Over the years, I’ve grown quite a fondness for one of Marvel comics' newer teams, The Guardians of the Galaxy. Ever since I saw them in their 2014 feature-length film of the same name, I instantly fell in love with the team’s quirky sci-fi adventures and edgy humor that managed to bring out my immature side. In terms of video games, there have been only two as of this review. The first game that starred the beloved Marvel team would be an episodic adventure created by telltale games which unfourtanty seem to mix some people with some loving it and some hating it. Let's see where I stand in regards to how the game managed to replicate but also put a new spin on the source material of the MCU movie counterparts.
The story takes place over the course of five DLC adventures as the game shows us The Guardians of the Galaxy being sent by the Nova Corps to hunt and kill Thanos. The Guardians barely win and defeat Thanos which angers a betrayed Nebula as she hunts down Gamora in revenge. Meanwhile, Peter Quill or Star-Lord is found in possession of a powerful relic called the Eternity Forge which unexpectedly brings Peter back to life after being stabbed by Hala the Accuser. With Hala on the Guardians trail, it’s up to Star-Lord, Drax, Rocket, Gamora, Groot, and many other unexpected allies to return the Eternity Forge to its rightful place.
One of the major highlights of the game is the ability to choose how the story can fold out which is both interesting and kinda fun too. As Star-Lord you’ll get a few options of what to say or do to choose from in certain parts of the adventure and you’ll only have a limited amount of time to choose what you think is best. Some choices are more crucial than others so be prepared to have the guardians react positively or negatively to what you pick. In terms of the overall storyline that ties everything together, it’s different from the MCU version but still carries the exact feelings and tone of what I loved about the Guardians of the Galaxy in general. The characters have many similarities to their MCU counterparts, but they have enough differences to feel like characters you watching for the very first time. The story spans out of five DLC stories that each can be played over again if you want to see what would have happened if you choose something else than what you choose last time. Overall I enjoyed the story of the game and there were many unexpected moments that made playing through the whole thing even more worth it.
You’ll mainly play as Star-Lord but you are very restricted to only certain areas to explore instead of having an open world where you can free roam without too much restriction. Most of the time when you move around it’s usually in the Guardian's ship or in an area where an important story thread will take place. The most that you do is watch the story unfold and use the buttons on your controller to choose what the characters to say or do. This is a new kind of gameplay I am not too familiar with, but I did enjoy making choices as to where the story should go from my previous decisions. There are also many QuickTime events that require you to be quick on your fingers to help the guardians defeat new threats. These sections are a lot of fun and do make the game more interesting to play. I would have loved to have fewer restrictions when it came to exploring the universe and the many planets but I still overall enjoyed having control of where the story should go and I was overall satisfied with how I decided the story should end.
The Visuals won’t win any awards for being groundbreaking, but they manage to capture what I originally loved about the MCU movies. The character designs are slightly different from the designs in the movies but they still carry the aspects that made the characters some of the most unique in Marvel, to begin with. The backgrounds can be beautiful sometimes as well with many space and sci-fi imagery sure to make you feel like your traveling the universe with the guardians. The graphics ride a fine line between being cartoony and being somewhat realistic which is great seeing that this is a comic book adaptation turned into video game form and it honestly makes the game look stylized without being too realistic that it goes into the uncanny valley. The music also manages to capture the feeling of the MCU films with tons of copyrighted songs from the late ’70s and early ’80s. Much like the movies, they are not made to sell you songs as they are made more to play to how our main character expresses himself. The rest of the movie’s soundtrack has typical orchestral music that is both epic and somewhat somber.
This is a different kind of game that will divide many fans and gamers as it’s different from your usual action-packed platformer as this game almost plays like a story you can control with only using buttons to move the narrative forward. Still, for my first experience, this was a breezy and unchallenging game that had a lot of charm and humor that was fun to sit through and in some respects fun to control. I’m sure that the newer game that came out in 2021 might just be more clever with it being more of a platformer from what gamers would want to expect, but Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series is still worth your time if you're a fan of the franchise like I am. It was sure a fun time and maybe sometimes I'll go back to it again to change up the adventure from what I choose last time.
(Final Grade: B+)