre os personagens é impecável.

O gameplay apesar de não ser ruim, é bem simples e acaba enjoando bem rápido. Muitas vezes me vi implorando pra trechos acabarem logo só pra rolar as cutscenes e continuar a história, porque muitas seções se arrastam em níveis galáticos. Mesmo com tudo isso, não achei entendiante pois os personagens não param de falar por um segundo então você acaba sempre se divertindo, mas realmente o jogo é bem mais longo do que deveria.

A trilha sonora... meu Deus do céu, é só hino dos anos 70/80 tendo praticamente só músicas que eu gosto, e quando elas tocam durante o gameplay, nossa... simplesmente sensacional. E ainda tem Iron Maiden, insta-like.

O pior que nem tem muito mais o que falar, é um jogo bom, divertido, e que eu me peguei rindo a todo momento com as piadas. Cumpre exatamente o que promete e tem muito potencial pra sequências. Novamente digo, tem Iron Maiden, era impossível ser ruim.

um bom jogo repleto de problemas, é a terceira vez que eu rejogo e sempre fica o sentimento de que o jogo poderia ser bem mais, ele se sustenta puramente em uma história legal e simples, mas divertida apesar de ter algumas barrigas aqui e ali. de resto o jogo não oferece muito como jogo, a gameplay é extremamente simplória e repetitiva com inimigos que se tornam esponjas de balas o tempo inteiro, a maior variação nos inimigos são os chefes que mesmo sendo legais são pouquíssimos, então o maior charme do jogo acaba sendo os diálogos muito bons, as interações entre os personagens são incríveis e raramente as falas se repetem, eles não calam a boca o jogo inteiro e nunca cansa, tudo isso acoplado a uma trilha sonora incrível, com diversas músicas famosas e perfeitamente encaixadas. o problema é que além da gameplay fraca, o jogo é muito mal polido, principalmente no pc, com diversos bugs e glitches, eu reiniciei o checkpoint diversas vezes e ainda tive tela azul no pc, além dele ser mal otimizado em questão de performance, se esse jogo não reaproveitasse a base do jogo dos vingadores ele poderia ser muito melhor do que já é

I got this hidden gem from GameStop for 15 bucks. I took it home, and I was blown away. Some people seem to dislike the gameplay, but I don’t really see that problem. The strategy of trying to command a team in the heat of battle is a fun loop, and I was never really bored with it. The story holds on, And never let you go. This is one of three games that got me to cry. But the game isn’t perfect. Some of the platforming could’ve been shortened. Luckily, that takes up such a small portion, that it doesn’t really affect the score.

Excelente game, consegue entregar uma aventura com jogabilidade simples e um fantástico desenvolvimento de história. Sequências de combate agradáveis e diálogos constantes e extremamente divertidos (com uma ressalva a ótima dublagem em Português, com os mesmos dubladores do filme) e uma parte técnica de áudio e trilha sonora impecáveis, com músicas antigas super conhecidas. Se você quer apenas jogar sem pensar muito, rir de bobagens e curtir músicas antigas enquanto joga uma aventura bem feita, esse é o jogo, principalmente se você for fã dos filmes da Marvel.

Derivative of Uncharted, Mass Effect and Control. But derivative doesn't have to be a dirty word. Familiarity is comforting. This could have been a total disaster. In a weird way it feels like one of the rare AAA PS4-era games that was left alone by the publisher to be its own thing. In this day and age that means a game that doesn't take a lot of chances. Okay, fine. But I think like Jedi Fallen Order, and completely unlike Marvel's Avengers, this is a big, licensed Disney game that exudes some form of personality and spirit.

I enjoy that this game unlike the two Guardians of the Galaxy really plays into what desperate losers these guys are. It makes for the cliched moments when they come together as a team and bond feel more earned. I love the dialogue in this game. Not the actual dialogue itself, mind you. Just how much of it there is and how well it's scattered across the game. When you wander around as Peter to search for a collectible, Gamora or Rocket will ask what the fuck you're doing and if you're lost. Peter will say he's scouting. Small moments but they add up to a sense of place and character, and not in a blatantly self-referential meta way. The characters, at least for the first half, are almost always chatting, bantering, bickering, mostly over each other. It can feel like a Robert Altman film at times with just how much overlapping dialogue there is, or like an episode of Always Sunny.

