It couldn’t be further from last year’s ill-received Avengers title actually, trading the multi-threaded, multiplayer game-as-a-service for any tightly-directed, single-player linear knowledge about a sole playable character in the form of Star-Lord, leader from the Guardians of the Galaxy. The sport finds the Guardians still within their infancy as a collective, desperately trying to build their reputation one misguided con job at a time. It’s here the decision to capture a ferocious monster to trade to some cosmically-renowned monster hunter lands the crew in multiple pots of hot water and kickstarts a twisted religious sect’s rise to power. So just normal space stuff.
It wouldn’t make sense that i can go into much more detail concerning the twists and turns of Guardians of the Galaxy’s core narrative, those would be best left experienced first-hand, but things i can tell would be that the studio’s writing chops haven't been put so confidently displayed. Each and every little bit of dialogue within this game captures a dark tone, the charm and the wit of the franchise, carrying right through to some truly exemplary character work. The overarching story is exciting by itself, but it’s the actual way it portrays its key players – their personalities, personal journeys and their arcs over the course of the sport – that makes it something.
It’s also wonderfully goofy at each given opportunity. Though it’s confirmed with a property like Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s still refreshing to play a video game with this particular much charm, where brainwashing cults and intergalactic gods meet psychic space dogs with Russian accents and alien llamas. The full space-faring crew experience is here now in full effect too, from heated strategy meetings to arguments over borrowed toothbrushes and fridge doors ajar to… sing-alongs? The Guardians franchise includes a very distinct found-family vibe that relies upon comedic timing and also the studio has very evidently understood a job.
Still, whether it raises red flags to understand that Eidos Montreal has put so much love and care into some of Marvel’s most unique heroes after which cast players as arguably the least exciting of the lot, well, you’re not mistaken. Having said that, and it’s something I’ve discussed following my earliest hours with the game, one of the game’s most unique offerings is its ability to impart Star-Lord’s experiences as a leader through gameplay. Making leadership calls in Marvel’s Guardians from the Galaxy feels as essential to selling the fantasy of its central character as web-swinging does in Marvel’s Spider-Man. As Quill, you’ll be consistently called on to make crucial decisions, settle arguments, solve problems and keep your teammates inspired and engaged.
This is achieved in some ways, with respect to the context, with decision-making playing a vital part. Quill is called upon often to possess his say in discussions using the other Guardians, in an exceedingly simplified system of dialogue choices. Minor decisions have a tendency to affect immediate scenes and character interactions while major ones might have major impacts how gameplay sequences play out, however the broad strokes from the narrative remain mostly the same no matter what.
Leadership also plays a big role in combat, to the stage that for any large portion of the game fights can seem to be oddly hands-off. Star-Lord’s an adept and valuable person in they inside a scuffle with his blasters and jet boots, however the game doesn’t ask much of players so far as shooting skill and reaction times go. With a generous lock-on and auto aim and simple movement, the focus is less on what Quill does and much more on how he directs another Guardians through a Final Fantasy VII Remake-esque strategic pause. As occasionally clumsy as possible, combat is surprisingly fun once you know the synergy between Quill and the remaining team and how better to string together elemental shots, your personal abilities and people of the other Guardians.
The biggest problem with Guardian’s combat is simply that it requires too long to play all of its cards, giving the incorrect impression that it lacks depth or panache for far too much time into its overall runtime. Along with enemies that aren’t particularly inspired or interesting and the predictable rhythm of ‘walk into an area full of waist-level cover, fight waves of enemies, move on’ it gets old before it gets good. That is disappointing, because it does eventually come into its very own in the later stages, especially once Star-Lord’s full gamut of elemental abilities can be found and the contributions have more impact.
Like combat, the game’s level design in many areas goes a long way to help sell the team dynamic, but it’s also decidedly old-school in a lot of ways. It’s a remarkably linear experience, for just one. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, in fact it works to the benefit of keeping the sport moving at an exciting clip, but it keeps things fairly basic. Comparisons to PS3-era Uncharted and Tomb Raider games are probably unfair, although not entirely inaccurate, especially with the amount of that time period it forces Quill to shimmy across ledges, squeeze through gaps in walls and slide down long slopes. It does that a lot. “Acknowledge my velocity!” is the foremost Drax line ever though, so there’s some good to come from those.
Every new location the Guardians visit in-game is a stunning showcase though, in the sweeping vistas and improbable nature of alien worlds to some of the best sci-fi mainstays like intergalactic black markets. Likely owing to its linearity, there’s a thoroughly impressive degree of variety over the a multitude of locations you’ll visit that makes every new chapter fresh and exciting. It truly must be stressed precisely how gorgeous the game is overall, especially in its character models which are some of the best I’ve seen in a relevant video game in the way they marry technical prowess with great design. Motion capture and animations overall are fantastic, materials and effects have incredible presence, it’s ridiculous just how expertly Eidos Montreal has pulled together so many disparate aesthetics and principles into something so razor-sharp.
And yes, the 80s pop/rock soundtrack is completely killer. Not just the amped-up moments where you’re soaring through space towards the opening of “White Wedding” or wrecking shop to the tune of “Kickstart My Heart”, but gleefully goofy moments where your mid-combat huddle throws out an audio lesson like Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Provide you with Up” as a backdrop to fighting hordes of cultist fanatics.
Somehow, regardless of the uneven nature of both combat and general exploration, everything in the sport all comes together into something that’s much better than the sum of the its parts. A lot of that's related to the pacing from the game in general, another crucial area where Eidos Montreal has leveraged their years of expertise in storytelling and game design for Guardians of the Galaxy, making the choice of the hard linear structure feel earned having a fantastic sense of momentum. A roaring stream of explosive set-pieces, wonderous planetary sightseeing and quieter moments of reprieve and reflection roll into one another on the packed 15-20 hours where not one moment feels needlessly slow.
It’s among those titles which i fully expect players to smash out on the marathon weekend session because there’s simply no time where putting the controller down seems like a good idea. It may take a touch too long to obtain there, but the power climb for Quill and also the Guardians together accumulates to some fantastic crescendo. Because the game’s closing chapters come around and your crew is autonomously solving problems and blasting through enemy waves in unison there’s a feeling of pay-off that few games achieve.
Oh, and the ending is triumphantly on-brand.
