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.
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.