I dig it. Unspectacular but in a world of corporate art it's nice to get a single player game that's primarily story centric and linear and just left to be its own thing. I'll take it as a small miracle.

This game was a big surprise for me, really wasn't expecting it to be that good...

I always liked Guardians of The Galaxy since I watched the first movie in the cinemas back in 2014 when I was a kid. But when I heard about this game my expectations were really low because of the previous Marvel game of the same developer that came before (Avengers) and it was really bad.

But I decided to give it a try when I found out it was fully single-player and story focused and thank god I was wrong about this game, it's really better than I could've ever expected.

First of all, the story is really good, it has a perfect mix of fun and emotion, you can really laugh at some parts and get emotional at others, it's really well written, and much better than I expected, the character development is masterfully done, every single character has a deep and unique personality, and I really cared for every single one of them.
Also, the dialogue options affects a lot of things throughout the story and really helps with the immersion.

Talking about the soundtrack, for me this game has definitely one of the best OST I've ever heard in a game.
It's basically divided in 3, the copyrighted various artists songs, the Star-Lord band with and album exclusively made for the game, and the original OST orchestra, with epic and emotional songs.
Square Enix always rocks with their soundtracks, NieR Automata and Final Fantasy VII for example has some of the best soundtracks out there and this game is no different.

The gameplay is fun and it has a good progression and mechanics based on the abilities of the other 4 members of the Guardians and the 4 elements of Star Lord's weapons, giving an interesting variety of combat options to the game.

With that being said, "Gardeners" of The Galaxy game is a fun and emotional experience that will stick with me for a long time and I would recommend this game for anyone.

Guardians of the Galaxy has to be one of the most dynamic and awesome IP's in the Marvel catalog, but something's been nagging me about the franchise:
Both the movies and this game have jam-tastic 80's music that ties the atmosphere together, but how does that translate to comic form? Are we supposed to imagine 80's music when reading the comics, or are the comics entirely different than the animated mediums? This question was brought to you by a guy who's never read a comic before.

Anyway, this game is pretty great! It took a while to get accustomed and effective to the combat system, but it eventually reaches a point of perfectly balanced difficulty. The music was perfect, obviously, and the story really surprised me as well! I always enjoy these characters, and they are very well acted this time around, and have some truly hilarious banter. We probably could've used some more character development for Gamora and Groot, but considering that anyone who's played this game has also probably seen the movie trilogy (tetralogy?), you can have so much fun with these characters without the need of extensive background info. Also, I think it would be really nice to leave this game without any sort of sequel or tie-in. It's a really good experience that shouldn't be tainted by a larger story.

This was a nice surprise. Very funny with a surprisingly enjoyable story. I really liked how the team felt like they were growing as the story went on and how that was even reflected in gameplay by them automatically doing things you'd have to directly ask them too earlier in the story. The gameplay is nothing incredible but its fun enough that I was never bothered by it, and the huddle mechanic was really neat (although feel like it' should of occured more often) But the game isnt perfect. For one - the amount of dialogue in this game is insane when roaming the levels especially considering how well its done and how funny it can be, the problem is that theres just so much of it in each level that characters are getting constantly cut off. Second of all- some of the levels just go on way too long and makes the game feel a bit more bloaty than needed. Other than that, this was one of the most surprising and charming games i've played in recent memory and I simply wouldn't feel right giving it any less than five stars.

96/100

Quality superhero films may be the norm these days, but in hindsight it’s strange how little we’ve gotten in the way of narratively-equivalent video games. Sure, there’s the occasionally great movie tie-in(+), but outside of the Arkham and Spider-Man series, you could count on one hand the number of solid story-driven titles out there.

It’s a shame, then, that Guardians of the Galaxy reportedly underperformed as it’s the kind of game I felt the industry really needed with regards to the comic book genre, and what makes it particularly amazing is how it manages to craft its own path whilst still staying true to the characterizations of the eponymous film. See, compared to Batman and Spider-Man, where their numerous iterations have made audiences open to new versions, Guardians is different in that most people are liable to only knowing the characters from James Gunn’s flick, and so the writers at Eidos-Montréal had a tough task before them: how do we create our own version of the team that concurrently pays homage to the comics without alienating any cinephiles?

