Being a huge fan of James Gunn’s Guardians Of The Galaxy films and also a fan of Eidos Montreal’s previous game, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, I really did my best to give MARVEL’s Guardians Of The Galaxy video game the benefit of the doubt. With last year’s utter disappointment that was Marvel’s Avengers (done by the very respectable Crystal Dynamics) I was hesitant to be extremely hyped for this new title. Having now played it, I would say I kept my expectations to the proper amount. While this is a vast improvement on the Avengers title, there are still lots of glaring similarities in the gameplay that left me unfulfilled.
Right off the bat though, I do commend the developers for going all in on a story driven game. The story here is quite good and they reinforce it with tons of (sometimes too much) extra dialogue. I would say more than half of playing through this game you’re just walking around a map and talking with characters, which leads to you really getting to know the core cast very well. The action gameplay didn’t seem to be as important, while it’s obviously there, it’s nothing really that impresses.
Unlike the Avengers game where you switch off playing other characters, here, you’re always as Peter Quill, “Starlord.” This time around, you have the ability to send commands to other members of your team to help you in battles. This is well and good, but being able to play other characters was one of the better aspects of the Avengers game. Especially since I didn’t find Starlord’s gameplay mechanics all that interesting. You are essentially just shooting enemies constantly with your dual wielding guns until your enemies die. There are some upgrades that make the experience of combat slightly better, but at the end of the day, you are still doing pretty much the same thing and it’s not all that fun.
Countering with the action, like I said, is a lot of walking around maps trying to get from A to B. There is the occasional puzzle that you need to solve to continue on, but they often feel forced and repetitive and aren’t fun to figure out. You do also use your command abilities on your team to help you with getting around, which can be neat. The biggest upside is the character interactions along the way. You are even given occasional voice prompt selections so you feel like you’re contributing to the story in your own unique way. Many of my favorite scenes are actually flashbacks to when Peter was a kid on earth in the 80s. This is where it’s clear there was a lot of time and attention spent with many little pleasurable Easter eggs and lots of fun little things to explore around your home.
Aside from a small selection of upgrades and leveling up unlocks, there isn’t really a complex system here, everything is pretty straight forward. Unfortunately, the core of the action just got really old for me rather quickly. There is a lot to like here, but the glaring issues I have seem like undercooked decisions that I wish the developers spent more time to make the experience more enjoyable. For the story and characters alone, I would say it’s worth playing, the experience for me lasted around 15 hours. Just don’t expect this to probably be on your top 10 list of the year.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy will be available on PlayStation 5 console, PlayStation 4 console, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles, PC, and streaming via GeForce NOW on October 26, 2021. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Cloud Version for Nintendo Switch also coming to select regions October 26.
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Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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