I make it no secret that I have become a recent fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. Based on the Marvel comics of the same name and since their movie debut in 2014, this rambunctious and unpredictable team has since won the hearts of moviegoers of all types. When it was announced that a new game based on the Guardians of the Galaxy would be coming out, I was hyped as heck.
However, this wouldn’t be the first time the Guardians adventures have been translated into video game form as the previous game called “Guardians of the Galaxy the Telltale series” would already have taken the title as the first attempt. Although I admit that I do really like that game to a fault, this new game that came out just recently looked to be more of what I would expect to see in a Guardians video game with action platforming and some RPG elements. With all that being said, does this game live up to the hype? or is this a galactic disaster waiting to happen? Let's find out.
The Guardians of the Galaxy led by Peter Quill AKA Star-Lord head to a forbidden zone to make quick money only for Star-lord to accidentally release a monster, unlike anything the team has ever seen. The Guardians, unfortunately, get caught by the Nova Corp and are forced into paying a fine which leads them to scam a collector called Lady Hellbender for money. Soon they come back to the Nova Corp to pay their fine only this time things don’t seem right as the Nova Corp are under a spell including the Nova Corp leader’s daughter Nikki who may surprisingly also be Peter Quill's daughter. The guardians will need to be able to work together to stop this unknown force together. if they can first survive each other.
The great thing about the game's story is that it clearly takes inspiration from the comics and movies that came before it, yet it still feels like its own unique thing from a tonal point of view. Even if you never have seen the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, you’ll still be able to fall in love with these characters because of how well established they are and how they function as a dysfunctional family. Each one of the guardians has similar personalities and traits that we associate from the movies. It did admittedly take me a little while to love these guardians seeing that they looked and sounded slightly different from their movie counterparts, but by the end of the game I fell in love all over again with the guardians in this game as I did in the movies. There are also new characters like Cosmo the Russian space dog and Lady Hellbender who also bring an amount of fun and charm to make the story of the game stand out from the movie counterparts. Speaking of which The storytelling is also quite good with plenty of unpredictable moments that did catch me of guard and made the playing experience feel even deeper. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments but also some touching sentiment that made the experience feel just like the movies and yet feel different in many ways.
The game is an action-based platformer which felt like what the Telltale game should have been in some ways. You’ll be playing as Star-Lord while having the aid of your other Guardian team members such as Gamora and Rocket. The game has you moving around and exploring the vast planets and spaceships of the Guardian universe while trying to stop enemies from standing in your wake. Combat is very simple to understand and controlling as Star-Lord feels very smooth and satisfying. You’ll be able to unlock upgrades and new moves for both you and your teammates which will help you to get across challenging foes. Even your teammates can even jump in and take care of business with their own special powers and abilities. There are moments in the game when you can control what dialogue Star-Lord can say just like in the Telltale game. These moments only pop up in certain moments and they can control little things in the story that will either help you or slow you down at points in the overall adventure. It's the kind of game that is just fun to finish the whole way through and I’m glad the creators took many notes on how to create a satisfying experience for Marvel fans and videogamers alike.
The visuals in this game were no doubt gonna look as fantastic as they can be and it has a much more different look than the movies or even the telltale game. The space punk-like setting is very colorful and sometimes very bleak and they balance each other quite nicely. There are many worlds and spaceships we get to explore and each of them is detailed with great care and have a lot of personality to them. One of the differences that did take me a while to grasp was the character designs. Much like their personalities and the new voice actors, it did take a bit for me to take in the new designs for the guardians as well as other characters. By the time I got to the end of the game, I started to appreciate the new but also fresh designs to characters I already knew from the movies. Then there is the music to the game which balances itself out with orchestral tunes from composer Richard Jacques (LittleBigPlanet2, Jet Set Radio Future) and copyrighted songs from the 70’s and 80’s. There is actually quite an abundance of 80’s rock songs that I’ve never heard in the movies which make the game stand out even more. I mean who doesn’t love beating your enemies while listening to “Never Gonna Give You Up”, its just so satisfying and downright fun.
It’s actually quite remarkable that the same creators who made this game are also the ones who made the critically panned Avengers video game which I never hated but understood why it wasn’t perfect. Guardians of the Galaxy is so far the crowning achievement for the people at Square Enix and Eidos Montreal with its unmistakable charm and humor, well-done storytelling, great gameplay with gorgeous visuals to match, and a rocking soundtrack that includes all the hits from the late 70’s to the mid-’80s. It may not quite be on the same level as the 2018 Insomniac Spider-Man game, but this game is still one of the greater video games based on a Marvel property and is worth playing for both gamers and fans of the Guardians of the Galaxy Franchise.
(Final Grade: A-)