Well, I’m not sure what their thought process entailed, but the end result was taking the core personalities personified in the movie and combining it with an original backstory, namely one in which every Guardian was a veteran of a conflict known as the Galactic War. Each member played a different role during the war, and the way such information is divulged over the course of the game goes a long way towards distinguishing its cast from their cinematic interactions. Yes, Quill is still comedic, Drax a literalist, Rocket a loudmouth, etc…etc…, but their experiences have led to them developing varied demeanors towards society as a whole. Gamora, for example, seeks some form of redemption for her support of Thanos; Rocket & Groot are purely about surviving, and Drax hunts for honor over his inability to protect his clan.

Found familyhood was cited as a major inspiration behind the tale, and I can safely say the writers successfully accomplished this task via the sheer amount of dialogue they crafted for the game. Seriously, fans of the Mass Effect or Red Dead series may find themselves in awe at the innumerable conversations typed-up for every chapter; convos that go a long way towards establishing relationships, lore, scenarios, and general camaraderie. Hearing Drax repeatedly call Gamora an assassin, seeing everyone snicker at Quill’s attempts at self-aggrandizement, or catching Rocket’s reactions to Groot’s various statements truly render the Guardians as three-dimensional people who’ve had a lot of laughs & cries along the way. No matter their disagreements, there’s a basic-level of respect amongst each peer, and while you occasionally have the option to interject with a unique response, both choices ultimately contribute to that looming amity.

I’m not exaggerating when I say GOTG has a ton of impromptu chatter -- your main hub of a ship spouts the lion’s share of these, with characters either speaking to each other out of their own volition, or engaging in ones triggered by unique items found during missions. Both moulds give-off a big Mass Effect vibe, and I was constantly amazed whenever I discerned some new interaction, whether it be petty, dramatic, or (in most cases) downright amusing.

None of this is even taking into consideration the outside convos in which characters often shout unique battle cries or make special observations should you be standing in a specific place. One of the best things GOTG does is resolve TLOU Problem I’ve had with certain narrative-driven games wherein your hero is meant to progress forward in stark contrast to the gameplay encouraging dicking around; it breaks the game’s immersion to see your next objective or companion kindly wait on you as you do whatever it is you feel like doing. By having the other Guardians actually remark on Quill’s strays off the beaten path, it goes a long way towards maintaining GOTG’s atmosphere.

In some ways, all the dialogue can get a little overwhelming, particularly for people (like myself) who suffer from FOMO: there’s a solid chance you’ll unintentionally cut-off or outright miss at least 15 percent of the optional scripting here, and that’s just something you’ll have to contend with should you wish to play the game.

Of course, no one would’ve cared about these palavers had the voice acting not been good, and that’s thankfully not the case here. Guardians of the Galaxy is interesting in that it opted for an entirely unknown cast -- I consider myself pretty well-versed in the voice acting industry, and I honestly only recognized a single name here (Andreas Apergis, and even then that was mainly because of his recurrent roles in the Assassin’s Creed franchise). That said, their unknownness doesn’t impede the project in any way as they are all terrific, embodying their characters fully as they wander amidst a full spectrum of emotions. Like I noted with the script, there was a difficult balancing act required in terms of making sure these takes on the Guardians were both similar and dissimilar from their movie counterparts, and all the actors proficiently did-so whilst rendering their characters their own. All cards on the table, I actually preferred most of these takes over the celebrityhood of James Gunn’s enterprise: Jason Cavalier grants Drax far more tragic introspective depth than Bautista ever did; Alex Weiner removes that atrocious Gilbert Gottfried inflection Cooper gave his Rocket (RIP Gottfried, but I was not a fan); and even Robert Montcalm manages to provide Groot a more-variegated personality than the one Diesel was limited to.

Given the strong vocal bounce between the characters (Rocket & Groot standing out as the best), GOTG deserves further acclamation for its robust ADR direction. See, there’s a good chance the actors did not record their lines together, and so their ability to resound like they had good chemistry owes a lot of fealty to the narrative directors for providing the appropriate context for each delivery.

There were only two voices I had issues with, the first being Jon McLaren’s Star-Lord. This may come as a surprise given that Quill is the lead protagonist and only playable character, but I did not like the inherent stoner-esque gravel McLaren provided him. Don’t get me wrong, the performance is otherwise solid; however, more often than not, I found myself thinking of a Seth Green character over a Marvel superhero.

