What starts out as a really great experience definitely started to wear on me after awhile. This game feels in need of being trimmed by a few hours at least (took me 20 hours with moderate levels of poking around) and / or a deepening of its gameplay mechanics. While the fights are pretty fun at first, there's really not much to it, unlocking more and more abilities that do functionally the same thing. The scrap you collect is used to buy some of the dullest abilities I could imagine for Peter Quill and then literally nothing at all. Still, the core mechanics of controlling all the Guardians at once while zoomin' and shootin' as Quill are really solid.
The game really suffers from the modern AAA curse of long sections where you just walk and look at stuff without doing anything (the limp excuse for puzzles really don't count). It does somewhat justify this by having real varied aesthetics going on with the visuals. There's a good variety of high-tech vessels and weirdo space goop that almost feels like it may have influenced the newest Guardians film. The other plus to the walking segments is inarguably the game's greatest strength.
The writing in this is shockingly good. As in, probably better than any of the films, all of which I enjoy greatly. Every character is memorable, likable, and play off each other super well. The sheer amount of great banter is a delight, though I definitely started hearing the battle lines repeated a bit much. On top of just the moment-to-moment interactions, the overarching plot is pretty strong. Every Guardian gets a section to dive into their past and motivation (except for Groot, really) and the voice acting is incredibly strong (Rocket sounds a bit too much like a Rocket impression, but it's nothing terrible). The antagonist, while not super deep, works well enough, and allows for a surprisingly mature look at grief and loss that becomes much more dramatic than I would ever expect from a Guardians of the Galaxy game. On top of that, they still make sure to keep room for fun little side adventures, even if that is part of what contributes to the wonky pacing.
One major flaw worth mentioning in relation to the writing is the frequency with which dialogue will be cut off by other dialogue; it absolutely needed to be placed significantly more carefully. I should not have to stand still at the beginning of a long hallway so that I don't miss plot-relevant conversations.
The game really suffers from the modern AAA curse of long sections where you just walk and look at stuff without doing anything (the limp excuse for puzzles really don't count). It does somewhat justify this by having real varied aesthetics going on with the visuals. There's a good variety of high-tech vessels and weirdo space goop that almost feels like it may have influenced the newest Guardians film. The other plus to the walking segments is inarguably the game's greatest strength.
The writing in this is shockingly good. As in, probably better than any of the films, all of which I enjoy greatly. Every character is memorable, likable, and play off each other super well. The sheer amount of great banter is a delight, though I definitely started hearing the battle lines repeated a bit much. On top of just the moment-to-moment interactions, the overarching plot is pretty strong. Every Guardian gets a section to dive into their past and motivation (except for Groot, really) and the voice acting is incredibly strong (Rocket sounds a bit too much like a Rocket impression, but it's nothing terrible). The antagonist, while not super deep, works well enough, and allows for a surprisingly mature look at grief and loss that becomes much more dramatic than I would ever expect from a Guardians of the Galaxy game. On top of that, they still make sure to keep room for fun little side adventures, even if that is part of what contributes to the wonky pacing.
One major flaw worth mentioning in relation to the writing is the frequency with which dialogue will be cut off by other dialogue; it absolutely needed to be placed significantly more carefully. I should not have to stand still at the beginning of a long hallway so that I don't miss plot-relevant conversations.