Genuinely very confused on how this was nominated for both Best Soundtrack or Best Narrative at the Gamer Awards, especially the latter. While Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is hardly what I'd call a bad game it doesn’t offer a gaming experience that I think is worthy of much praise.
For what I can imagine is an attempt at purposely using the framework and design of the James Gunn movies as an excuse to explore the more obscure cosmic tapestry of the Marvel Comics, the game struggles trying to find its own identity between the two. It seems very eager in exploring the rich cosmic side of the original source material these characters are prominent in but more often than not just indulges in replicating the James Gunn films. Right down to the base personalities, voice-acting, dialogue, and the usage of older classic decade songs but with subtle differences that are far too minor to ultimately make this stand away from the shadow of the MCU. Sad to also say this didn’t do the best job of making myself immersed into the cosmic side plucked from the comics because of the lack of real world-building (the game falls into the trap of just name dropping without ever taking the time to engage on what that even means) and how a lot of these things are more or less just glorified easter eggs to congratulate the people who clicked “random” on the Marvel Wiki enough times.
The story has some emotional highpoints and moments here and there that I’d like to see in a better game but unfortunately it's sandwiched super hard into a very standardized MCU plot. Really nothing to write home about besides that I couldn’t care less about Star-Lord’s relationship with his alleged kid.
I went in also expecting some sort of spiritual successor to Mass Effect because a lot of reviewers kept making the comparison but what I got was just another linear single-player adventure game that just happens to have some BioWare influence in its DNA. Weirdly, the gameplay reminds me more of FF7Remake right down to how you control your party and manage their attacks through a slow-motion tactical window except much more streamlined and janky. I think strictly only playing as Star-Lord was a really detrimental choice given how lacking the weapon upgrades are and the very repetitive combat. Compare this to FF7Remake which follows a similar design but mends it through the enemy variety, customization, and being able to temporarily play as the other party members to help break up the mold. Maybe if there were more party members to switch out or if the already existing ones had more engaging abilities to use to help make up for Star-Lord’s honestly really sterile gunplay this would fix my problems but as it is the combat occasionally trenches the valley of mid.
Anyways, if you really want your solid Guardians fix then go read Al Ewing’s current run or rewatch the James Gunn movies if you really only care about that specific take on the characters.
For what I can imagine is an attempt at purposely using the framework and design of the James Gunn movies as an excuse to explore the more obscure cosmic tapestry of the Marvel Comics, the game struggles trying to find its own identity between the two. It seems very eager in exploring the rich cosmic side of the original source material these characters are prominent in but more often than not just indulges in replicating the James Gunn films. Right down to the base personalities, voice-acting, dialogue, and the usage of older classic decade songs but with subtle differences that are far too minor to ultimately make this stand away from the shadow of the MCU. Sad to also say this didn’t do the best job of making myself immersed into the cosmic side plucked from the comics because of the lack of real world-building (the game falls into the trap of just name dropping without ever taking the time to engage on what that even means) and how a lot of these things are more or less just glorified easter eggs to congratulate the people who clicked “random” on the Marvel Wiki enough times.
The story has some emotional highpoints and moments here and there that I’d like to see in a better game but unfortunately it's sandwiched super hard into a very standardized MCU plot. Really nothing to write home about besides that I couldn’t care less about Star-Lord’s relationship with his alleged kid.
I went in also expecting some sort of spiritual successor to Mass Effect because a lot of reviewers kept making the comparison but what I got was just another linear single-player adventure game that just happens to have some BioWare influence in its DNA. Weirdly, the gameplay reminds me more of FF7Remake right down to how you control your party and manage their attacks through a slow-motion tactical window except much more streamlined and janky. I think strictly only playing as Star-Lord was a really detrimental choice given how lacking the weapon upgrades are and the very repetitive combat. Compare this to FF7Remake which follows a similar design but mends it through the enemy variety, customization, and being able to temporarily play as the other party members to help break up the mold. Maybe if there were more party members to switch out or if the already existing ones had more engaging abilities to use to help make up for Star-Lord’s honestly really sterile gunplay this would fix my problems but as it is the combat occasionally trenches the valley of mid.
Anyways, if you really want your solid Guardians fix then go read Al Ewing’s current run or rewatch the James Gunn movies if you really only care about that specific take on the characters.