The second is Emmanuelle Lussier-Martinez’s Mantis, though I don’t hold this against her as it’s evident the writers were going for this crazed NPC wrought with constant knowledge: the problem is, rather than do a Dr. Manhattan-type performance, they opted to portray her like Omi in that episode of Xiaolin Showdown where he gets infused with factoids from the Fountain of Hui (and yes, for the uninitiated, that’s a bad thing when done in spades).

Regardless, everyone’s performance was successfully transposed into the game via top-quality facial capture, rendering their squints and frowns through phenomenal animations. When you visibly see pain and happiness on your characters’ faces, it does a lot for the execution of the overarching story.

On that note, the narrative has its pros and cons. As I harped on earlier, the scribes do a phenomenal job developing the relationships between the Guardians: while this version of the team is already well-acquainted, it still takes place in the early part of their formation, meaning this is where you see them go from world-weary associates to the makeshift family we all know-and-love. In terms of the grand adventure you’re set out on (i.e., the campaign those interactions fall under), your mileage is going to vary. The entire game is full of heart, and there are some emotional moments that genuinely touched me to my core, but getting to those moments means engaging in standard superhero schlock wherein you’re charged with saving the universe from despair. Yes, other comic book games like Arkham Asylum and Shattered Dimensions indulged in similar premises, but I’d argue the difference is those titles were carried by their villains and a sense of mystery towards uncovering said villain’s plot. GOTG’s problem is that it’s upfront about its secrets from the get-go and, more importantly, lacks memorable antagonists: the main one, in particular, being a generic evil shroud akin to such classics as the Rising Darkness from Constantine, Galactus from Tim Story’s Fantastic 4, and Smallville’s version of Darkseid (yes, this is sarcasm). A couple of the secondary adversaries like Lady Hellbender fare a bit better, but, as they’re not a constant presence, this is a game you’ll largely be playing for the protagonists.

For the record, I had a good time with the story -- it’s well-told, has minimal pacing issues (save the end++), and would’ve worked well as an officially-published graphic novel. It’s just, post-completion, you won’t recall the majority of the chapters (the interactions within, yes, but not the events).

Thanks to James Gunn, the GOTG franchise is also permanently associated with comedy, and on that front the game works quite well. Whereas Gunn’s films were more about gags and one-liners, Eidos goes for a more situational style-of-humor wherein you’re witnessing how a coterie of charismatic individuals with sharp comportments would behave when placed in an enclosed dwelling. I wouldn’t call it laugh-out-loud, but more-so chuckle humor: you’ll smile and giggle like a schoolgirl, yet rarely twist your stomach out from hooting, and I think the tactic works great. There are times when the game tries to mimic the Gunn route; however, those scenes fall very flat and are thankfully few-and-far between(+++).

Of course, Arkham and Spider-Man didn’t get popular solely from their narratives or witticism: they had phenomenal gameplay systems to back everything up, and on that note, Guardians of the Galaxy is pretty dang good. It’s interesting that I made the comparison to Mass Effect earlier as the similarities between the two even extend to combat: you control Quill while his comrades are AI-guided, each of whom can be called upon to use a special attack against a foe or foes. Quill himself is equipped with his fists, dual blasters (primed with elemental shots obtained during set story beats), and a batch of special moves ranging from electro mines to the iconic jet boots. Much like the original Mass Effect, ammo for every tool has been replaced with a cooldown period, and there is no cover: if you’re not on the run, you’re likely to get swamped quickly (similar to Control).

With the exception of the final slot (garnered through story progression), every Guardian’s super attack has to be unlocked by way of good old-fashioned experience points gathered from combat scenarios, lending the game a bit of a lite-RPG schematic. Supplementing this are a heap of 15 additional perks players can add to Quill’s stockpile via select work benches scattered throughout most chapters, the only catch being that you have to scavenge the requisite components in the world (akin to TLOU).

Overall, fighting is fun if a bit repetitive - not every Guardian attack is practical, and their icons (save the final one) weren’t distinguished enough to avoid confusion between the useful and the useless. It also suffers from being too easy for its own good due to a number of mechanisms present even on the hardest difficulty: the option to do a one-hit KO team combo(++++) once an enemy’s health has been whittled down enough; the Huddle -- a unique feature wherein Quill can pause the skirmish, call over his team, and give everyone (including himself) an attack boost/HP recovery; and a third one I’m going to avoid stating for fear of spoilers(+++++).

