Review of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

Since the MCU’s release of Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, the titular band of ragtag misfits has only grown in popularity. In Marvel comics, however, several iterations of the team have existed since 1969, making it fitting that Square Enix and Eidos Montreal’s game, titled Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, pays homage to both game formats. Indeed, Guardians of the Galaxy is a space ride not only by the MCU team but by the Marvel comics team itself. First and foremost, it’s clear from the get-go that Guardians of the Galaxy is cut from a different cloth than Marvel’s Avengers developed by Crystal Dynamics, produced by Eidos Montreal. Marvel’s Avengers was a live-service game that had a great campaign but a stronger focus on multiplayer elements, whereas the campaign was visible to all players in Guardians of the Galaxy. However, this is not found in the comics or the MCU alone; Eidos Montreal tells its own Guardians of the Galaxy story in-game, pulling from the lesser-known Marvel canon and using well-known characters in new-sometimes-familiar ways. The story itself is clearly a strong point of the game. Fresh from the Galactic War against Thanos and his Chitauri, the Guardians are now trying to build their team. At first, it seems like players are being pulled in multiple directions, although the story eventually manages to tie everything together…for the most part anyway. Juggling 2-to-3 storylines in Guardians of the Galaxy allows for strong twists at inopportune times, but it leads to the story’s biggest flaw. The pacing of Guardians of the Galaxy’s story can feel slow at times, with one objective taking several hours to complete while 2-3 others can be done sooner. It speeds up and slows down at indeterminate times, never letting a player know how long a mission is, but even the odd pace doesn’t detract from the story. There are plenty of great emotional moments, as well as laugh-out-loud ones. The story captures the personality of the Guardians, even if it leans a bit towards the MCU at times and has some pacing issues. Guardians of the Galaxy players can use their team’s different abilities in the world, such as Drax breaking barriers, Groot making bridges out of wood, and Rocket fitting into small spaces and blasting away of things. This involves solving puzzles using their skills, as well as Star-Lord’s, and a lot of platforming happens between the story and combat parts. Overall, perhaps one of the best details in Guardians of the Galaxy is how, at first, the players have to direct all these things, but as the team gets closer to the game, the characters it will start working independently. At various points in the game, players will need to make important decisions that will affect other story elements in the game. In fact, at times it feels like playing a TellTale Guardians of the Galaxy game, as players can get mad at Rocket, can anger or betray certain characters, and make other questionable decisions that come back to bite them or help them. Obviously, some choices have a bigger long-term impact than others, but sometimes it’s hard to tell which one, forcing players to make the best choice they can for the team at all times. Aside from the story, Guardians of the Galaxy has a strong battle system even though it can be a chaotic mess from both gameplay and input point of view. As Star-Lord, players have to make all the calls on the battlefield, and the game makes sure to do a lot. Star-Lord has his standard attack, elemental ammo attacks, a quick reload ability, a charge attack, and his own set of abilities. Meanwhile, he can lead the team through various Flair Attacks and Call-to-Action sequences, call the team for a huddle, issue environmental commands, and order them to use their abilities and, once it is unlocked, their great ability. It seems like a lot and definitely yes. In terms of thin command input, it’s inevitable that players will accidentally use the wrong ability or skill while in battle. In general, that’s not the end of the world, as the enemies fall into familiar categories (tank-like bruisers, healers, etc.). The bosses that players face in Guardians of the Galaxy are the highlight of the enemy pool, though they’re all pretty standard as well, and that’s okay. At the end of the day, the chaotic combat, various small enemies, and boss battles are all fun. The battle does what it set out to do: let players live out their power fantasy as Star-Lord, leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Many video games feature companions, and many games feature ways to use them in battle, but nothing holds a candle to how important it is to lead the Guardians as Star-Lord and make the quick decisions in battle as a team. In fact, its biggest fighting strength is that, as chaotic as it is, it’s also engaging. And that can be said about Guardians of the Galaxy in many ways. As messed up as it is and despite any mistakes the players make here, it’s hard not to feel like he’s Star-Lord himself by the end of the game. For a game with such a heavy focus on narrative and choices, player investment is essential, and Guardians of the Galaxy delivers tenfold. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy releases on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on October 26. The Xbox Series X code was provided to Today Technology for the purposes of this review. MORE: Guardians of the Galaxy Should Follow Marvel’s Avengers on Game Pass