After the largely negative reception to the live service model and alleged (I haven’t played it myself) generic and repetitive gameplay of Marvel’s Avengers last year, Square Enix’s announcement that they would be releasing a game paced on Marvel’s most popular misfits earlier this year at E3 was met with an understandably cautious and mixed response, despite no sign of any microtransactions and a commitment to a self-contained single player experience. Thankfully (just like the Guardians themselves), the underdog proves victorious, as this space adventure romp is an absolute blast to play through and is packed to the brim with heart, humour, a solid combat loop and many an Easter Egg for fans of Marvel’s cosmic output from the past.
One of the main criticisms aimed at the game pre-launch was the fact that you would only be able to play as Star-Lord, and the rest of the team would be A.I. controlled, with input provided from the player to execute a myriad of special attacks. However, within the opening sequence of the game, it is clear that this is Star-Lord’s journey. Starting the game as a young Peter Quill on Earth, before transitioning to the present day Star-Lord: “leader” of a ragtag bunch of the galaxy’s outcasts. Over the course of 12 or so hours, what starts off as the “simple” task of getting the bounty, pay the Nova Corps, turns into a potentially galaxy ending face-off against a maniacal space church cult. At the core of this bombastic sci-fi epic are themes of family (obviously) and most effectively conveyed: learning to accept and live with loss. I won’t go into too much detail due to spoilers, but the quieter moments of team interaction feature some incredibly satisfying and genuinely touching emotional weight at times. Contrasted with the fist in the air moments of teamwork pay-off during battles. The story itself does tick off a lot of familiar beats and certainly doesn’t rework the rule book, but the galaxy hopping structure and fan pleasing deep cuts keep it consistently engaging.
Gameplay-wise the game is very solid and simplistic As previously mentioned you control Star-Lord and largely blast your way through the enemy hordes with your laser guns. As you progress different elements will unlock for Star-Lord to use during puzzles, clear pathways and do significant damage to specific enemy types. Each Guardian (including Star-Lord) has four special attacks mapped to a different button that can be executed throughout combat encounters. These are satisfying to pull off and never feel too over or underpowered. Probably the most interesting and fun gameplay implementation is the ‘Team Huddle’ mechanic, where Star-Lord will pause combat to listen to the team’s thoughts on the battle in progress and you, the player, will have to choose the right option to motivate them, which in turn triggers a combat boost and kick-starts a tune. When not utilising their attacks the A.I. is consistently strong and I didn’t have any issues with them not responding, glitching etc. Admittedly combat encounters can get repetitive and messy, with the same selection of enemies (albeit with varying appearances) thrown at you in the same rhythm. Though scale-wise the boss fights are impressive, they do largely come down to the same approach for each encounter. Occasionally the game will have you piloting the Milano in dogfight style combat. These are fine, however the handling could have been tweaked, and they do feel a little like padding. Levels have branching and hidden pathways that can be explored to find outfits, collectables and scrap to upgrade Peter’s health, shield and moveset. Graphically the game is superb and frequently treads the line between photorealistic emotion for the character’s faces and vibrant comic book bombast and colour splashes for the different locations and costumes. Also the soundtrack is just as banger-filled as the films. There are countless satisfying song usages from a host of artists including: Iron Maiden, Kiss, Blondie, Gary Numan, Joan Jett and many more. The game also has its own in-universe band called Star-Lord who provide many shredding tracks (and accompanied a substantial amount of background music for me when typing up this review).
One of my main concerns going into this, was how much I would be comparing these particular versions of these characters with their MCU counterparts. Thankfully this barely happened, and thanks to tremendous voice acting and character work, Square’s Guardians stand tall and are very much their own personalities. The time spent hanging out between missions on the Milano and interacting with them, hearing their bickering, thoughts and history, really flesh them out and make it near impossible not to be interested and invested in them. A host of supporting players including Cosmo, Mantis, Adam Warlock and a few “deep cut” surprises certainly will please fans. The humour is on point throughout. Drax’s brazen and blunt observations, Rocket and Gamora’s frequent Snark and Peter and Groot’s chilled out optimism are captured perfectly. At times obviously not everything lands and both “Flark(ing)” and “Skut” are used to the point of oblivion.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy shoots to the top echelon of my favourite games of this year and is easily one of the best adaptations of these characters. Fast, fun and simple, yet effective gameplay. Brilliant voice acting, character work and world building, all work together to balance genuine heart and explosive extravaganza. At times the combat can get repetitive (as well as some of the dialogue beats) and the overarching blockbuster story certainly will be familiar to those who have seen/played a lot of the genre. However, it's undeniable how much fun I had with this and I really hope we get a sequel to carry on the adventures of this loveable, attitude filled team.