Besides brawling, you’ll be conducting basic exploration involving simple puzzles that solely come down to figuring out which Guardian to employ against which obstacle. It’s a shame more wasn’t (or wasn’t able to be) done as the novel abilities specific to each alien could’ve led to some really cool environmental enigmas. In fact, part of me wonders if that was the original plan as there’s an immersive sim aspect here in the form of Quill being able to leap around and ascend most structures, only for it to not lead anywhere.

That said, the minimal scavenging didn’t bother me too much in light of how gorgeous everything is. This is one of those titles where you can tell no expense was spared, and that probably had to do with Square and Eidos’s well-intentioned belief that the GOTG IP was fertile enough for mass profit.

Well, we’ll talk about the reasons why the game faltered later, but for now, let’s at least appreciate the sheer production value on display. Guardians is interesting in that it occupies that same Jim Lee aesthetic Arkham Asylum imbibed apropos to toeing the line between photorealism and comic book poppiness (i.e., the game is liable to aging better than some of its eighth gen brethren). When it comes to the graphics, their beauty originates from three major areas: clothing, character modeling, and texture streaming.

With the first, GOTG arguably has the greatest textile work I have ever seen in a video game -- courtesy of the camera mode, I was able to zoom-in on various suits, and not a single one was shortchanged as far as detail or composition. From the individual stitches on Star-Lord’s jacket to the wear-and-tear knee creases of security guard latex to the overlapping of plate metal & linen on Gamora’s byrnie, there were so many wonderful subtleties in the wardrobe department that to list them all would drag this review out by several pages.

That same effort was continued over into the modeling, where humans and aliens alike boast pores, wrinkles, and follicles upon closer inspection. Ironically, though, it’s Groot and Rocket who deserve the most acclaim if only for the virtuosity of their respective hides: being able to glean splintered bark and singular bristles of fur on each member’s skin respectively was absolutely mind-blowing when you consider just how much easier it would’ve been to draw a single layer (what TellTale did back in 2017).

Environments maintain this quality by matching the diversity with appropriate texturization. Eidos leaned heavily on the comics and their imagination when devising the areas to throw players into, and while some of them are admittedly a bit standard (the red deserts of Lamentis; the frostbitten scape of Maklua IV), the majority do take you to some pretty sweet locales ripe with filled-in gubbins and walling. The golden-lacquered Sacrosanct and magenta-strewn matter of the Quarantine Zone are predisposed to being fan favorites, but for my own tea I personally adored the cyberpunk vibes of Knowhere where sleaze, soft lighting, neon signs, and lite-smog blended together into an evocative site.

My last major bastion of praise goes towards the personalization facets, and not in the usual sense of the term. In the past, I’ve praised devs for crafting unique spaces you could tell were tenanted by a standalone persona -- what GOTG has done is take that template and extrapolate it for the mainline species here. Heading into a Kree ship, for instance, gifts you a shelf of books with Kree rune titles, clean pipes with the Nova Corp insignia, and a general sense of orderliness. Compare this to Lady Hellbender’s gladiatorial planet, chockful of broken glass, spilled beer, and cobbled food. As you explore alien terrain, you really get a sense of prior lives and civilizations that mysteriously vanished over the course of evolution, leaving behind such remnants as hulking monoliths, structures, and carvings. It’s all superbly done.

Other miscellaneous graphical feats include unique lunge animations for each Guardian when jumping gaps, cold air breaths in subzero climates, natural finger movements when rotating examinable objects, Quill putting his hands up when approaching fiery pits, reflective surfaces from puddles, gold tiling, and tiny mirrors; the pose algorithm during 1-on-1 counsels being very organic (compared to Valhalla’s constant arm-crossing), character subtitle names boasting different colors, how Quill turns his head towards the current speaker, and, most vivid of all, the entirety of Kosmo -- this is a psychic dog you’ll infrequently run into during the course of the game, and I have to imagine someone at Eidos either grew up with golden retrievers or put mo-cap dots around a real one as, as any dog owner will tell you, everything about his canine behavior was pitch perfect: the constantly darting stare, twirling of his tale, twitching of his eyebrows, the effervescent panting -- for all his ESP, he may ironically go down as the most accurate dog in video game history.

I did have some complaints, but they concerned relatively minor stuff like the lack of footprints on powdery exteriors, Groots root bridges clipping the ground, and Quill occasionally acting jittery during dialogues.

SFX, unfortunately, was the sole area undercompensated by the devs in that it’s inconsistent to a trained ear. For starters, not much went in the way of footstep differentiation, with ice & metallic platforms, and beds & tile floors bearing the same din as their paired twin. There were times where I’d hear the crunch of snow pellets on surfaces they were minimally scattered on, while the bulk of each Guardian’s abilities (save Quill’s) were sonorously indistinguishable. Effort did go into individuating every team member’s movements, and jumps did come programmed with that distinctiveness I sought; however, it was otherwise rather basic for a game of this caliber. Don’t get me wrong, nothing’s distracting, you just won’t be immersed in any planet’s auralscape.

Finally, the OST by Richard Jacques (which, by the way, was much harder to find than it should have been courtesy of Eidos opting to promote the licensed mixtape instead) is solid, if a little derivative. Let me explain so I don’t come off as pretentious or condescending: ever since Alan Silvestri pioneered that massive symphonic sound in The Avengers, a lot of Marvel-based composers have incorporated aspects of that into their scores. It’s certainly a wise decision with regards to maintaining a familiarity to audiences, but it does come at the cost of that uniqueness we used to get in superhero music pre-Avengers. As a result, you’ll hear a lot of recognizable motifs despite the soundtrack being its own set of arrangements -- I’m talking electric guitar riffs, Greek-inspired choral harmonies, pounding brass, and crescendos galore. Thankfully, Jacques does give us one of the best comic book themes to come out in a while; however, in respect to the rest of his compositions, they’re good at the expense of not rising to that same level of memorability.

Per my earlier remark, Eidos spent a lot of money licensing popular 80s hits that you can either manually play on the ship or randomly hear during those aforestated Huddles. I know there have been, and will be, a lot of people who enjoy the substance, but part of me wonders whether or not it was a good idea. As I keep harping on, GOTG was clearly an expensive game to make, and considering how little you’ll hear the music (being off-ship/infrequently using Huddles), it begs the question of how much money could’ve been saved instead by hiring a band to create 80s-inspired tunes.

Then again, maybe it wouldn’t have helped much considering most critics blame the poor reception of the Avengers game for GOTG’s financial disappointment. It’s a tragically valid connection, and combined with the game not releasing adjacent to any of the mainline movies, it sadly wasn’t able to stand on its own. Zack Snyder got a lot of sh!t for his flavor of the week comment years ago, but the fact of the matter is he was right to an extent: certain characters only achieved profitability because they were specific versions crafted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Outside of that ecosystem, it was always going to be a struggle for any hero not named Batman, Spider-Man, or Wolverine to succeed.

It’s been almost three years since GOTG released, and with no signs of a sequel, we have to accept the game for the unique specimen it was. It’s rare we get superhero games of this quality, and will be even rarer as the MCU goes through a post-Bubble period, but let it be known that, for all my complaints, this was an exquisite product well-worth your money.



NOTES
-Before addressing anything else, I should mention that there is a choice system in the game, but it’s more akin to the first Witcher or Deus Ex wherein it impacts the flow of events rather than causing multiple endings. When it involved hard gameplay, I was fine with it; however, there was an instance in one of the story climaxes where it ruined the moment (you’ll know it when you see it).

+Spider-Man 2, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Batman Begins, and, heck, I actually liked the Iron Man one.

++Without spoiling, basically it indulges in the cliche fake-out tactic that’s been overdone by this point. You don’t even get a proper end boss, though not that it would’ve mattered as the boss fights here are mediocre: not Arkham Asylum bad, but arguably lower than Insomniac’s first Spider-Man.

+++The worst involves a scene where Quill has to do improvised karaoke (trust me, you’ll know it when you see it).

++++The finishers themselves aren’t that exciting, being a series of hard cuts of each Guardian doing an attack on the target. A little strange considering standard melee combos often result in your Alien brethren actually conducting a coordinated strike alongside Quill.