One of the main criticisms aimed at the game pre-launch was the fact that you would only be able to play as Star-Lord, and the rest of the team would be A.I. controlled, with input provided from the player to execute a myriad of special attacks. However, within the opening sequence of the game, it is clear that this is Star-Lord’s journey. Starting the game as a young Peter Quill on Earth, before transitioning to the present day Star-Lord: “leader” of a ragtag bunch of the galaxy’s outcasts. Over the course of 12 or so hours, what starts off as the “simple” task of getting the bounty, pay the Nova Corps, turns into a potentially galaxy ending face-off against a maniacal space church cult. At the core of this bombastic sci-fi epic are themes of family (obviously) and most effectively conveyed: learning to accept and live with loss. I won’t go into too much detail due to spoilers, but the quieter moments of team interaction feature some incredibly satisfying and genuinely touching emotional weight at times. Contrasted with the fist in the air moments of teamwork pay-off during battles. The story itself does tick off a lot of familiar beats and certainly doesn’t rework the rule book, but the galaxy hopping structure and fan pleasing deep cuts keep it consistently engaging.
Gameplay-wise the game is very solid and simplistic As previously mentioned you control Star-Lord and largely blast your way through the enemy hordes with your laser guns. As you progress different elements will unlock for Star-Lord to use during puzzles, clear pathways and do significant damage to specific enemy types. Each Guardian (including Star-Lord) has four special attacks mapped to a different button that can be executed throughout combat encounters. These are satisfying to pull off and never feel too over or underpowered. Probably the most interesting and fun gameplay implementation is the ‘Team Huddle’ mechanic, where Star-Lord will pause combat to listen to the team’s thoughts on the battle in progress and you, the player, will have to choose the right option to motivate them, which in turn triggers a combat boost and kick-starts a tune. When not utilising their attacks the A.I. is consistently strong and I didn’t have any issues with them not responding, glitching etc. Admittedly combat encounters can get repetitive and messy, with the same selection of enemies (albeit with varying appearances) thrown at you in the same rhythm. Though scale-wise the boss fights are impressive, they do largely come down to the same approach for each encounter. Occasionally the game will have you piloting the Milano in dogfight style combat. These are fine, however the handling could have been tweaked, and they do feel a little like padding. Levels have branching and hidden pathways that can be explored to find outfits, collectables and scrap to upgrade Peter’s health, shield and moveset. Graphically the game is superb and frequently treads the line between photorealistic emotion for the character’s faces and vibrant comic book bombast and colour splashes for the different locations and costumes. Also the soundtrack is just as banger-filled as the films. There are countless satisfying song usages from a host of artists including: Iron Maiden, Kiss, Blondie, Gary Numan, Joan Jett and many more. The game also has its own in-universe band called Star-Lord who provide many shredding tracks (and accompanied a substantial amount of background music for me when typing up this review).
One of my main concerns going into this, was how much I would be comparing these particular versions of these characters with their MCU counterparts. Thankfully this barely happened, and thanks to tremendous voice acting and character work, Square’s Guardians stand tall and are very much their own personalities. The time spent hanging out between missions on the Milano and interacting with them, hearing their bickering, thoughts and history, really flesh them out and make it near impossible not to be interested and invested in them. A host of supporting players including Cosmo, Mantis, Adam Warlock and a few “deep cut” surprises certainly will please fans. The humour is on point throughout. Drax’s brazen and blunt observations, Rocket and Gamora’s frequent Snark and Peter and Groot’s chilled out optimism are captured perfectly. At times obviously not everything lands and both “Flark(ing)” and “Skut” are used to the point of oblivion.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy shoots to the top echelon of my favourite games of this year and is easily one of the best adaptations of these characters. Fast, fun and simple, yet effective gameplay. Brilliant voice acting, character work and world building, all work together to balance genuine heart and explosive extravaganza. At times the combat can get repetitive (as well as some of the dialogue beats) and the overarching blockbuster story certainly will be familiar to those who have seen/played a lot of the genre. However, it's undeniable how much fun I had with this and I really hope we get a sequel to carry on the adventures of this loveable, attitude filled team.