+++++All I’ll say is it involves Groot’s final unlockable power, its essence simultaneously diminishing a certain “emotional” story beat.

-Similar to Metroid Prime, Quill’s visor enables him to examine enemies and environs for pieces of supplemental data, but the game unfortunately doesn’t pause background conversations for the latter, meaning you’re forced to read them quickly lest you get interrupted.

-The writers created their own profanity for the characters to gleefully indulge in.

-Why does Mantis have Hela’s garb?

-Tell me Gamora’s VA doesn’t sound like Leela from Futurama?

-There’s a glowing red digital billboard in Knowhere that displays ads for a McDonald’s rip-off. I bring this up because I actually saw a similar hoarding in Shinjuku albeit for a Wendy’s, making me wonder if it was inspired by that?

An underrated gem. I honestly have never heard anybody say anything about this game, but I tried it because it's free with PS+, and I'm glad I did. It captures the irreverent spirit of the Guardians films, but the characters are more true to their comic book counterparts. Listening to the team banter between missions is as much fun as Dragon Age: Origins, and the story is actually really good. I was not expecting as much emotional pathos and chuckle-worthy wittiness. The cast they got is also great and delivers outstanding performances.
The only downsides I can think of is the combat gets repetitive and there are some nasty bugs. Nothing game-breaking, but some sequences did have my PS4 lagging a little too much. There's also a glitch with collectables that is very irritating, but I managed to work my way around that for the platinum.
Overall, I had an actual blast with this one. It's a great experience that I doubt we'll ever get again. It's not as standout amazing as Marvel's Spider-Man, but it's a definite sleeper hit. A lesser masterpiece.

This was.. actually kinda great? I can't argue with complaints I've seen about the combat getting repetitive, but having played it in small chunks rather than a continuous run I really didn't feel that myself. What I did struggle with however (beyond some minor glitches that forced me to do a couple bosses twice) was the Huddle Up playlist.

It's such a great idea for the game but the lack of a customisable or even limited playlist means it's all too easy to have this big dramatic set-up mid boss fight before going full-ham, hitting play on the player and then BOOM! 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' jingles along while you kick the scut out of a big monster.. thanks game, way to kill all hype and remove any sense of badassery.

Even the final boss I was left listening to Tainted Love, which yeah is a good song, but where's the heavy guitar riff and energetic vocals? They couldn't even make the song for the last boss a specific one that goes with the tone? Huge missed opportunity.

Anyway that aside the game is the right kind of dumb fun, the characters are loveable and develop as you progress, s'good stuff I like it

I’ve enjoyed a lot of aspects of this game. They really did capture the magic of the interaction between the guardians of the galaxy that we saw in the movie. Many moments made me laugh. The game and many of its locations are absolutely stunning! It was a joy to visit a lot of them. However, I definitely had issues. I found the dialogue to be overwhelming at times, the conversations overlapping, and just too much going on during certain scenes.

The gameplay loop got really tedious as each encounter pretty much played out the same way. I did also encounter many glitches during my playthrough.
Overall, a decent experience; it could have been better put together, but I enjoyed it.

Uma grata surpresa e recomendação que acabei deixando de lado até agora por não sentir tanto interesse nos personagens, mas após assistir os três filmes, pude pegar um gás para jogar o título.

Rocket, desejo te levar pra um lugar onde você não sofra, você merece o mundo s2.

A estória do jogo é incrível, e ela se sobressaí por conta do elenco carismático e maluco.
Os Guardiões da Galáxia, neste jogo, é um grupo muito novo, ou seja, eles não se dão tão bem uns com os outros e não estão em tanta sintonia, porém são excelentes em combate.
Acontecimentos ruins e bons aparecem durante o decorrer da jornada, e graças a isso podemos vislumbrar uma família se formando aos poucos e sendo muito bem adorada por nós telespectadores... e uma parte da galáxia.
O amadurecimento dos personagens é feita de uma maneira muito orgânica, não deixa aquela sensação amarga de que eles acabaram se entendendo de uma hora para outra, existem etapas e elas foram bem administradas com cada um dos Guardiões e suas histórias.

A gameplay do jogo se baseia no gênero "shooter", ou seja, atire em tudo que se mover pela tela, e isso não é de todo mal, contudo, entendo que para aqueles que joguem direto possam achar muito repetitivo e até mesmo enjoativo, mas na minha experiência de quem não jogou direto pude me sentir satisfeito com o combate do jogo. Além é claro de poder apertar qualquer botão para fazer algum "combo".
A mecânica de escolhas está presente neste título, porém ela não carrega uma mudança drástica narrativa igual aos jogos da Telltale Games, mas são mudança que você fica "Uou... Uou!"
Uma coisa na qual não gostei foram as quantidades e durações dos capítulos, sério, 16 capítulos achei um pouco exagerado e uma "encheção de linguiça", poderiam ter otimizado isso.

Minha experiência geral com o jogo foi muito positiva, ele conseguiu me entreter do início ao fim, apesar de eu ter me deparado com muitos bugs.
Nunca pensei que um jogo baseado em uma equipe quase desconhecida pela mídia, poderia esconder um diamante em sua essência, comentado isto, não teria medo em afirmar que "Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy" é um dos melhores jogos de heróis lançados até hoje.

Thought about a lot about music while playing this- how it could occasionally transform the game, but so often failed in its implementation. The game has a “huddle” mechanic, basically a super mode for the whole team, and it’ll pick a song at random to play alongside the action.

Sometimes it’s incredible, a dramatic and tender scene will lead into a massive fight, only to be scored by “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” It’s a great idea, too often brought down by the fact that you’re most often activating the ability at the end of fights, so you’ll likely hear the first few seconds of something like “The Final Countdown” before unceremoniously killing the last enemy.

There are also a few songs that reach near “Big Iron” levels of airwave dominance; despite having a decently-sized tracklist, the game seemed to have a strange fascination for “Tainted Love” and “Jitterbug,” playing them in fight after fight. What I assumed to be the anthem for the game, “Zero to Hero,” was noticeably absent for my playthrough, and I kept on waiting for the lavish set piece where the vocals would kick in- the “Rules of Nature” moment that never seemed to happen. Turns out the licensed and non-licensed soundtracks are mutually exclusive; you’re choosing between a near-constant musical bait-and-switch or a stream of more fitting, but less iconic, buttrock.

I guess the reason I want to highlight this feature in particular, is that I don’t think this game suffers so much from the Triple-A problems of a compromised vision or some horrific development cycle, as much as one of a slightly lacking execution. I could go on about the shortcomings of the combat or the weaker points of the story, but I think I begrudgingly liked it. All of it’s issues at least speak to a game that’s earnestly trying to make systems that suit its characters- and the few moments where everything aligned, with the full range of abilities unlocked, the cast trading banter with another, and “Relax” playing in the background- it all works.















But seriously, I’ve rarely had a moment as deflating as when I used my powers to pull a guy into a bottomless pit, only to see him plop back into existence on the nearest platform. Deeply unsatisfying.

Great and surprisingly well-written team story with dull, repetitive combat makes for an overall good experience despite its flaws.

I'm honestly shocked by how much I found myself caring about not only the team dynamic but every individual member of the team pretty quickly. Even secondary characters introduced in the story are fantastic. This game lives because of its characters and their interactions. Even when you're just cruising around exploring, the banter between your team is fun and helps to entertain when the gameplay is lacking. Though, they maybe could've toned down the combat dialogue a bit. I'd often hear the same lines spoken 3-4 times during one combat encounter.

Without harping on it too much, the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. It's not actively bad or anything, it's just bland. Especially compared to how much personality the rest of the game has. They're really trying for that Mass Effect team combat dynamic but they don't come anywhere close to hitting that.

This is a small nitpick, but as a completionist, the collectibles in this game are a nightmare. The collectibles are scattered throughout the game and the game has no backtracking so every single one of them is missable. There's chapter select, but using it reverts your game back to the state it was in at the time of that chapter so you can't even use chapter select for clean up. Some of the collectibles are also quite hard to see. Your scanner eventually can be upgraded to mark upgrade materials, but not collectibles. Choices were made.

Overall, the game was something I enjoyed and looked forward to playing entirely because of the story and characters. Though, I think I might've enjoyed it more as a TV show than a video game.

+ Great characters that I quickly became invested in
+ Good story overall
+ Fantastic soundtrack / song picks

- Bland combat / gameplay
- Terrible collectibles
- Repeated dialogue during combat encounters